A Red Rose and A Silver Sin

1. Freya

College wasn't what I expected.

It was supposed to be this fun, new experience for me to explore the world and take classes I'd enjoy. But, by May, same as every other year before, I found myself sleeping past my alarms and not giving two shits about it.

I hadn't been stupid enough to schedule any morning classes for the last few months of school knowing this would happen, but it still sucked. Knowing I had five hours to waste on nothingness until I had to drag myself from my bed. Nothing I did at this point mattered.

My writing works had been published almost two years ago, the day I turned eighteen, and since then I'd become an accomplished author under a fake name. With three books and countless articles pouring in money every day, the job I used to have had just been for show. College was just for show, and for the inevitable truth that eventually my writing fame would dry up. Prepare for the end, and it will never come - not truly.

Once my writing career ended, I'd pick up a different one. Maybe I'd just make a new false name and start writing under a different genre, then I could continue my career for a hundred years without fail. Such was the mind of a sociopath, intriguing, and yet, dangerous.

By the time I had found the will to peel my eyes open and welcome reality, my alarm had been beeping for, like, a million hours. Groggily staring down at my clock, it read 11:63.

Wait, I thought to myself, slowly sitting up to stare at it. When the hell did 11:63 become a time?

I stared at the thing, the screen flashing bright yellow, until the clock flicked to the next minute. The realization that it was almost noon hit me like a ton of bricks. The weight was so heavy, in fact, that it made me want to slump right back down in bed and dozy off.

But I had forgotten to shut the stupid clock up. Not to mention the fact that my snooze button had broken after I'd slapped it too hard the other day. I grumbled, rising fully from my bed and rubbing the sleep from my eyes with a fist.

The small tattoo I'd gotten there still stung faintly, but it was pretty enough to warrant the pain.

I heard a voice bellow outside my window, screaming, "Come on!"

That was enough to wake me fully, make me realize that this wasn't just another pocket of my dreams. As sad as that fact was, I had to face it, head on.

I groaned as I stood, my back aching despite the fact that I'm barely even twenty. My dumbass had just spent the first nineteen years of my life bent over a computer screen before finding out it could push my spine the wrong direction.

Shoving my feet into a pair of loose sneakers, I slipped on a long hoodie that draped past my shorts. It was warm enough to allow for bare legs, and I had just shoved so I thought the world should get to witness my smooth legs.

Still, the brisk winds flying in through my window forced the hoodie over my shoulders.

Reaching for my earbuds still hanging off my dresser from where I'd left them last night, I sighed in sheer annoyance.

"I swear to god," I mumbled to myself, "you set these things down, and they practically knot themselves."

Finally breaking the thin wires from each other, I plugged them into my phone. Throwing my hood over my messy ponytail, I stepped towards the bathroom. My hair wouldn't be a concern since it would be frizzy and destroyed by the afternoon anyway thanks to the heat.

My morning routine was fast. Teeth, face, pits, leave.

I raked my hands through my copper-streaked hair as I left, eyes following the playlists I shuffled through as I made my way towards the hall. My hair fell in pieces from the ponytail, little bits framing my face as the humidity outside pulled them from their hold.