Free PODs by Michelle Pickett Page A

possible by furniture, hoping someone with talent would draw something spectacular above to mask my mess below.
    I was painting my favorite verse from the Bible—Psalms 118:24—when Josh came up behind me.
    This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it .
    “What’s there to rejoice about, Eva? Huh? Everyone is either dead or dying and you want us to be all happy and stuff? That’s kinda sick.”
    “Hey man,” George said, “cool down. We all deal with things differently.”
    “I don’t like her sanctimonious crap. I don’t want to have to read it every day.” He picked up a paintbrush covered in black paint and swiped it over the verse I’d just painted, the black swirling with the red I’d used, making a large, ugly splotch on the wall.
    “Josh, you’re a real—”
    “It’s okay, George. No big deal.” I picked up the black paintbrush and blacked over the red and black mess Josh had made. I evened out the edges and made a black square. As soon as it dried, I took a piece of white chalk and wrote the verse on the black paint.
    “There.” I turned and looked at Josh with a smile. “If you paint over it again, I’ll write it in permanent marker across your forehead when you’re asleep.”
    “Bitch,” he muttered under his breath.
    “Spray hairspray over it,” David said.
    “What?”
    “The hairspray will keep the chalk from smearing.”
    “Okay.” I grabbed my hairspray from the bathroom and sprayed the wall. “Thanks.” I smiled at David.
    He shrugged, not looking away from his drawing. “No problem.” David had drawn a sweeping mural across one entire wall of the living area. It was a forest filled with trees, their leaves colored red, yellow and orange. A figure—I couldn’t tell if it was male or female—raked fallen leaves at the side of the road. The road wound through the hills of the landscape until it disappeared in the horizon, which held a large autumn sun.
    “It’s beautiful,” I whispered. I didn’t know I’d said it out loud until he turned and smiled. I could almost feel the chill of the autumn air, smell the leaves on the wet ground, hear them crunch under my feet.
    “Thank you. Your border around the floor is… interesting.”
    “It’s okay,” I laughed. “You can call it horrible. I’m under no delusion that I’m an artist. You can paint over it if you want. I wish you would, actually.”
    He smiled but didn’t answer. He was adding something to his mural and I stood on my tiptoes to look over his shoulder. When he was done, he dropped his arm to reveal another figure in the painting. The person sat cross-legged on the ground, reading a book.
    “I wish I had your talent, David.”
    “I like that,” he said with a small frown.
    “What? That I think you’re talented?”
    “No. I like how my name sounds on your lips.”
    I felt the blush crawl up my body until my face burned with it. My breathing became shallow; I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs. Why did that one little statement get me so… so… confused, elated, off-balance?
    Seth rounded the corner and spied David’s mural. “Whoa! That’s wicked cool.”
    “What’s cool?” Aidan asked from the hall.
    “You gotta see what David’s done. Get out here.”
    I took the distraction as my cue to make a quick exit. I didn’t know what to say to David. It wouldn’t be a good idea for any of us to become involved while we were living in the POD. If the relationship went sour, it would make our living arrangement worse than it already was. We already had Josh’s attitude to deal with. We didn’t need two people bitter from a break-up added to the mix. No, there was no way any of us should become romantically involved. None.
    No relationships in the POD, Eva. Your rule. Not even if the guy smells as good and looks as yummy as David. Wow! Where did that come from? And how come I want to tell him that I liked the way his name felt crossing my lips?
    I walked down the hall