Iridescent ¤ Millard Nullings

¤ 6 ¤

Everyone can pair a color scheme to someone. There's different aesthetics people try for and simply are. Everyone has an aura, a color of their soul that only a select few can pick out. There's millions of colors, millions of people, and millions of distinguishing features in a human.

Little girls are a sunny yellow, dead-beat alcoholics could be described as black, and the melancholic people in the world are a stormy shade of blue.

Melaina was just as her peculiarity. She was as soft and blushing as a pastel pink. Her flaming hair brushed over pale shoulders as her fingertips brushed over a field of red tulips. Her laugh was bright and bubbling and she always turned toward the sun as a proud sunflower. There was never a day she didn't go barefoot across the green grass and into the mossy forest, sensual and aware of all living things. Her head was clear and calm like the streams she would sit by at the end of the evening. A lilac halo surrounded her head and illuminated her beauty to all who looked for it.

She was the rainbow and a joy to everyone who saw her. She was undeniably diverse, exuding her beautiful soul to everyone. She never wished pain upon anyone. Laina was one of those people you could have a passionate, late-night conversation with. She could never make anyone doubt themselves. Her heart just bled out onto whoever she met.

Millard found himself watching her from afar, even when he wasn't trying to. He had began watching her, as creepy as it sounds, to find out what kind of person she was. Because even a beautiful face can be a rotting shell of a human. But she was kind and had a nonchalant attitude about her. She seemed like a soft summer breeze that blew late in the evening, when everything seemed perfect.

He truthfully hadn't ever felt anything for a girl. Sure, he had seen the ladies on the front of magazines and thought they were pretty. But they were just a 2D figure staring back at him, and they had nothing for him. Millard was too into his studies of Cairnholm and history to bother with girls. He was stuck in his never ending world, so there wasn't a point anyway. But Melaina had changed his mind, suddenly he couldn't get her off his mind.

"Mill, buddy, did you even hear me?" Hugh asked him, snapping his fingers before his friends face.

"Hmm? Yeah, I heard you. I just don't want to respond to someone who asks whether donkeys or mules are better."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it."

Everyone had seen a change in Millard. He was out of the house more, off of his studies more, and even more quiet. Everyone had also tied this difference to the arrival of Laina.

"Well to answer your question, they are both nearly the same, but a mule is more of a powerhouse than the dim-witted donkey."

Hugh huffed and walked away, joining a beckoning Fiona at the edge of the garden. Millard watched as Hugh leaned in to kiss Fiona's cheek, hands intertwined with her dirty ones. His bees escaped his mouth and went to work with her flowers. It was always amazing to Millard how perfect for each other the pair were. How they could have possibly been linked together on this tiny little island, out of a whole world of space and people is something unheard of. Their little wonder made Millard wonder if destiny is true.

But he thought destiny couldn't ever give him a chance. Not to say himself to be a coward, but Hugh is more of a stand up guy than Millard, in Millard's eyes. Hugh was always willing to give a hand, always great with new peculiars, amazing with the younger girls, and is just all around a brilliant man. Even if Millard thought he lacks a brain most of the time. Fiona is just the same, naturally talented and kind, yet lacking in communication.

Millard could only hope to better himself in that way, in his non-progressing world. He wouldn't know how it feels to love someone, especially after living in his home with the same people for so many years. There's no doubt about it, he was always truthfully himself. Yet he didn't know if someone could truthfully want himself.

He figured pining after Laina would be pointless. All the peculiars were drawn to her immediately, even Enoch. And perhaps it was because she was new, or perhaps it was because she was useful to all of their peculiarities.

After Hugh and Fiona were hidden by the large flowers, Millard turned his head away, lost in thought. A strange feeling boiled up inside of him when he watched Laina and Enoch walk out of the forest together. Her emerald dress swished above her knees, showing her long, pale legs. She was laughing, and Enoch held a small smile, something that was different for the stormy boy. Millard, who had ditched his clothing in an effort to not be found during hide and seek, questioned within himself whether or not he should snoop in their conversation. With anyone else in the house, he normally would have without giving a second thought, but watching her, he decided not to. He always knew it was morally wrong, but he never gave a care with the people he had lived with for so long. He wanted to find things about about her when he was talking to her. He wanted to be personal with her.

¤¤¤

Later that evening, after the bombs had fallen and the stars had been set out on display, Laina had gone for her normal walk.

"Would you care if I joined you? There's always something I could gather for my studies." Millard asked, trying to hide the nervous tremble in his voice. Her hair was plaited in two long braids cascading down her chest, leaving a few wispy hairs in her doe-ish, green eyes.

"If it is for your studies, I suppose you may come along." She said with a smile. He was careful not to miss the rosey blush that came and went quickly.

They strolled along the edge of the garden, just as she would every day on her way to something to explore. Against the hues of the dark sky, the vibrant yellows and pinks hardly matched the light of the stars.

Laina noticed that the sky was so eccentric in this new world. She had come here to lose the smog, something that stood out in the large American cities. The sky was absolutely filled with brushstrokes of glitter, the clouds reflecting so nicely off of the light of the moon. This was simply the blissful world she had traveled all over American mountains to find. She had it at the cost of time and a natural life.

"How does it feel when you change your colors?" He didn't know what was going on in the girls mind, but he was curious enough to interrupt it.

Her chin fell from gazing at the sky, and she smiled. "My mood is definitely effected by whatever it is I'm touching. Red makes me feel angry or rushed, blue is mellow and calming. Grey makes me feel spacey because of air. Black is an awful feeling of power and darkness."

Millard tilted his head in thought, wondering her feelings of invisibility, when he just feels like it all the time. "Well, you certainly are peculiar."

Laina laughed as she stooped to swipe a daisy from the beginning of the forest floor, winding it into one of her ginger braids. "I suppose that is everyone's title here, isn't it? I am just not as skilled in one area. I actually prefer to stay away from the deadlier colors."

"Why's that? I think I know of plenty of people who would have a blast with fire."

"Well, I wouldn't want to go as far as burning someone's favorite sweater," she winked, folding her hands behind her back. "Which, by the way, I did repair, and it is sitting on my desk."

The pair fell in their usual silence. They both had brilliant minds, always swarming with question, answers, and interests. They, however, didn't feel they knew each other well enough to even talk of the monumental things in life.

"Do you like Enoch?" Millard didn't know which way she would take it, as in friends or romantically. He didn't quite care; a thought was a thought

"He's not all that bad. He is cute." She said, and he felt his chest constrict. Laina was confused by him randomly putting it in the conversation, but wouldn't ever avoid what she thought.

"But sometimes," She continued. "I like to look for things you cannot see."

And she said it with such a gleam in her eyes, that it confused the analytical and calculating boy. It was a simple statement, but her face said so many different things that it was undetermined what she was actually talking about. But he could say that he was indeed something you cannot see, and he could only wish she was talking about him.

A colorless boy longing for a colorful girl.