Chapter Twelve: Days In Color// Pink Branches and The Color Brown 

"What'cha coloring?"

I dropped my color pencil and pushed my hair back, peering up through the branches above me.

"Oof!"

He landed on his feet with a thump beside me.

Lyon. He had black sunglasses covering his eyes. Dark red glass sat in the frames, making it hard to see his eyes.

I raised my eyebrows and glanced down at the page.

"A bird."

He folded himself down across from me and crossed his legs, holding his ankles with both of his hands. "Can I join?"

I gave a tight smile. Aye. I have company. Oh joy.

"Sure."

I handed him another page from my coloring book and went back to my own, pushing the pencils where he could reach them.

We sat in silence for a while as I worked on shading in the leaves, highlighting different parts with gold to show sunlight. Shadows under the leaves and birds. More than one shade of brown. Nothing is just brown. It's dark, and earthy. Or light and soft. Or greenish brown and sludgy. Mud.

I watched Lyon intently working on his own page.

"Aren't you going to ask why I'm coloring behind the bushes like a little kid?"

"No," he murmured, not looking up. "Why would I do that?"

"...Because coloring is for kids, and we're seventeen?"

"Mm..."

I peeked over at his drawing. A bird about to fly off from a branch.

"Why is your branch pink?" I squinted. "And the leaves..."

He froze and looked up, his jaw set. "Because I want it to be, that's why."

"Yeesh, okay." I curled up and went back to my own work. "Just a question."

"I can't tell the difference."

I almost didn't hear him.

"Wait, what?"

"...I can't." He knitted his brow slightly. "I'm colorblind."

"Eh?" The guilt was setting in. "Oh...I'm sorry. But wait." I pushed my books off my lap and leaned forward. "...Like, red-green colorblind? Because my cousin has that. But he's a moron, so..."

He kept his head down, moving a blue color pencil swiftly across the paper.

"Hey." I crawled forward. "Are you listening?"

"...Hmm."

"Tch." I hit his knee. "Don't ignore me after saying something like that!"

He jerked his head up. His hair brushed against the tip of my nose and I yelped, falling backwards onto my elbows.

"Good God, dude...give some warning, won't you?" I turned on one elbow and brushed the pieces of grass and dirt from my palm.

"Oh. Sorry." He rubbed his eyes, his glasses skewing off to the side over his hands.

I looked at him from my spot on the floor. I mean, really looked at him.

"Oi, what're you doing with your eyes?"

His eyes widened and he looked away, blinking.

"No, wait." I sat up and ducked my head trying to see them again. "Hold still."

His face tinged pink as he turned the other direction before slowly turning back, his eyes traveling back up to meet mine.

"Wait...stop." I watched his eyes move, pressing my hands down on top of his as I leaned forward to keep him from moving away again. His brown eyes bored into my own as I followed their nervous movements from side to side. Right, left, right, more right, left, right, left, more left, and back again.

"Aye, you nervous?"

He blinked and slid his hands away from mine, pushing himself backwards. "No."

I raised an eyebrow. "...Then?"

"It's a friggin' disorder. Jeez."

I jerked my head back, heart growing cold. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"To what?" He frowned. "To point out everything wrong with me?"

I laughed and he glared at me.

"Sorry. No no. Pshh." I waved my hand. "If that's all that's wrong with you, you're okay."

"Stop."

"No, I mean it. Take it from a bonafide failure." I scooted closer again, staring at his eyes again. "They're... pretty. "

"You're just saying that."

I smiled, shaking my head. "No! They're different, yeah. But that isn't a bad thing."

Then I got quiet. "...Your eyes are pretty."

His lips twitched and my face heated up. "Thanks."

I looked down, blushing furiously. How-awkward-can-I-get episode #6782. Another point against me. He slid his sunglasses back on.

"Hey."

"Hmm?" Biting my lip, I looked up from running my fingers over the edge of a glass blade.

"What color is a tree, then?"

My eyes widened watching him stare down at his paper.

"Er..well..it's uh, brown. And the leaves are green."

He stared at me blankly.

I shook my head. "Oh that's right," I said,biting my lip as I tried to find another way to explain it. "Umm...brown..it's like...they're different shades, you know. Like, the tree bark is different from your eyes. But they're both brown."

He squinted.

I searched around me frantically. "Umm...wait. Wait. There must be another way to explain it. Hold on."

I pointed to the tree three feet away from us. "You see that? It's bark? It's brown like...like the smell of dirt. You know what dirt smells like after the rain? It's like that."

I rubbed my nose with the back of my hand, trying to stop the slight itch. "But your eyes..."

I pulled out my chocolate bar and broke it in half, slipping one part into his hand. "At least, that's what books say. Dark brown eyes are like chocolate."

He inspected the bar of chocolate before biting off a piece. "And what do you think they look like?"

"I..." I shrugged. "They look like chocolate, I guess."

The bell rang and I got up, dusting myself off and picking up my books. "I'll see you around. Gotta go."

***************

A/N: We continue to see more of this new boy, Lyon! What do you think is up with him? (Yes, it's a real eye condition. Can you name it? )

 In order to avoid confusion, the stories are kind of broken up. We're not done with Noel, far from it. But you may notice his presence isn't as prevalent in this part of the book. This story has three "levels", or time frames, all held within each other. We went from Present Day back to Noel's college days on the rooftops, and now we're going further into the past to where Cecilia's story lies. We'll jump around a bit, but you'll notice that overall, we've finally arrived at the last "level" (time-frame) and we need to make our way back up again. I hope it isn't too confusing. 

Happy Thursday! <3 

-Autumn