The Tape Face Boy (Romance)

Chapter 6

Our friendship only continued from there. I wasn't one-hundred percent sure what Tape Face exactly was. One part of the stories about him were true, he could travel through shadows. Though I only ever witnessed this whenever Tape Face was late to our meeting spot at the bench at 12 o'clock. He would appear from the darkness of the concrete as if it was nothing, waving a 'hello' to me. It made me realize how I had never seen him during the day, and curiosity finally got the better of me.

"How come I never see you when it is daylight?" I asked, looking over at the boy sitting next to me on the bench. He was slightly slouching in his seat, not in a lazy way but in a way he was just comfortable sitting in. He made signals to me by pointing a finger in between all the houses, jazz hands following as his eyes mocked someone who would be scared.

I frowned, "Why are people afraid of you?" He looked down at the ground for a second before shrugging. Even though I asked, I knew the answer. People fear the unknown. And Tape Face isn't exactly known. Even for me. For the couple weeks that I have known him, I don't really actually know him. He was still a mystery.

I bit my lip, glancing down at the ground as I swung my feet slightly. "What if-" I turned and looked back at him, "What if we show people that you aren't bad? That the stories are untrue?"

He immediately sat up straight, looking into my eyes with pleading hazel ones as he vigorously shook his head back and forth, strands of side gelled hair falling in front of his face. I watched on with sadness, hating how he was so against the idea. I hated the way Tape Face was living right now. But I gave him a reassuring nod anyways. Everyone was so scared of him, yet in reality he was probably more scared of everyone in this town than the towns peoples' fears combined.

"Alright, we won't do that," I stated, bringing my hand up to pull the strands of his hair that fell in front of his face back to the side, before placing my palm on his cheek. He gently squeezed his eyes shut in return, leaning his head into my touch. The tape over his mouth felt odd in my hand, but I paid no mind. "I just hate the way you are living right now."

He opened his saddened eyes, averting eye contact and he backed away from my hand and sunk back into the bench. I watched him, resting my hand back to my side. It was silent again, the only thing heard being the frogs croaking and crickets chirping under the moonlit sky. I sat back as well, checking the time on my phone from within my robe pocket. It was 12:30, but I wasn't tired.

Tape Face seemed to catch interest in my phone, his eyes widening as he perked up. I looked over at him with confusion before he held out his hand towards me, looking at me with eyes as if asking for permission. I raised an eyebrow in question, but handed off my phone as he turned it on and clicked on the YouTube app. I tried glancing over his arm to see what he was doing, but the second I did he shot me a teasing look, waving his finger back and forth as if saying, 'Ah ah ah. Naught girl,' before turning so that I couldn't see my phone screen at all. I let out a soft chuckle and shook my head as he typed away. Then, he put my phone down, and hopped onto his feet in front of me. At this point, I was really confused.

He pulled his side bag over to the front of his body. I had always wondered what was inside, and thought that maybe he was going to show me his belongings. Why he needed my phone, I had no idea. That is, until I heard piano music start to play off my phone, and recognized it as the oldie song Endless Love. I furrowed my eyes in confusion as Tape Face pulled out two white oven mitts with colorful dots at the end. He put them on, and looked over at me before raising his eyebrows and lifting them up. The instrumental was still playing, and I noticed that they both had a black dot above the thumb that almost made them look like faces. The lyrics started to play.

My love, there's only you in my life.

I immediately burst into laughter, having to quickly put my hand up to my mouth so not to wake up the neighbors. They were faces! Tape Face had moved the thumbs of the oven mitts to make it look like they were singing, and my shoulders shook as I held back laughter. Tape Face was watching the first oven mitt sing with his own confusion. He had to do a double take when the second mitt sung the female part.

My first love, you're every breath that I take.

It wasn't until then that it hit me. One of the stories Cassidy had mentioned. It involved Tape Face choking a boy with oven mitts. But Tape Face never did choke or suffocate a boy with oven mitts. I was also happy to announce that they were not stained with blood. He was using them as puppets! Someone must have seen him rehearsing or performing, and made an obsurd story abouf it. But this was comedy gold!

And your eyes, your eyes, your eyes!

I squealed as Tape Face brought the male puppet down to scratch at his lower region, as if he was unamused, before realizing what he had done and bringing the puppet back up to sing along with the female one with wide eyes.

"Oh my gosh!" I laughed, almost crying at how funny the scene was as he continued his act. When the two puppets moved in for a kiss, Tape Face started to shake his head in disapproval before averting his eyes as the mouths made contact, and I clapped my hand in response.

Tape Face and I both jumped upon hearing a screen door slam shut from a nearby house, our eyes widening. He was staring off in the direction of the noise in frozen fear as I quickly stopped the music and grabbed my phone, grabbing Tape Face's arm and dragging him away from the light of the street lamp. He snapped back to reality, shaking his head to clear his thoughts with wide eyes before starting to follow me, putting the oven mitts away into his side bag as we began to run.