Me, Myself and I

35 - Why a can of paint is a problem solver

I think you all know where I'm going with this.

So, as you might have already deducted when Patty left in the morning I went straight to my desk with an open book, paper, and a pencil ready to study until my very last braincell was tired out. And I actually managed to do so. I studied for nearly 2 hours non-stop... until Joseph came to my room.

He knocked on my door and opened it not even waiting for me to tell him if he could enter or not. He just peaked through the small distance between the open door and the wall. "Hey, Caroline?"

I took a deep breath and didn't even bother to turn my eyes to him. "Yeah, Joseph."

"Just a heads up. The poor unfortunate soul is to arrive in 5 minutes." And suddenly he had my full attention. I turned to him in a sudden move... and had to control myself not to laugh due to his appearance at that moment.

Putting it simply, he looked weird. He was wearing all black with the occasional white, which happens from time to time, while also looking formal in a way. You know, a white shirt with a black sweater and black pants. But the thing that made me almost laugh was the fact that... he was wearing make-up. Not that there's anything wrong with guys wearing makeup. It just feels wrong seeing Joseph doing it.

He was wearing this sort of really dark eyeshadow thing that was probably made with a pencil or a black marker rather than actual eye shadow. Patty would be proud of me for knowing the difference...

Adding to that, his normal spiky hair that would always stay combed towards the front was all messed up. Or at least what I could see of his hair since most of it was hidden by... the mask.

The mask is what people would consider a normal Halloween mask to look like: scary. It was basically a skeleton mask with big bright blue globes for eyes, darkened teeth, medium-length grizzly grey hair, and a big black piece of fake satin covering the back of the user's head.

"Why are you wearing all that? And why the make-up?" I finally asked after awkwardly staring at him for about 10 seconds.

"Well, when I was an unfortunate soul, my Grimm Reaper was this guy that I think was most likely going through a middle age crisis so he was constantly like "you ought to do this" and "a man should be like that" and "this is what it means to be a man my boy". So, I thought I'd give the poor unfortunate soul something a little... different. Something he won't forget."

I raised my eyebrow intrigued by what he had just said. "Well, he sure is going to have the fright of his life. I gotta get back to studying now. Thanks for the heads up." I turned back to my desk, but just as I was about to try to get back to my studying, I heard a squeak from my bed and a big sigh. I have an old bed! Sue me!

"Caroline, killing yourself studying won't do you any good. If you're tired the things you try so hard to put in your mind won't stay there for much longer. So, studying your ass off won't be worth it if you won't even be able to remember most of the stuff."

I looked at him with a sad smile. "Joseph, you've known me for as long as I've been alive. You know my personality and you know how to deal with it. Meaning that you know that in this situation if I wasn't "studying my ass off" I'd probably be living like a deadbeat for the rest of spring break. Studying is my way of dealing with stuff. Can I at least try to keep on doing it for as long as I can bear?"

He looked at me with some sadness in his eyes (or maybe it was the eyeshadow).

"I just ask for you to do at the very least a 15-minute break between every 2 hours. And the lunch break needs to be about one hour. Deal?"

I slightly laughed at him. "Deal."

After Joseph left, I tried watching an episode of Voltron while eating a turkey sandwich to make that my pause. But I didn't quite succeed on said task because not two minutes go by and the bell is already ringing. And as soon as it did my little curious brain made me leave the room and hide behind a wall right next to the stairs. Of course, the moment I hid I realized it was a stupid idea, but I wanted to see who it was... and their reaction to Joseph's very warm welcome.