Colors

Seven

A/N: Okay so I just saw that this book just hit 2k reads??? Thank you all so so so much I love you so much! Here's an update a day early because it's the best I can do to say thanks right now!

I woke up in the morning with a start, noticing first the ache that was situated in my lower spine and second the weight on my left arm. My eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the small amount of light that was spilling through the tops of the tree cover but once they did, I realised where we were.

"Good morning Mitch..." I smiled as the brown eyes that belonged to the boy beside me fluttered open, looking around curiously the same way my eyes did for a half a second before slamming closed tightly. He groaned and rolled onto his stomach, covering his head with his arms. 

"You okay?" I asked, instinctively placing my hand on his back between his shoulder blades but quickly removing it when he tensed up at the touch.

"Yeah, just a hangover..." He whined and I grabbed my bag from the night before, handing him the bottle of water that I kept in case of emergency.

"I don't have any painkillers, but this should help." If I was being honest, I didn't have the slightest clue about hangovers. The only information I had about alcohol was from television, and I knew nothing about any kinds of drugs apart from what I'd heard around the school. I hadn't realised until now that blue must have been a lot more strict on these things than other places. "Hey Mitch..?" I said softly once he'd gulped down most of the bottle, now resting his head in his hands and massaging his temples.

"What's up Scott?" He asked and I noticed with a slight disappointment that he wasn't using those cute nicknames anymore.

"Last night... You- I- I mean, I saw..." I stumbled over my words carefully, trying not to give away the intentions behind the heavy question.

"Just ask me Scott, I'm an open book." I couldn't help the small laugh that escaped my lips at that. Mitch was a lot of things, but open was not one of them.

I pushed the question anyway, not caring how things sounded anymore. "Is it wrong to be g-gay where you're from? In red?"

He looked at me curiously, as if this was one of the last things he was expecting me to ask. "Some people think yes, some think no. The marriage laws are getting better but most people who are tend to surround themselves with people who support them as soon as they're able to." Mitch looked down at his lap for a second before he looked back up to me and our eyes met. It was only then I saw that where his eyes would usually be bloodshot, they were normal. Not white by any means, and certainly not blue either. They were a faded red tint, but there weren't bright veins standing out anymore. "Why do you ask?"

"Are... Are you gay?" I didn't mean for those to be the words. The right ones ran through my head before I'd spoken, but clearly my mouth decided that there were more important things.

"I'd better get home... People will probably be wondering where I am."

"Mitch..." I started, though I really didn't know what to say.

"I'll talk to you later, okay?" He had a look in his eyes that I still couldn't read. Regret? Pity?

"You said you didn't want to go home last night... Why was that?" Again with my mouth not being connected to my mind. I just wanted the ground to come up and swallow me whole at that point.

"Good bye Scott." He stood up and one last thing clicked in my mind, the most important one that I should have remembered earlier.

"Wait! There was a border guard on duty last night, he saw us and they're probably patrolling pretty heavily. Be careful, okay?" I quickly hugged him before he could protest and stepped back quickly.