Stream of Colors • Josh Kiszka

6.

Josh's P.O.V

I don't know what I expected to see when I walked into english the next day, but what I was met with made me noticeably stop in my tracks.

Vienna was sitting at her desk, her head in her hands as a hoodie laid upon her body, accompanied by a pair of baggy sweatpants.

Nothing was wrong with the outfit, it just took me by surprise. It also worried me a bit since her usual attire has always been jeans and some sort of knitted sweater. Not only did that make my feelings worsen, but the expression on her face did as well.

The expression only showing pure exhaustion and sadness, more so than I had ever seen her before. I felt my heart tighten, wishing I could help somehow, but knowing it wasn't my place.

With a worried heart, I resumed my walk to my desk, trying to stay as quiet as I could be, in attempt to not bother her, but of course, as I made my way closer, she instantly peered over at me. She immediately straightened her posture and started to rub her reddened eyes. For a second, I honestly was hoping that she was just high, but I knew the second her eyes met mine that it was just a naïve thought at that point.

As more and more ideas flooded into my mind about what could be wrong, I couldn't help but notice Vienna look up at me as I sat down in my uncomfortably cold seat.

With her eyes still glued onto me, I took my bag off of my shoulder, sitting it down onto the dirty school floor, the item not really being on the top of my priorities list at the moment.

Once I had everything settled, I turned around to face her. The closer proximity allowing me to fully see her tired appearance and tear stained cheeks.

I attempted to force down my boiling concern as we made eye contact, knowing that I would have to be cautious from this point on since I'm still unaware of what made her leave so abruptly last night making anything I say or do, extremely vital.

As I continued my pondering, she started rifling through her untidy bag, looking for God knows what, and within a few seconds, she came back up with her own notebook. The cover was a worn out baby blue, which happened to be covered in small, but well drawn doodles.

I also noticed a pen in between her ring covered fingers, making my eyebrows furrow even further, not entirely sure where this conversation would lead us.

"I'll do your project idea." Her words startled me, not really expecting her voice to be so loud or that confident at this moment in time.

I sat there for a second too long with my mouth hanging wide open, "I- uh, the love one?"

"Was there another one I wasn't aware of? I'd much rather do whatever that one is." She snapped at me, with a not so subtle eye roll.

"Alright, so the love one." I kept my comments to myself, not wanting to upset her anymore than I'm assuming I already had.

She nodded, acting as if there wasn't a looming break down written all over her features.

I guess if she didn't want to acknowledge it, I wouldn't either. I would just try my absolute best to be nice today and hold in all of the thoughts and questions that desperately wanted to spill out.

Vienna's P.O.V

This morning was rough, to say the absolute least. I had barely gotten any sleep and I didn't have any energy left in me to get an outfit together, so I just settled on an outfit I had found laying on my floor.

Once I had gotten semi ready, I went downstairs to see that my dad was sitting on the couch with a beer placed firmly in his hand.

It's literally 6:40am, and he's already drinking.