Plain Until Proven Beautiful

Chapter Thirteen

Key 

Pink-Happiness 

Hot Pink-Attraction 

Light Red-Love 

Red-Lust 

Dark Red-Hate 

Rust-Discomfort 

Bright Orange-Curiosity 

Orange-Excitement 

Dark Orange-Suspicion 

Brown-Illness 

Light Yellow-Cowardice 

Yellow-Fear 

Deep Yellow-Bravery 

Light Green-Envy 

Green-Greed 

Dark Green-Jealousy 

Teal-Shock 

Turquoise-Serenity 

Light Blue-Sadness 

Blue-Melancholy 

Dark Blue-Depression 

Lavender-Passion 

Periwinkle-Annoyance 

Violet-Anger 

Purple-Rage 

Copper- Embarrassment  

Hazel-Nervousness  

Brown-Sickness 

White-Purity 

Gray-Confusion 

Black-Corruption 

Gold-Confidence 

Chapter Thirteen  

Nichole 

Since having Serena in the truck with us, it’s been silent. Dylan tried making conversation but it failed miserably.  

“Nichole-,” Serena starts, her hair rust and hazel. 

“No,” I cut her off. “I don’t want to talk about this right now.” 

“I was worried about you!” She yells back at me. 

“Well I didn’t need you to worry about me.” I retort. 

“Were you worried about me?” Serena is suddenly somber. 

“Why would I be?” 

“I was alone Nichole,” She says, her hair turning violet. “Sure, I have plenty of friends, but none of them are real, they’re fake, all of them. You left me with our parents with no note, no warning, nothing. I had nothing to go off of. And while you’ve been doing who knows what with random people off the street, I’ve been nonstop thinking of you. You haven’t thought of me once, have you?” 

I hadn’t thought of her much if I was being honest. I hadn’t considered anything Serena said before now. And suddenly I feel terrible. I had pitied myself so long that I forgot to think about my only sister. 

I look to Dylan. “Will you pull over?” I ask softly. 

He does and I get out and open Serena’s door. She steps out and I wrap my arms around her. 

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.  

And then we cry. Just for a little while. We get back into the car and I’m ready to talk again.  

“So where are we going anyways?” Serena asks and quickly wipes her eyes.  

I glance over at Dylan. 

“I don’t know,” He says. “We’ve just been driving. I guess we need a plan at this point.” 

“Christopher. I say softly. “He’s still out there and he’s the one that can give us answers. I’ll call him, make it sound like I have no idea that he’s against us, and we can find him and get what we need from him.” 

“I don’t know. Dylan replies. “It’s pretty risky.” 

“It’ll work though. I promise.” I grab my phone and dial Christopher’s number. 

“Hello?” Christopher’s voice stabs through the phone. He sounds off, but I have to brush that away. 

“Christopher? Oh my goodness. I can’t believe you’re alright! Where are you? I can come pick you up!” I say the words too enthusiastically but I don’t think he notices. 

Christopher gives me an address and I tell him I’ll be there soon.  

“Something feels off, Nichole. I don’t know what it is, but something is definitely wrong,” Dylan looks at me directly as he speaks. 

“It doesn’t matter now,” I say. “We need to go. Come on.” 

We have driven only an hour when the big, grey, building looms before us, surrounded by a tall, chain linked fence. We park near the fence and I look back to see Serena’s hair covered in yellow and grey. 

“Stay here,” I say to her. She nods.

Dylan and I step out of the truck and walk towards the open gate. As we step through I see Christopher, his hair light red and yellow. He yells something but he’s too far away, I can’t hear him. I hear gunshots all around me and Dylan puts his arm behind me. He knocks me down and then sweeps me up to carry me fireman style. He tries to run to the truck and then falls, dropping me. I look to see if he’s okay and then I see Christopher running towards us.