Black and White

2- Nico

My whole life I've been in black.  My hair, my eyes.  My clothes, my shoes, my room.  I've never known any other color.  Except for white.  The whites of my eyes, the whites of my fingers as I slip on my gloves and the white of the paper I sketch on.  I keep my eyes down as I pass my mother in the kitchen.  She was sleeping again, poor woman.  It seemed to be all she ever did now days.  My dad left her a while back, and she's never been the same since. It only got worse after.. Bianca.  Bianca never knew colors.  She never got to see anything past grey, past blinding white teeth and black eyes.  When she died, Mama became angry.  She was never at peace, constantly restless.  Mama started taking it out on me.  I never blamed her- she had been through enough.  Still, I wished my dad had been decent enough to stay.  I wished he wasn't such a coward.  I blared my music through headphones and let my bangs, curling in the heat, fall into my eyes. 
The walk to school was short.  It was just a few blocks away. Across the street, someone else was walking.  He didn't look my way, and I didn't look his.  When I made it to school, I didn't even bother going to my locker.  I knew who would be waiting to confront me there.  So instead, I went to class the long way, shoving my bag beneath my desk and pulling out my sketchpad as the history lecture began.