Shades of Blue (ONC 2024)

Part 7

I really don't believe I've ever been in love before.

I think the closest to it was last year when I was a junior. There was a girl who was a year older than me at my school that I started hooking up with, Helena LeRay, and I found myself being really into her.

Of course, it never went anywhere. Helena was going off to college, and I knew that I was in no place to actually have a relationship with anyone, even if I was really into her. I wanted my freedom, and to not have to commit to anyone.

I found that going out the window with Lexa.

There wasn't a moment where I didn't want to be around her, and I found myself not even wanting to think about going to college and being apart from her.

As the weeks went by, it seemed like we couldn't stay apart from each other. I was learning more and more about how she was as a person, and that she was much more sensitive and sweeter than she ever led on.

Lexa was attentive. She remembered small details about me that I thought she maybe wasn't even paying attention to when we would talk.

I still hadn't learned much more about her, and the fact that she wasn't human. That was a fact that my mind never glossed over, but sometimes it was easy for me to forget about it, as we never spoke about it much.

I wasn't going to press it. Though I wanted to know more.

I wanted to know everything there was to know about Lexa Pierce.

One Friday in early March, we were spending time in her dorm room together. We hadn't even had sex, we were simply just spending time together.

We were sitting next to each other on her bed, doing homework. We were close enough to each other that our knees were touching.

I found myself looking over at her. She was heavily concentrating on the assignment we were doing for English. Something that I learned about Lexa was that school didn't come very easily to her. She had to study a lot to even pass some exams, exams which I had to barely study for.

I glanced over at Lexa, and per usual, admired how pretty I thought she was. Her shiny blue hair was hanging over her face, and I gently tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear.

She turned to me and grinned, "Thanks. I hardly even realized my hair was hanging in my face so much."

I looked at her hair, which was always a reminder of the fact that she wasn't human, and that was her real hair color.

"Does everyone have blue hair where you're from?" I asked her.

I immediately saw her body tense up, so I added, "You don't have to tell me. It's okay."

Her shoulders relaxed a bit and she said, "Yes. Everyone has blue hair. Different shades of blue. My younger brother, Archer, has light blue hair. His hair is really cool, honestly. I've always been jealous of it. It's like an icy blue shade."

"Do you have any pictures of your family?" I asked Lexa, not sure if I was bordering on territory that I shouldn't be.

To my surprise, she nodded and grabbed her phone off the bed next to her. She went to her camera roll and pulled up a picture of her family.

"We were in Alaska here," she said, showing me, "We visited last year."

There were three things about the photo that caught my eye. First, Archer's hair. Lexa was right, it was a stunning, eye-catching shade of blue. Second, was that Lexa looked a whole lot like her mom. They had the same smile and very similar features.

The third part of the photo that I noticed was that her dad didn't have blue hair. His hair was very dark...but not blue.

"Your dad...his hair isn't blue," I said, "Unless it's a darker blue than yours and I just can't tell from the photo?"

"No, his hair is dark brown," Lexa looked at me, "That's because he's human. My mom, was one of the first to come here from Atlantica years ago, and she wasn't meant to actually stay. But she fell in love with my dad. That's why she, and my family, are not welcome back on Atlantica."

"So you can never go visit where you're originally from?"

Lexa shook her head, "Nope. But honestly, I don't even really want to. Why would I want to go somewhere that I'm not welcomed, just because my mom fell in love with a human? I mean, it's starting to look that way for me too, so..."

Lexa immediately stopped, as if she realized what she just said, and I felt my heart skip a beat and my face heat up.

"Um, I didn't-" Lexa started to say, but I interrupted her.

"I feel the same, Lexa," I said to her, and she looked at me, her eyes full of relief.

She chuckled, "If you would have asked me when I first moved here if I would find someone that I fell for, that would have been a hard 'fuck no'."

I smiled softly at Lexa, "Funny how things work out, huh?"

She smiled back and put her hand on mine, "Yeah, it is. I'm glad it worked out this way."

"As am I."

Lexa looked thoughtful as she then asked me, "So...do you think you'd want to try and make this work when we're both in college? I know that we likely aren't going to the same University, but I really don't want us to not talk...or not be together."

"Of course, I want to try and make this work while we're both in college," I reassured Lexa, "Maybe we can try to go to college not far from each other?"

Lexa nodded and then said, "Annabelle Camp, what are you doing to me? I thought that in college I would be hooking up with girl after girl. Now, I can't even think of doing that. You're the only one that I want. That doesn't even sound appealing."

I smiled at Lexa and said, "You're telling me. I don't even want college to be a free-for-all  anymore. I just want you."

I looked right into Lexa's eyes, which were still the prettiest I had ever seen. I could get lost in them forever.

"I just want you, and you only."

"I just want you to promise me one thing."

"What's that?" Lexa asked, rubbing her thumb gently on my hand.

"You'll open up to me more about yourself. I want to know more about you and where you're from."

"I promise I'll open up to you more. It's just difficult, that's all."

"A promise that you will is all I need for now."

Lexa chuckled and looked up at me, "Deal."

I wonder what else I'm going to find out?