The Smell Of Spray Paint

Five.

"Napping," I lied, "It's more comfortable here."

"Oh, well move over." He advanced over to me and I sat up, patting down my hair as he lowered himself down next to me and smiled.

"You're home late..." It was already getting dark outside and he was usually back long before sunset.

"I had some old guy as a customer; he was like forty and kept on bothering me."

"I hope you were nice to him..." I always felt personally guilty when Gilbert was rude to his customers for 'bothering' him.

"No way!" He looked incredulous, "He was fucking rude and a skeeze! He kept trying to fight me over my prices and acting like my paintings were crap! He was not even a tourist so I just packed up and left halfway through our conversation and left! Epic exit, right?"

"You'll get a bad reputation, Gil'." I warned for the third time that week.

He looked offended, "But he called me such un-awesome names! He was a dipshit business guy who looked at me like I was so below him."

"Sorry, but you gotta deal with these things or you just don't look good in front of people who were thinking of buying something."

He scowled, "You think I am below you too? That I should have to deal with that?"

That put me in my place as I remembered that Gilbert had to live with all this while I just had to go home if I didn't want it. I was privileged and Gilbert was considered scum of the earth.

"Sorry, I didn't mean that."

"Good."

There was a long pause and I just looked at the same spot, worried that I had been the one to make the situation so awkward.

"Do you want to know what I got today?" He said suddenly and stood up, smiling again. Thank goodness.

I nodded quickly, "Yeah, sure!" I was just happy that his bad mood lasted, though his sulking never did last longer than ten minutes.

He nodded to his bag, "It is in there, I will need a flashlight." He pulled himself up through the hole in the roof and I crawled over to his satchel.

Unzipping it, I wasn't sure what I was going to find in there, but if I expected one thing it would not have been the dusty box of scrabble that was now before me.

A board game? That was sort of odd. I looked back at Gilbert who had just come back down from the ceiling with a flashlight.

"Are you serious?" I asked him, pulling the box out.

He frowned, "Ah... Haha, yes? Come on! I saw it and I knew we would have lots of fun! But you won't win~"

I thinned my lips at that last comment, "Oh really? You're sure about that last part?"

He nodded so vigorously his hair flopped up and down and I had to look away- it was too cute, "Yes!" He said confidently, "I am amazing with my words!"

I giggled, "Gil', you couldn't remember what the word for a poodle was so you called it a 'pubic horse'."

He laughed, "See? That was me being excellent!"

"You aren't gonna win this~..." I broke it to him.

"Take off the lid!" He demanded and grabbed the box, "Let us get the party started!"

I unfolded the board and he poured the lettered tiles everywhere,

"I do not want the ones that have an X." He told me and before I knew it he was flicking all the X tiles away across the floor, one took off and hit me in the face.