Seeing in Color

Ten

Magnus

I wasn't faking the cough. It hurt to even breathe, so I decided to lay down in bed and try to doze off.

At least I get to skip school.

I kind of felt bad about it, though. I knew I wasn't the only relative Annabeth had: her mom had another kid with her second husband, and I knew he was in my grade. But Annabeth still wanted me around when she returned to the school her father was the principle of. They had a falling out a few months ago, which is why she moved in with me and my mom.

Reaching over and grabbing my dark green phone, I pulled my sheets up to my chin and turned on the screen. I clicked my Instagram app and flipped through what my friends were posting.

My friend Blitzen had tagged me in a mirror selfie of him wearing a new shirt he had designed. Hearthstone posted a clip of him signing "Goodbye, losers." in front of the high school. A picture popped up of Samirah Al-Abas posing with a kid I had seen so many times at school, and my heart skipped a beat at the sight of him.

Alex Fierro. The most ruthless, most aggressive kid at school. He had recently come out as transgender and gender fluid, but he still looked amazing as a girl.

Today Alex seemed female, though I didn't like assuming anymore. I guessed she was a she because she was wearing a tight pink shirt that read 'GRL PWR' and ripped green skinny jeans. She was glaring at the camera and chewing on a pencil like a cigarette. Her black pixie was so dark in the shadow of the school that it looked like a patch of darkness over of the darkest mind I know. She was wearing a lot of makeup and a pair of pink-tinted round glasses, though I was sure she wasn't nearsighted nor farsighted. She was leaning against the brick wall of the school with a look of boredom on her face. With her tight clothes and impressive makeup, she looked so different than her best friend.

Samirah was rolling her eyes from behind a matching pair of green-tinted round glasses, wearing her deep green hijab, a tan long-sleeved shirt, and khaki pants with a neat bow where a button and zipper would have been. She was sticking out her tongue at the camera and holding her black purse at her side, sitting on the steps of the school.

The two were so different in so many ways, but they were also the most feared pair at school, even more so than Drew Tanaka and her boyfriend Colby Preston. At least they were nicer than the 'power couple' of the school, as the nasty boyfriend and girlfriend made everyone call them.

Curious about how Alex's summer was, I clicked on her profile and browsed through her posts. Most were of her advertising painted pottery and some clips of her making them. A couple were an aesthetic picture of her flipping off the camera and a photo of her covering her face with a beautiful pale green rose and closing her eyes, with soft glitter under her eyes. She was absolutely gorgeous, but she always covered her face unless it she was with another person. She wasn't flashy or attention-seeking like the majority of the school. She was perfect.

And I was hopelessly crushing for someone who didn't know I existed.

I sighed and switched to my cousin's profile. She mostly posted quotes from her favorite books or pictures of owls, but a few were of her mirror selfies of her signature messy buns. With a pang of sadness, I stopped scrolling at a picture she posted in the summer.

The date was Annabeth's birthday, and it was a selfie of her, me, and my mother. We were all making silly faces at the camera, standing in front of the Ferris wheel at the local summer festival. Annabeth was sticking out her tongue to the side and winking, and I was yelling at the camera with my eyes half-open and my tongue blue from the cotton candy. My mother was holding a stuffed wolf and hugging both of us with a big smile on her face.