Painting the House Red

Chapter 1: A Tale of Four Friends

I laughed and punched Charity on the shoulder.

"You're so weird!" I laughed. She had been trying to balance as many pieces of popcorn on her face as she could and was utterly failing.

"Let me try, let me try!" Cate exclaimed, grabbing the bowl away from Charity excitedly. She didn't get very far before Paige groaned and pushed them both of the couch so she could lie down where they had been sitting.

"Okay, that's enough. Are we going to watch this movie or what?" She clicked the remote at the TV and started the movie. Charity hopped up and shut off the lights. We we were watching A Tale of Two Sisters, a horror movie, and Cate and Charity had been goofing off all evening. The movie started and we all squealed, squishing together on the couch once Paige let the two trouble makers back on. The movie was great and there were times when the jump scares even got me, the biggest horror fanatic of the group. Afterwards we all moved our cozy nest back to my room and settled in for the night. Since it was a Friday and none of us had plans for tomorrow, we decided to regroup and have a long awaited Girls' Night. It was just a few weeks ago that we had decided to move in together. We were all just out of college (or not planning to attend) and still single, so the company was nice and cost effective. We had two bedrooms but more often than not we slept in just one. Paige and I being the oldest and pretty much in charge, had the master bedroom. Cate and Charity, the two younger girls, shared the spare. They were the closest so neither of them had spent the night of the couch in the small amount of time we had been here, unlike me and Paige. It wasn't unusual for someone to wake up and almost sit on one of us. But tonight, we were all together and it felt like when we were teenagers having a sleepover.

"So Dabria, meet any cute new coworkers yet?" Charity asked, her long Panamanian hair falling all over the place. I shook my head.

"No, stop, Charity. I told you I'm not looking for a relationship. I have my career to work on right now." Then, Paige, ever the practical one, chimed in.

"And your health! You've been having headaches recently, so don't disregard that." I nodded grimly, reminding myself of the issues I had been having recently. I tried to ignore the memories of dizzy spells and piercing headaches flooding back to me.

"Yeah, yeah, you all know I have a doctor's appointment scheduled for next week anyway." Cate, who had gone into the other room to get her mattress, yanked it through the door with a grin gracing her sparkly blue eyes.

"Yeah, cut her some slack! She can't really do anything until the doctor diagnoses her or whatever." She plopped onto the mattress and Charity joined her. The pair were truly odd together because they were just so different. Cate had fair skin and light hair, while Charity, having immigrated from Panama when she was little, was dark. Cate was built delicately while Charity had thicker curves. I glanced across the room at the mirror and looked at myself sitting next to Paige on the bed. I had thin, black hair that waved gently down over my shoulders, to around my lower back, where it was cut off. My skin was light and my eyes were a light hazel that tended to take on a reddish appearance in certain lights. Paige was the most average of us all, seeming to be a mix of multiple European ethnicities. She had tanned skin from working in a greenhouse for three years as a teen and her eyes were a golden brown. Her hair was cut to a practical medium length (even though it was layered), and pulled up into a messy, splayed out ponytail. The most shocking thing about her appearance, on the other hand, was the bright red streaks and tips running through her long bangs on either side of her face. She was normally the practical and organized one in the group, but that was her rebellious side showing through. If you ask her she'll say it was her one form of teenage rebellion or that she only did it on a dare, but considering that she's maintained it for two plus years you can tell she secretly likes it.

I had always enjoyed the diversity of our group, color and personality wise. Cate was the sweet one, Paige was the reasonable one, and Charity was the spicy one. I thought for a moment about what "type" I was, but couldn't come up with a one wor example. I guess you could peg me as the leader type, but it still doesn't feel like a fit.

Charity and Cate had settled in, and so had Paige, so we decided it would be best to sleep then. Cate and Charity dropped off immediately, but Paige and I whispered for a couple more minutes before we succumbed to sweet sleep.