Sweven

AURA SYNESTHESIA

The morning of Star's funeral Leo forgot to check the weather forecast. He sported dark jeans with a white dress shirt and a zip up jacket. He knew he should've grabbed gloves from his closet on the way out but he was already running late to pick up Val that he didn't want to turn back and make her late to her own sister's memorial.

There was no music playing on the ride over. Nothing to fill the silence in the air but the thoughts in his head and the heater blowing. He kept his eyes straight on the road, avoiding the blinding colors surrounding Val's temples and chest.

He handed her a bottle of ibuprofen for the headache she wasn't complaining about.
He took her hand in his, without her permission, as the walked to the assembled gravesite. Tessa had everything arranged. Val was in no financial position to do it herself, so Tessa asked Val what she thought was appropriate. Leo hadn't left her side except when he'd go home to change and shower.

He didn't recognize a middle-aged gentleman, in an oversized hoodie and jeans, smoking a cigarette; keeping his distance from the pockets of distress. Leo stood next to Tessa and her son, Orion, while Val walked over to him. The man flicked the butt as soon as she was in breathing-vicinity. She held him with dear life as he blubbered into her petite body.

Leo had never attended a funeral before. No one he loved dearly ever passed. He was barely acquainted with Star, they were associates, had mutual love for Val. Her impact and sacrifice was unlike anything he'd never muster up enough courage to implement.

"Where's Gabe?" Orion asked.

"I don't know, I thought he was coming with you," Leo said before aiming of the row of seats to sit behind Gerald, who was understandably purple shade #584D5B. He'd never seen him in anything but the suits he and Star would wear on missions. Never seen him outside of Sweven. Leo thought he cleaned up nice.

"Hey," he greeted.

"'Sup?"

He sighed, "Hangin' in there."

Gerald hummed.

The casket was closed. The large photograph of Star, accompanied by an expensive bouquet of white roses, was her senior portrait. Leo always knew she was a simple beauty, never needing makeup or a bodacious figure to make everyone stop and stare when she entered a room. He certainly did at first glance. Her personality was a solid nine point five, being beautiful was just a bonus that also happened to work in her favor.

"How are they adopted if Star has a biological dad?" Leo leaned forward, filling in the silence.
Gerald didn't avert his gaze from the blades of grass, though he arched his neck to be heard.

"They were livin' in a motel or some shit. He got mixed up with some guys and ended up in a coma. And her grandma couldn't take care of her."

"What about her mom?"

"Passed awhile before that, I guess. Nigga, I don't know."

Even if he did know, he took the hint to ended the conversation right then and there. Leo felt the look on his own face, eyes widening as purples seeped from Gerald's clothes, fading to a charcoal cloud, expanding all the way to Leo's boots. He tried to shake it away but the more he moved, the more it grew.

Everyone grieves in their own way, he reminded himself.

Two minutes before ten, Tessa and Orion sat next to an empty seat Leo left for Val. Star's father walking away from the site grabbed his attention.

"Where's he going?" Leo asked after she sat down.

"He doesn't want to see her," she said quickly. She looked as if she were going to say something else but her lips left agape as she eyed the aisle.

Leo, following her unreadable gaze of bright pinks, noticing Gabriel Jump to the middle of the short aisle. He took meticulous strides as he walked to the podium only to stand in silence a little too long, expanding the awkward air. A combination of grays and blues — livid #629OC8 — filled the atmosphere of grieving friends; not that she wasn't his.

"We know ... " Gabriel gripped the edge of the podium tightly. Leo waited before seeing if anyone else had noticed he was getting choked up. " ... what she asked ... of us."

"Should you go up there?" He asked Val.

"Give him time," she whispered, placing her hand on his to focus on her breathing.

Leo quickly moved his free palm to her back, circling his thumb around the nape of her neck.

Gabriel didn't sit with them when he finished. Instead, he sat alone on the other side, outcasting himself. Next was supposed to be Gerald, but he gave his paper to Tessa to read instead.

She read his paper first. A passage from something Gerald wrote himself. It was about their adventures together. How much light she omitted. How even when he wanted to give you, she pulled him out of the darkness. It made even Leo tear up a bit a bit and he never cried.

A poem by Emily Dickinson, who he learned was one of Star's favorites, was chosen by Tessa. She read it elegantly, like she'd rehearsed it in the mirror until it was utter perfection.

Towards the end, the colors around Val's chest swirled along to the beat of her heart, oranges blinding out the livid; his equivalent of an attack. 

"Where is she?" He asked, leaning in to not distract anyone.

The overcast dulled out the yellow specks in Val's eyes though the tears made up for it. "Behind me — " she flinched. Leo drew back his hand. Her jaw was erratic. Her skin was bright orange, trembling at the blink of an eye. Leo glanced up for only a moment before feeling a wave of warm in his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, as she wailed into his tuxedo jacket. Exchanged solemn looks with Orion. Bringing her closer in, he rubbed his hands along her spine, not knowing anything else.

He turned his head, seeing a two empty rows of seats of four. There was a slight breeze he watched through tree leaves. A sycamore maybe.
But there was no one behind them.