The Color of Darkness COMPLETE NOVEL

Muse

The thing I would never get used to about Nova was that she was unpredictable.

Erratic.

Capricious.

"Puck, we're going to foster your creativity today."

"Um.... excuse me?" I was standing at my front door wearing only a white t-shirt and a pair of boxers—we had three days off school for "fall break" at the end of October.

Nova and Rick were bundled against the first snow of the season, which was coming down in huge, puffy white flakes almost lazily.

"Just let us inside, dumbass, it's freezing out here!" Rick growled, shuffling into me with his hands crammed deep in his pockets. I stepped aside to let them pass, still confused as to why they had woken me up at ten in the morning while on break. The two of them effectively tracked dirt and water pretty much everywhere as they set about making themselves comfortable. Nova put the shopping bag she was carrying down on the table and began unloading--surprise--several bottles of alcohol and various other drinks. Rick pulled an old CD player out of his backpack and plugged it in in the living room. I had no idea what they were planning, but I thanked my lucky stars my dad said he'd be working late that night.

"So... why are you here, exactly?" I said, grabbing a can of Code Red off the table. Nova slapped my hand and snatched it back, placing it exactly where it had come from. Rick shook his head, pointing at Nova, who shoved a handful of pens and a notebook into my hands.

"I was thinking about our talk the other day and realized that you weren't going to get back into the whole writing thing without a little encouragement." she said cheerfully. "That's what we're here for: encouragement."

"And what If I don't want encouragement?" I asked with a sigh, gazing down at the notebook she had given me. It had a picture of a smiling turtle on the front, and felt oddly heavy.

"Don't be stupid, of course you want encouragement," Nova put her hands on her hips and cocked her head at me, daring me to object. I gulped. Man, was she beautiful when she was stubborn.

"Can we move on to the liquid encouragement?" Rick asked. "I haven't had a drink since the corn maze, and that's wa-aaaay too long for me."

"Has anyone told you two you drink too much?" I asked, scratching my head. It was sort of becoming a legitimate concern for me.

"Nonsense, Puck! We all have more than enough reason to enjoy a little 'devil juice', I would say," Nova said, amused.

I shrugged; hell, I wasn't going to pass up a reasonably interesting way to pass the time. Nova got a glass from the cupboard and filled it with Code Red and a generous shot of vodka. She pushed it toward Rick, who just stared at her. "Here ya go, knock yourself out."

"I'm not drinking that," He said, aghast. Nova and I looked at each other, shocked. "Did you actually just defile the most sacred of soft drinks right in front of me?" he hissed.

"Are you really going to refuse my offering?" Nova put a hand on her hip and looked at him dangerously.

"Hey, that shit may work on Puck, but I'm putting my foot down here," Rick said stubbornly. "You leave that perfectly good Code Red alone, Missy."

"You're such a woman," Nova remarked, snatching up the glass and downing the whole thing in one. I blinked. Was it me, or did Rick actually turn a little pink? I chalked it up to his jock side and being unable to take an insult from a female.

He grabbed the bottle of vodka instead and took a large swill, barely even making a face as it went down. Nova poured me a shot of brandy, of all things, and made me knock it all back before letting me chase it with some apple juice (I decided Code Red would probably not pair too well). Nova cued Rick to hit the music, and we were soon drowning in The Weepies and Radical Face. I was never a huge fan of indie music, but I had to admit that Nova had put most of the best songs together in just the right order. We laughed and drank and lost ourselves in music until, finally, Nova forced me to open the notebook.