Colours

It was summer of his final year in college when he met her. The vivid pink and yellows of the flowers on campus had drawn his attention to the courtyard. It was a lovely day; the pastel blue skies clear with not a cloud in sight. He relished the warm sunshine on his skin. It was not ten minutes into his walk before he saw her. She was standing by the fountain with a phone in hand as she frowned at the screen. Her hair, which was as black as coal and contrasted with her pale skin tone, was braided into a neat French braid. She must have caught him looking because she turned to him and smiled. He wasn’t expecting that. She had introduced herself to him, and while she was far from the mellow and sweet girl he was expecting her to be, he found himself wanting to know her better.

Green was not a colour he wore well, or so she had always told him. She had been with him for over a year now, and it was hard to tear his gaze from all the boys who seemed to stare at her while she walked with him. She never reciprocated, but he abhorred the thought of anything happening to her. He loved her very much, from the specks of green in her cerulean blue eyes, to the shade of auburn that she had dyed her hair. She was charming, and she had her own personality. He admired her in a way that he had never admired anyone else before.

                Aqua was the name of the night club she had dragged him to. Her best friend had insisted that they come by for a couple of drinks, in honour of her birthday. He had not wanted to go, but he did not want to disappoint either of the two girls. It was hard to keep up with what had happened, and he could not remember much. The pounding of the music was so loud it felt like it was about to split him apart in his drunken state. The man next to him at the bar was chatting obnoxiously loud, and that irritated him. He was hardly the best fighter, but he punched that man in the face anyway. He was dragged out into an alley and beaten to a pulp. Red was what he saw before he collapsed on the ground, and only black came after.