Red and Gray

Stained Spears

It was hard to pinpoint the exact moment Red found out she was in love with Gray.

"I don't know how you understand this crap," he said when she turned in her Calculus homework.

"Just enough not to tear my hair out, but not so much that I turn out to be a theoretical physicist," Red answered, though one side of her mouth can't help but quirk up. He grinned at her, turning in his own homework, and something about the boyish innocence on his face made her breath catch.

It was the first thing she'd noticed when they met.

He was wearing a varsity jacket and a lopsided shirt like he'd been in a hurry. There were some people at the back who clearly didn't like the sight of him, if their dark glares were any indication. She only knew about a couple of them - they were the same people she hung out with around the bars, so she smiled at them a little warningly as she went toward him.

Afterward, she couldn't remember what she said, though it was probably something clever.

What she did remember was standing in the middle of the street, breathing him in, and he wasn't wearing some douchey cologne or smelled like too much hair gel - he smelled like pine and sunlight. And in the cold winter around them, with the snow starting to fall, he was warm.

So they hung out, as much as they could, given that she was from another school. They met in the very alternative bars a few miles outside of town, or met up in the city, or came back to the same store and just happened to find each other there. It was already complicated, and it only got worse when she transferred to his school.

That was when she'd dyed her hair red and became more like herself more than ever - if that makes sense. She couldn't forget the look on Gray's face when she'd showed up in the hallways, hair spiking down her shoulders like blood-stained spears.

And he stared at her like she wasn't supposed to be there.

In that moment, she didn't know if she would have felt the same if he'd ended up in her school. She only knew that she had never been so hurt in her life. And she knew what hurt was, so that was saying something.

But then he surprised her - and she discovered that it was actually nice to be surprised. He'd sat with her and not even with the pretense of 'picking up that hot new goth chick.' Instead, they'd talked about that new band playing at Lost, her friends' favorite club, and he had laughed his real laugh. The one she'd managed to surprise out of him.

Things escalated from there. If there's one thing Red's shitty life had taught her, it's how to wear her personality like armor - and how to twist people's insults so that they ricocheted and hit even harder.

Long story short, they got to continue being friends, Gray was happier, she was happier, they got even closer, until she met him and everything went downhell.

Get it?

Still, she couldn't figure out what the hell happened when she'd met him. Why she'd jumped right on top of coals that were about to catch fire because she couldn't stand watching Gray with other girls.

Until she fanned up a shitstorm of flames.

Gray could tell her it wasn't, but he knew. It was her fault.

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