All the Beautiful Things

VIII

BROWN WAS JUST as much a lovely color as it was an ugly one.

Far more common than gold, Everest drank it in everywhere he looked. Dirt was brown. He had absolutely no idea! Before, it had simply been dark gray. Ugly dark gray. The cabinets in his kitchen were brown, a lovely, warm coffee shade that complimented the gray-but-probably-something-else accents of the room.

The boy didn't even know his bed frame was brown.

It didn't take long for him to learn that brown and gold paired together nicely. The brown furniture in his home all had golden handles and screws, and they looked much prettier than the gray version Everest had seen his entire life.

After he walked Casper home that night, the blonde walked from place to place, seeking out more brown items and complimenting the various shades. Gold didn't have as many shades as brown did. There were so many options, bright ones, dull ones, neutral ones . . . the variety was endless. And each one went beautifully along with gold as if the two colors were meant-to-be lovers.

Of course, in Everest's eyes, the most lovely combination of his two colors was the mixture made in the wavy mess that was Calum Campbell's hair. If the golden streaks were pretty, the combination of brown and gold was stunning. Upon seeing it the first time, Everest's eyes refused to tear their gaze away from the multicolored strands.

This, of course, triggered an uncountable number of giggles from Calum, who blushed and played with the ends of his swearer sleeves shyly under the weight of his friend's intense stare. He thanked the blonde for the compliments on multiple occasions, loving how Everest sounded like him with the amount of words he received about his hair.

But it didn't end there.

Everest complimented every brunette in Jefferson High School, every dark-skinned student or faculty member, and every brown dog he'd seen on the streets. Casper and Calum found great joy in watching him in blankly compliment everyone, telling them the color was pretty. Some looked at the boy as if he'd grown extra limbs, while others politely thanked him and hurried away before they could get complimented too much.

Then. Of course, there was the group of people who took Everest's compliments as an opportunity to flirt with the blonde. This was amusing in it's own way, seeing as the blonde boy had absolutely no idea what was going on and only stood blankly while girls (and a few guys) leaned closer to him, twirling their brown hair or flaunting their brown eyes or skin tones. 

With each new person he unintentionally rejected, the two boys on the sidelines had a good laugh, finding the looks of disappointment on the flirtatious students' faces to be hilarious and deserving of laughter. Calum couldn't even feel jealous towards everyone that flirted with Everest, seeing as his friend knew absolutely nothing of the act.

It didn't even matter anyway, seeing as they only wanted Everest because he was attractive, and complimenting them. They had no interest in helping him explore his hidden emotions, no interest in hanging out with him outside of school or listening to his favorite nature sounds, even if they were a little on the strange side. They didn't even know he could see another color, that he laughed at some of the littlest things, or that he was extremely cuddly.

They didn't care about these things like Calum did. These few qualities made Everest who he was, and with every new thing discovered, he became a little more fascinating.

And it wasn't only Calum who was beginning to have the thoughts.

In the Tanner household one night, the family of three sat down for supper at eight o'clock, the same time as normal. Everleigh and Estèban spoke of their time working, laughing at strange phonecalls the man had received throughout the day and commenting on the increasing rudeness of customers at the bank Everleigh worked at.