Colours

I always thought that when my hand collided with my best friend's, the colours sprang up, showing that we were true friends and would always be there for each other. I was pretty sure he saw them too. No one had ever told me the reason colour didn't exist often in this world. My parents wouldn't have known, their marriage had been set practically in the womb. It was up to me to figure out the beauty of this world with or without their help.

I had started to call them colours when I was seven. When I wasn't in physical contact with Brendon, I called everything black, white, and grey. White being the lightest bits, black being the darkest, and grey being all the shades and mixtures in between.

I found the world so interesting, when you looked at it from a black-white-and-grey preference, everything looked beautiful in it's own way. The way shadows reflected the outline of a person or an object amazed me. But the world never looked as beautiful as it did with colour. Every time my skin brushed against Brendon's and colour blossomed around me for a split second, I always craved more. I always insisted we held hands as we walked to and from school. He never disagreed. He probably wanted to see the colours too.

~

"I don't understand why you always want to come watch the sunset, Ryan." Brendon said as I smoothed the flowery blanket out on the top of the hill.

I lay down on my stomach on the blanket and patted the empty space next to me expectantly. He rolled his eyes and flopped down on his stomach too. Propping myself up on my elbows so our shoulders were touching, I watched the world flutter to life with brilliant colours and hues.

Turning towards the sunset, I watched the sky full of reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows spread across like a paint brush had flown into the air and lit a pink canvas on fire. It was magnificent, unlike anything else I could ever see. If only I could remember such vibrant beauty.

Memories were odd. When I wasn't in physical contact with Brendon, all my memories were in black and white, no matter what. But the moment I touched Brendon, every memory was in full colour, even if I hadn't been with Brendon when that memory originally occurred. Our world was weird like that, and I wish I could understand it better.

Brendon and I sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the sun lower into the horizon, when he finally spoke again.

"You never really answered me, you know. Why do you want to come watch the sunset?" he turned to me with a puzzled look.

"Why not?" I answered, still watching the sky, "Who would want to miss a sunset when it looks like this?" I grinned at him, tearing my eyes off the sky for a second before I looked back up again.

He chuckled. "You're weird, you know that? But hey, I am too."

"How is a sunset weird?" It was my turn to look puzzled.

"I don't know, it's just... regular. It's all the same." He shrugged.

"But... isn't it beautiful?"

"Ryan, you know I won't be able to see real beauty until I find my soulmate."

"Soulmate?" I hadn't heard this word before.

"Right, you weren't there that day in class when Ms. Murphy explained it all. A soulmate is the person you're destined to be with. The person you're destined to fall in love with. Like, apparently there's this myth when they touch you everything becomes all vibrant and it's not all bland anymore. There's different shades of different hues and stuff and it's all cool. I don't know if it's really true, because I've never experienced it myself, but I hope I do someday. Did you know there are some people who never get to experience it because they miss their soulmate by just a few feet on the sidewalk or something? Crazy huh?" I just nodded in response.

I must have not heard him right. Soulmate? Vibrant and not bland... that must be the colours. But...

"So you've never seen the colours?" I asked, turning to him in despair.

"What the hell are the colours?"

"Colours... It's what I've called the vibrant and not bland stuff that you uh... see when you touch your soulmate or whatever." He had never seen them, but I had. This meant... what exactly?

"No, I've never seen them. But you have?" Brendon was getting excited. "Who was it? Do you know?"

"Yeah, I've seen them... I'm... I'm not sure who though." This couldn't be real. It had to be a dream or something. But dreams were in black and white. Maybe I was remembering a dream and I was still sitting on top of the hill with Brendon. Or I could have fallen asleep next to him, still touching him. Did it work that way?

"Dang. Maybe you should brush up against everyone in the school and see if you see those colour things again. That would be so cool if you found your soulmate. Or what if your soulmate has another soulmate? Ms. Murphy said that was possible, but rare. Eh, you probably don't have that, right? It's probably not even possible. But what if we both found our soulmates, then we could double date at prom! Dude, that would be so awesome!" He was rambling again.

I nodded unenthusiastically and turned onto my back, facing the now empty sky. My shoulder disconnected from his and the colours disappeared at once so I could no longer see the fiery pink canvas. I wanted to run and hide, far from here, far from Brendon. I wanted to forget I had ever seen the colours. I wanted to forget colour ever existed.

Why couldn't he see them? Was it a development thing? Were the colours only seen through certain people? Or could it actually be true that some people's soulmates had a different soulmate? So many questions buzzed through my head.

Standing up from my blanket, I looked down to Brendon, who was still lying with his elbows propping him up. "I have to go, sorry, there's this project thing I need to finish for science and its due Monday. Sorry Bren." I made a quick excuse.

He looked as though he was trying to remember a science project that I would need to be finishing. "I can help you if you'd like?" He stood up from the blanket, brushing imaginary dirt from his pants.

"No, it's fine, I've got it covered. Uh, I'll see you at school tomorrow, okay?" I folded up the blanket and draped it over my arm.

"Okay... Call me if you need anything, okay? See ya tomorrow..." He waved and started down the hill.

I turned and watched him go, thinking to myself...

Why me?

~~~

yikes on bikes this used to be ryden but I guess I'm kinda over writing non-subtle fanfiction. I probably won't be doing a whole lot of fanfiction from now on, I've kinda started to move on from that, but I will probably still write short stories that y'all can pretend are ryden or who knows, I might write some more ryden some day?!?!

edit: HAHA PSYCH I CHANGED IT BACK TO RYDEN UR WELCOME KIDS IT FELT TOO WEIRD AS NON-RYDEN

Hope you liked it!

~Jenna