The Colours of Us

Chapter 10

Friday 27th of October 2023

It was surprisingly hard to get to know Sloan. He was a very secretive person and even as he helped me move out of this god forsaken apartment I had loathed, he didn't talk much about himself. So when I was finally settled in my new apartment, alone and freed from my brother's wrath, all I could think about was how little I knew Sloan.

"Say, what's your favourite colour?" I asked, playing with the ruffles of a blanket.

He raised an eyebrow and smirked, "Why do you wanna know? Planning on giving me something?"

My virginity? I thought, though I didn't dare to say anything.

"Hey, I was joking," he said, grabbing onto my knee.

I chuckled and smiled, "It's okay, don't worry."

"My favourite colour is green," he smiled. "What about yours?"

"Yellow. What's your favourite movie?"

"That's a hard one," he said, leaning back on his hands. He was sitting on the ground as I was sitting on a bean bag, one of the only things I had been able to offer myself after moving out. My parents did pay the rent, just like they did for my brother, but they refused to pay for furniture. "I don't think I have a favourite movie, but horror movies in general are a nice scare. I also like action."

"That's a very vague answer."

"I guess if I had to choose I would say 'It'," he answered with a smile.

"Urg, I hate this movie. I hate clowns."

"I don't understand why. Pennywise is very nice."

I stuck out my tongue, making him laugh.

"What's your favourite movie?" he asked with a smile.

"Probably something classic, like 'The Avengers'."

The more time passed, the easier it was to talk to Sloan Joakim as if he was my friend. He had seen the worst of me, twice even, and was still here. He was the only person I could talk to without feeling judged or without being sarcastically mean. It felt nice to be able to talk to someone without needing to mask every little parcel of me that they wouldn't like, because I was sure Sloan wouldn't mind if I was strange sometimes.

"Should we watch them?" he asked with the brightest smile I had even seen.

"Watch what?" I frowned.

"'The Avengers'."

"Alright," I shrugged.

We both sat on the ground, my laptop on his knees and watched the first movie, though I could not understand a single word that was being said as my heart was beating in my ears. Sloan was resting his head on my shoulder by the end of the movie, and we were both holding onto each other's hands.

We stayed like that for a long moment after the movie was done, until Sloan decided to break the silence, "Char."

"Yes?"

"You never told me why Ugo was beating you up in that alleyway."

I tensed and sighed, "Because he wanted to know who I liked."

"You like someone?" he asked as if it was the most important information of this conversation.

"I do," I said looking down at our intertwined fingers.

He suddenly released my hand and moved back, "I am so sorry, I didn't know."

He looked around as if panicked, grabbed onto his jacket and stood, almost slamming my laptop on the ground as he did so. "I should go. Come to the Halloween party on tuesday!" he exclaimed before slamming the door shut behind him.