Painting

Sam is my friend from work. He often comes here to play with Lily. "You shouldn't disturb uncle everytime, he is busy you know." I told Lily with a warm smile.

"But mama..." before she can continue a familiar mascular voice interpreted in between "it's no trouble, I like to play with lil princess" I turned back only to find Sam smiling there at the entrance "looks like I left the door open, I need to shut it" I said jokingly. "hey! don't ignore me!" Sam laughed while saying

"now princess shall we play?" he scooped her in his arms "yay!!" Lily shouted happily "you're really going to spoil my daughter" I said with a sigh and he giggled in reply.

Sam has a fíancee and is going to get married soon, he is busy with work too but he still comes here to play with her because he knows my loneliness.

Sighing I sat on the rocking chair and closed my eyes. It made me remember of that day...

12 years back, when we were very innocent and have thoughts like- do superman exist will we one day get older than our parents and so on...

Anna was bit different than them, while everyone was fantasizing about witches and fairies she wondered whether there are pirates on the sea? are there monsters in the clouds?

It was another peaceful day when she entered here new class.

"Anna come here!" Bella cried from the third back seat "ok" I smiled and stood beside her, in front of the seat ready to sit down. "wait! but I wanna sit with you two too" Elsa said regretfully.

"ok...how about this? We will sit here and you can sit in the seat in back of us in this way we can be together ☺️" Bella said trying to comfort Elsa. "ok!" she replied.

"C'mon man come quick otherwise there won't be any seats for us" a boy with slightly blonde hair at the class door said while stretching the shirt of his friend "easy there let me look..." the other boy scanned through out the whole class and finally his gaze locked down to the seat left behind Elsa's.

"Look there's a seat behind those girls let's choose that one" the boy said while pointing the finger at the seat behind. They came to the seat then looked at us.

The blondie said "hey guys! can we sit here?" "of course" Bella replied cheerfully. "Then we can become friends?" the other boy said jokingly "we are friends?" Elsa who was really innocent said while looking at him "o-of course". I stayed silent the whole time.

"So what's your name? mine is Alex and he is my friend Roy" the boy said with a grin. "hello" Roy said and peeked at me. Me who has been silent during the whole conversation was a bit startled. "h-hello" I said and he grinned.

We often talked as their seat was just behind ours and even if I wasn't the talkative one Roy would always find something which will pique my interest.

One day in our art class the teacher said that because many students haven't bought their colours and canvas those who have them should share it. Roy came near mine and sat beside me "Can I sit here?" He asked "you already have" I chuckled "you should smile often" he said looking at his art copy. "huh?" I stared at him "you look good when you smile" there was a huge grin on his face. I tear off my attention from him as heat started to rise in my cheeks.

After the class was almost over he peeked at my drawing "wow you're so good at this" I looked over him and smiled "yeah I like painting, people often say that my painting is very colourful and lively..." I gave h a humorouless smile "I don't think that's true" he snapped at me and I just stared at him "painting is what you feel, some find it colourful and Lively whereas some find it sad and lonely... it depends on what the person thinks or feels, a painting is a way of expressing feeling.....so to me this painting looks quite... lonely I guess?" he looked at me with a forced smile but I can't help smiling.

He is the first to recognise my true feelings....