Color Of Love

Chapter One

Color of love

Chapter One

Sonny (MALE PROTAGONIST)

I'm hungry. Okay, that's a mild statement, I'm famished. Unlike Robert who keeps picking up random junk without a care in the universe, I am a little reluctant given the dust on the shelves of this junk grocery store.

I run a finger collecting dust seamlessly and go on to rub it in between my index and my thumb finger. Not to sound like a prick which everyone ends up assuming I am, it's not just the state of this junk store that has got me on the irk side of things, it's the flipping red dust, the 'Welcome to Coverton' signpost smudged and rusted halfway, that one dead robot next to Percy's diner, the empty pool at school and can someone answer the phone when I call the council about the enormous lorry I have seen left on the side of the road. I have had the displeasure of seeing it on my way home since I arrived in this town.

I am officially in junk land complete with an idiot as a cousin.

I keep praying he does not do that thing he does before we get to the counter that is- opening a packet. I can just tell he is going to do it; at least he has the decency to give me a nod as a heads up while holding up the Doritos. And we off to the second get-on-my-nerves habit, Robert loves to selectively and completely ignore my existence before he tucks the open packet under his arm. At least the dust mites will find comfort under his armpits.

To think Robert's armpits and dust mites are my last thoughts as I turn to see three armed robbers in scathing masks ambush the entrance. My life practically flashes before my eyes.

"You know the drill! Everybody down on the ground, now!! "

It must be the nerves I only heard the "down!" part and the rest of the words came back to me a second later.

Robert and I simultaneously hit the ground.

"Shit!"

All the trans-fat he was carrying now lays spluttered across the floor. There is screaming and yelling from other customers I was oblivious to all this time. It's a surreal, 'WTF is going on!' moment. Robert's eyes could not have said it any louder.

"Everybody down! Nobody moves! You move - you die!"

I am stuck frozen on the floor, hands on my head, trading stares with Robert, stares that are major hints of panic.

"We are going to die" His stare encapsulating major hints of panic says.

"Probably not -there are about six people before they get to us. That would be considered a blood bath and even thieves do not like that, it is gross, or do they?"

His eyes: obviously.

Me/My eyes: I think I have got an app for this sort of thing.

"Do not even think about it!!" It is like both Robert's stare and the girl... girl? Girl slash robber's voice go in sync. Turns out the shop keeper wanted to play hero by pressing a panic button to no avail.

Robert and I both sigh... for a moment there...

I am full-on breathing the dust now on the ground without a care in the world.

"There is a girl?" this time I whisper (no stare-talk).

"Yeah -" Robert's response is nonchalant. It is like he is just waiting for the whole thing to end as for me I am hooked to that tiny bit of fact like a drug plus they are just three of them what could they possibly do to me?-the idea is creeping in the foyers of my mind- 'Shoot you' -I reply myself.

"I know her."

This changes everything - "What?"

"We learn together at the same school," Robert says it like it is some bonus point, like we are the coolest people alive for knowing this information. I am shaking my head like I have just experienced a schizophrenic attack at the same time treading on broken glass hoping we do not get caught during this discussion.

"How do you even know... you mean the same school I just got enrolled into a few days ago?"

"Welcome to Coverton high and you enrolled two weeks ago."

Buying some time, the robbers continue with their threats, waving their guns at everyone in the store as they make a head for the exit.

"Kiss the ground! Stay on the damn ground!"

And just like that - they are gone. I can even hear the screeching of the car wheels as they take off at full speed.

One by one customers start rising from the ground, shaken by the incident but relieved to still be alive.

Robert and I are busy dusting off our clothes when this dude in a security guards uniform budges out of a room opposite where we are standing, he has a gun held up but he is waving it like a toy, zero control.

"Freeze! Freeze!"

I should be taken by this gesture but his entire demeanor screams opportunist and coward. At some point he gives up waving at the invisible robbers. "Is everyone okay?"

We ignore him and proceed to dust off our jeans.

Just when I am about to take my first relaxed breath, the entrance is ambushed again with more gun holding and waving people. I am in mock awe.

"It is the police! Hands where we can see them!!"

"Really?" Robert mutters my annoyance, our hands over our heads... however he decides to push the envelope..., "Too late pigs!"

Robert's sarcastic retorts and plain rudeness 'too late pigs' had one of the officers asking him for his student I.D, and he was let go with a firm warning. After questioning, he returns the I.D in his wallet as we join the living in the broad daylight heading for the parking lot.

"Honestly, I do not understand why you are mad at me?"

"Well..." I put on my shades. "First of all I am not mad at you- I am pissed." and still so f**king hungry. I lead the way, my chest held up, and full of supporting points about this disaster. "That was your voice on the other end of the line. You misled me into thinking I was moving into a better town, a better school than Stanley prep and now here I am being robbed by my classmate... is not that just a great transition."

He dares to laugh.

"Dude, you are being waaaaay too sensitive. This is a healthy, well functioning town which means people get robbed, sometimes."

"Wow hey..." I make a turn towards my car, happy that we came in separate cars or else that would have been one horrible ride sponsored by my perfectly perfected-for-years silent treatment.

"Don't let me stop you from proving my point." I open the door and remember the obvious- "And-and the girl?" I face him confrontationally, "You didn't even say a whiff about her to the police. What was that about, where you protecting her?"

I raise my finger to him in a bid to warn him, "I swear the heavens forgive me if you say you didn't report this inhumanity because of the 'H' word."

I give him a minute better yet two.

He sighs, donning some desperate look.

"Of course Kelly Martins is hot."

"I knew it."

"In her- own rebellious-I-don't-give-a-rat's-ass type of way but I promise you, Sonny, Coverton high is different like that. It is just that you are new and you have no idea how these things go. It is what it is."

If that even makes sense.

"In as far as I'm concerned this discussion is done. Drive safe." I nod to his car next to mine. "And in case of an emergency, call someone else. You know how these things go. It is what it is."

I drive off like I am in the robber's getaway car.