1:35 am: I look to my right to see Dexter in the back of the police car next to me. He has a look of terrified worry on his face. It looks like Zane got away. I can hear how hard the cities finest are working to find him over the police scanner. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
1:30 am: How did they find us? I thought we were being so careful. I need to find a spot to hide and quick! I’m getting too tired to keep running like this. I’m not that young.
1:25 am: "Dude was that a cop?" I look over my shoulder to see where he is pointing down the street, but don’t see anything.
"I don’t know bruv. I didn’t see it."
"Dude, it’s a cop! He’s coming back! Quick hide in the bushes, or behind a car, or something!" Dexter jumps into the nearest bush, Zane takes cover behind a parked car, I make a short sprint for a dark corner. We all wait for the police car to creep by. As the cop slowly drives by I feel his eyes look right at me; As if he knows right where I’m hiding. All I can do is sit and pray he can’t see me cowering in the shadows like a dog from an abusive owner.
12:45 am: This is the best idea I’ve had in a long time! Just me and the guys, sneaking around, giving this town a bit of color. This is definitely the way to get out of the mind numbing high school routine. I could get used to this.
12:19 am: "Hey, hey guys, let’s climb up there and do a piece up on that roof." Says Zane looking off to where he was talking about. I follow his gaze past a ten-foot fence, over a dumpster, through another fence, up an eight-foot pole, to a low sloping tar rooftop. "Come on, it could be fun! You said we’ve got to challenge ourselves more." I look at Zane getting wide eyed and excited. I glance over to Dexter, who is looking for an easier way up.
Taking another look at the rooftop, I say with a shrug, "Yeah why not."
11:30 pm: We approach a fence blocking off a construction site for a new building going up in the downtown area. "Do you see any cameras?" I ask, my hands starting to sweat in their latex gloves.
"No I don’t think so. Come on, give me a boost." I through our paint bag over the fence, and go down on one knee ready to lift Zane up and over to the other side. Dexter finds a chained gate with just enough space for his skinny body to squeeze through. I follow after him, not wanting to make anymore noise climbing the fence. "Alright let’s do this quick. I really don’t want to go to jail."
11:25 pm: Walking around a corner in a walkway into Main Street, as if on cue we all stop to look at each other and smile. I drop the bag, we each take out a can of spray-paint and start painting like mad men. We loosely spray silhouettes of ourselves in various poses with fake names on the heads like crowns.
11:05 pm: "Alright guys we need to step it up a bit. All we’ve bombed so far are apartment dumpsters. That’s getting lame. We can’t be known as the dumpster boys!" says Zane watching while I finish painting a monster face.
"I actually like the sound of that," squeaked Dexter.
"No I agree we need to step it up a bit, really put our necks out there. Imagine the rush we could get if we paint something right on the street!" I say taking a step back to look at my work feeling the adrenaline finish rushing through my body.
"That’s what I’m talking about!" Zane cheers.
8:30 pm: "Paint?"
"In the bag."
"Gloves?"
"In my pocket."
"Every one has dark clothes on right?"
"Dude, are you blind?"
"Yeah, dumb question." I take one last look around the room trying to remember if we need anything else. "Alright, let’s give this town some color!"
