Vanilla Chaos

Chapter 23: Rose Petals

Apparently what he needed was a way to address his followers, Nicki had suggested a website or Facebook page, even a Twitter account. But Nelly had a better idea. He used the torch app on his phone to illuminate the tall wall, covered in swirly, multi-coloured lines of text.

"Bonjour, Paris! Je m'appelle Océane" (my name is Océane) "and I want to change a few things. I don't like inequality, I don't like being lied to and I hate being brain-washed. Who's with me? Let's make a difference, Paris. Tell France, tell Europe, tell the world! Forever your's, Océane Bleu."

"That's cute," Nicki crossed her slender arms, "but a little arrogant, don't you think?"

"No one said you had to come, Barbie." Nelly turned the light off and threw a protective arm around me.

Nicki's calm, collected smile twisted into a hurt, slightly menacing grin, "But I did, didn't I, Avenelle-Jérôme?"

I released myself from the icy, emotionless embrace of my French lover and approached his sickened sister, "Whatever do you mean, Dominique?"

"Do you remember what I told you, little Heidi? About a boy called Charles who was the world to me?" She shot her snake-like green eyes at me, locking me in place like Medusa, towering over me in black boots.

I nodded, inhaling more of the sickly Summer air than I needed to, still fixated on the disproportionate princess above me, "After his death, it was a downwards spiral we have never brought up in conversation since it occurred. It started with just straightening my crooked teeth, until they mentioned my big nose, so I had it bent into a button. Then they decided I was too skinny, that I needed 'curves', that I looked 'anorexic'. So I had two lumps of silicone implanted into my chest when I was sixteen. Who told me these things? Society. And Charles wasn't there to shut them up, anymore.

"But then I was a 'slut', a 'fake bitch' and I couldn't seem to please them. Never. I had kept my past locked up for so long: the ugly girl who used to stay up late studying and watching Japanese cartoons with her boyfriend was trapped in the darkest, deepest dungeons of my mind. She escaped when she found the key on top of my head, the key being the one word, 'roux' or 'redhead'. When I was called 'ginger', for some reason, something snapped, and at eighteen years old, I was myself, again. I could change my teeth, my nose, even my breasts, but my hair is red, I'm a ginger and I don't really care if people don't like that, because I do."

Nelly was leant against his painting, his face stained with hollow tears the same shade of blue as his eyes, "Big sister," he steadily walked towards the girl, "I'm so sorry. I was a mere child, miles away, across the sea, I have been such a fool. I just remember visiting home for the first time and seeing what you had done to yourself. I thought you were so beautiful, I didn't know why you would want to change that. Our parents hid the real world from me for so long. Maybe they did it because I'm destroying France's capital city now I've found it."

She reached out to him, arms wide, and he hugged her. "I forgive you, you have not been in control of the way you think for far too long ", and I want you to know that I will always support you, I'm so proud of you, Nelly-Jerry." Nicki chuckled, "Heidi, love, group hug! You're a part of this family, now. The very first English Rouge! I am obviously aware of what things are like with the Bonde family, so worry not, the Rouges welcome you with open arms!" You never realise how much a hug from a girl with plastic tits suffocated you until you experience it, first hand, but it was a sweet gesture, none the less.

***

"Heidi Rouge, I just realised something." Nelly buttered his black toast and sipped his even blacker coffee. A late morning smiley sun shone in through the windows, lightly dusting the white lounge and kitchen furniture with hope and happiness. I stood next him, both of us enlightened from last night's occurrences and alone in luxury apartment, Marseille and François had taken Nicki for birthday brunch and shopping for gifts for her.

"That we go back to school in two weeks?"

He put down the mug and the cutlery and shifted so close to me that we were touching, his arms dragged me even closer to him from behind my back. "Whilst that is sadly true, that is not what I just noticed."

"Then what is it?" I asked, bewildered.

"That it has," his words all had a pause between each one, "been far too long since my lips touched your lips."

I was thrown into an impromtu, unsure, even slightly shy kiss, throwing my arms around Nelly's neck, I reassured him, and didn't let all that build-up go to waste. There was just something about his lips, they were like pale rose petals in soaked lukewarm water, so pleasantly soft and temperate.