a red scene and silver undertones

pre (flashing lights)

 it was blue.

 it was the middle of december, and they were thirteen years old. 

 it had been blue.

 they sat in the dead grass, and one of them wondered if she would have grass stains on the back of her shorts later. but she didn't care right now. there had been a sense of peace within her that she hadn't understood, not at the time. she didn't understand it, but she couldn't bear to disrupt it.

 they were sitting next to a parking lot, right next to a store owned by one of the girls' father. nothing had been wrong then, because there was only light laughter and promises of the future. there was hope, there was light. 

 Alice was a girl, sometimes. not always. actually, half the time. but that isn't the point. she was tall, with a pleasant laugh and frizzy hair. she didn't know who she was, or who she wanted to be. sometimes, she didn't even think she was Alice. who was Alice?

 Lo probably knew who Alice really was, but she didn't want to think she did. Lotus was a strange, empty child. she had shaky hands and the whites beneath her brown irises showed. she didn't know who she was, or what she was.

 all very common and shallow. that's how they summed themselves up, that's how they were expected to be.

 shallow, angry, ignorant.

 maybe they were just exactly that.

 but in that moment, the one when the wind was blowing through their hair, and the sound of the train was almost deafening, there was nothing. there was everything. there were no words, but the buzz of the earth and constant noise of a road feeding into an interstate and the train passing by, they were all noise, they were the substance that made up the moments that would replay in their minds for as long as their memory held strong.

 they didn't quite remember what happened that day. but things started to change. things started to be put into motion, their fates, seemingly so separate, started weaving itself with half smiles and squinted eyes.

 hands reached into the sky, no one knew why.