Yellow - Winrina

- twenty one -

The next few days passed in agony for all four roommates. Karina, however, was taking everything worse than the three other girls. She'd just opened up and allowed herself to be close to Winter, only for the smaller girl to be torn away from her. The impending thought that Winter may end up in jail and never be able to come back home terrified Karina.

In all of her years on earth, Karina had never suffered a loss as great as this one. Sure, she'd lost her great aunt when she was 7 years old, but she didn't remember anything about the woman. Her mother had scolded her for picking flowers at the funeral instead of mourning along with her family, but Karina couldn't bring herself to feel sad over the loss of someone she barely knew.

Now Winter was another story. Karina cared immensely about the younger girl. Granted, she used to hate her. But she found it impossible now, after learning about her. Karina found it impossible to hate anyone once she figured out enough about them. Once she learned someone's true motives, it made it easier for her to sympathize with them.

She'd spent the rest of the weekend in bed. Her roommates would come in and check on her occasionally, but after she lashed out on them multiple times, they decided it was best to give the brown eyed girl her space.

It was only 11 PM on a Sunday night that Karina realized she had classes the next day. Which meant she was supposed to turn in another one of her independent art projects. After considering skipping class, Karina was eventually able to pry herself out of bed.

She flicked on the lights in her bedroom and searched her backpack for her materials. Her eyes scanned over the colors of paint she had to choose from, grimacing at all the bright vivid colors she'd brought home. Eventually, she shoved all but two tubes of paint back into her bag.

Using the black and white paints, she mixed a variety of grays in her palette. Gray. Because without Winter, everything seemed to lose it's color. Bright colors only reminded her of what she could possibly lose.

She began to search in her closet for a canvas, swearing that she had one stashed away somewhere. Her heart stopped when she found what she had been looking for. It looked a bit different than she'd expected, though.

Instead of finding a blank white canvas, Karina found a plain white canvas - covered in Winter's childish scribbles. She must have done this the morning she had colored in her sketchbook, as well.

Feeling tears welling in her eyes, Karina slammed the painting down on her easel and began to blindly slather paint over the colorful drawings, wanting to get them out of her sight as quick as possible.

A few minutes and a fit of tears later, Karina looked down at her palette only to realize she'd used up all of her paint. Glancing back up at the canvas, she bit her lip when she realized just how thickly she'd layered the colors. Paint was dripping down the canvas, down the easel, and leaving small specks on the floor.

Growing increasingly frustrated with herself, Karina threw her paintbrush down and groaned. She trudged back over to her bed and crawled under the covers, curling up in the same spot where she'd spent the entire weekend.

There was knock at the door a few minutes later. When Karina didn't acknowledge it, Giselle let herself into the room. She raised an eyebrow at the painting before walking over and sitting on the edge of the bed.

"How're you feeling?"

Karina sighed, sitting up and wiping her eyes. "Why can't we just go... I don't know, fucking steal her back and leave the country?"

"Cause then we'd all end up in jail, dumbass," Giselle laughed softly. "It's getting late..."

"I know," Karina glanced at the clock. "I have class tomorrow."