Irised

Chapter Twenty Seven

Deep breaths, I tell myself. Deep breaths. Only that doesn’t work out too well, and I end up sort of hyperventilating while watching Knox, whose face has gone from mad to confused in three seconds flat. Nice going Raven. Nice.

“What?” He eventually stutters out. “What are you talking about?”

I feel my heart pound in my chest. Like this is probably what a soldier feels like as the enemy is standing over him with a gun to his forehead. Or a sailor right as the boat tips and hits the water. Or a deer as he realizes the arrow is headed straight for him. Sudden, inevitable, torturous death.

Fabulous.

I somehow end up sitting back down with my head in my hands, the stance of giving up. I don’t even know what to do anymore. Do I try to backpedal and act like I said something I didn’t? Or do I own it, and lose a friend?

“What do you mean my eyes change color?” He asks, and sits across from me, completely bewildered, eyes completely gray. I guess that answered my previous question. Backpedaling isn’t going to work. I’ve dug my grave, now I have to lay in it.

I take a deep breath. “What I’m about to tell you only a handful of people knows. I only tell the people necessary, because everyone judges me and calls me names, and no one understands. If I could take back yelling that at you, I would. Because I know as soon as I tell you, you’ll walk out that door and never come back.”

I twist my hands on my lap. “But, now I’m in the middle of this and I guess I’m gonna have to explain myself.”

I swallow hard and stare straight at the boy in front of me. “People’s eyes change colors with their emotions. They turn gray when you feel confused, blue when you’re concerned, purple when you’re happy, and so on.”

“People’s eyes don’t change color.” He interrupts.

I nod, “Everyone says that. That’s because I’m the only person I’ve ever met who can.”

I let this information sink in and he looks anywhere but me. “How do you know what emotions are connected to what colors?” He finally asks.

“When I first started seeing the colors, which started when I was old enough to perceive other’s emotions and read them by the way, I could feel the emotion in my own body. When I was looking in my mom’s eyes and they were red, I felt her fury in me. I couldn’t control it either. After a while, that’s faded. I memorized what the colors meant, and I don’t feel the emotions as much anymore. Only extremely strong colors affect me.”

He just stares at me. I wait.

“What happens when you feel more than one emotion at once?” He asks, trying to figure out my world.

“Then they’re a mix of two or more colors. I can normally decipher the colors because they aren’t blended together, they’re sectioned off.”

He puts his head in his hands. “This is ridiculous.”

I just lean back in my chair and wait for it. The Rant of Sanity. I came up with the name a while ago. Every person I’ve ever told does this. They stand up and pace back and forth, mumbling about how this is insane, and there’s no way this is scientific, and estimating how close the nearest psych ward is.

Sure enough, he stands up and starts pacing, muttering to himself.

I don’t even try to listen, I know the sorts of things he’s saying.

All of a sudden, he stops. “So, why do your eyes hurt again?” I stop twisting my hands. This wasn’t the question I was expecting. I was expecting more along the lines of, “Are you high?”

I respond with, “Whenever I feel a new color on my own eyes it hurts. I’ve been feeling a new color for a few weeks now that’s been bothering me.”

He simply nods and resumes pacing. I close my eyes and let complacency run over me like a waterfall. At this point, I know we’re done. Any friendship, or anything further than that, is completely ruined. Me and my big mouth ruined that for good. So, why should I even care right now? I’ll go home and cry about this later. No sense doing it here.

I open my eyes to find him stopped in the middle of the floor, staring at me. He looks like he wants to ask another question, so I beat him to it, “Go ahead.”

He shoves his hands in his pockets. “What color are my eyes right now?”

I raise my eyebrows a bit, but don’t miss a beat. “Gray, pink and yellow. I expected there to be red in there, but if it is I can’t find it or feel it.”

He scrunches up his nose a bit before asking, “What are those colors for?”

I lean forward a bit before saying, “Gray is for confusion. Pink is for disgust normally, but judging by the situation I’d say it’s being used as frustration right now. Those are interchangeable. Yellow is for curiosity, I’m shocked that one’s in there. And red, the one I was expecting to be in there, is fury or hatred.”

He just stares.

And stares.

I just stare right back at him.

A crack of thunder breaks our staring contest, and I jump. He doesn’t jump, he very mildly turns around, and walks out the front door of The Reader’s Repository.

A tear trickles down my cheek.

I know I won’t see him again, and if I ever do, it’ll never be the same.

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I know it's short guys, sorry. The next chapter is being written, but I didn't want to leave you guys for too long. 

In the meantime: Will Knox ice Rae out?

How do you personally feel about Knox/Rae? 

And lastly, are you liking the story?

Alright, so vote and comment guys! Love you all!

Thanks for reading! :)

~Juliana