Synesthesia

Pink (Christina)

My phone dinged, muffled by the sheets on my bed.
"(682)- 543- 7812 Here's Savannah's number" It was from Josh. I sat down on my bed and looked at my phone, confused why Josh would care enough to give me her number. After a few minutes of sitting and staring, I copied the number and went to start a new message.
"Hey. This is Chris," No, that's too harsh-sounding. "Hi Savannah! Its Christina," Too energetic. "Hey, its Chris," That works. I pressed send and flopped down onto my pastel purple sheets. "Huh, so that's what color those are," I said out loud and laughed in spite of myself. Just from thinking about Savannah I had been able to alter my mind.
I turned on my ringer and went to go take a shower. The water ran down my body like rain droplets and I imagined myself standing out in the middle of the road, rain pouring around me. Standing and forgetting all of my problems. Standing and crying until I couldn't tell the difference between the water and my tears. Standing and yelling until my voice was hoarse and nothing I said was distinguishable.
I shook my head and wrung out my hair. After getting dressed I walked back to my
bedroom and checked my phone. I had two unopened messages from Savannah.
    "Hey Chris! I'm sorry about what happened the other night..." I was sorry too, but I didn't regret what happened. The second message read, "Are you free later? Maybe wanna grab some lunch?" I beamed and clutched my phone in victory. Jumping on my bed I grabbed my old stuffed animal from when I was little. I kissed it on the head and threw it back to the end of my bed. Realizing that she could see that I had seen the text, I quickly jumped for my phone and leaned my head against the wall in concentration.
     "Sure, is 1:00 okay?"
She replied less than a minute later with a simple, "yes, meet at the cafe on 3rd and Howard?" and a smiley face.
Foolishly, I nodded. I smacked myself on the forehead and said to myself, "She can't see you nod through the phone, idiot." Glancing at the clock, I noticed that I had two hours until I was supposed to meet Savannah for lunch. I called Rachel for the first time in a week and she picked up immediately, sounding concerned.
"Christina? I'm so worried about you. Please tell me you're alright," she whined.
"Yeah dude, I'm fine. I was just calling because I have a date with Savannah later and I have some time to kill. You wanna go shopping or something?" Rachel squeaked out a yes and said that she would be right over. I quickly dried my hair and and braided it to the side.
About ten minutes later I heard Rachel's car pull up in the driveway. I got in the passenger seat and reached to plug my phone into the aux cord.
"Gosh, have you been gone so long that you've forgotten the rules?" she swatted my hand away."Driver picks the music." I didn't mind her music, after being friends for so long our tastes had merged into a unique genre that only we could identify. We drove to the bridge, belting out our favorite songs the whole way there. We visited all of our favorite shops, buying small things here and there but for the most part not getting much. As we passed the coffee shop where I first spoke to Josh my heart did a double take. I peered into one of the windows and saw him laughing and talking with some girl, their hands laid out together on the counter, almost like a couple. I wanted to be happy for him, I really did. I stopped and took a deep breath, closing my eyes. I could tell by the absence of footsteps that Rachel had stopped walking. Opening my eyes, I watched as Rachel looked into the window, started to walk towards me, then stopped and had a startled look on her face. I was calm and I knew it. Collected, content, and at peace. I really didn't mind that Josh had moved on, after all, wasn't I doing the same thing?
"You good there? You have this expression on your face... eerie calm like a murderer. It's freaking me out," she laughed at the last part.
"Nope, I think I'm finally good." I glanced at my watch and announced, "It's going to take about 15 minutes to get to the cafe, so we better head out now. That okay with you?" Rachel nodded in response. Rachel let me pick songs for the drive home, even though she had the same ones on her playlist.
Once we got there, Rachel reached across me and pushed open my door for me. "Later loser, just call me when you need me to get you," Rachel waved me out and into the building, yelling supportive phrases like an excited mother at an athletic event.
I found Savannah immediately, she was so bright it was almost blinding. It was like that first time on the bridge all over again, but with a different feeling. More intense, confident, almost like Cupid had made a mistake the first time and was more comfortable the second time around. A filter was turned on in my brain, engulfing everything in splatter and splotches of color. The imaginary handle had turned, covering everything in paint, in such immense colors that it felt surreal. And at the center of it all, Savannah was smiling and producing her own kind of light that only I could see.