Purple.

It had been her favourite colour when she was younger.

The small blonde would beg her mother for the purple flower bobbles to tie into her hair, she'd parade them around the primary school playground to show all her friends.

Into later life she'd leaned away from purple, favouring black and white as most teenage's did at that age. Roll her eyes at the coloured clothes her mother would buy her in favour of black eyeliner and box hair dye.

But something about the colour stayed in her mind and now, in her early twenties, she had learned to love it again.

Sure, she hated the purple of a mixed slushie, or the darkness of a late-night neon sign.

But this is a kind of purple she loved, one she would hold close to her, one she wishes on all the stars she'd never forget.

"Oh" he spoke, eyebrows furrowed, "it actually worked" he let out a laugh, one she'd become so familiar with.

Astrid had to laugh too, tongue still poking out of her mouth as she pointed it at him.

"Wait, actually?"

George nodded, poking his tongue out at her too, showing the colour there.

Only minutes ago had his tongue been blue, stained by the empty plastic cup on the table - water ring embedded.

Now, however, his tongue was dark. Not quite purple, but near enough.

"How can you even tell?" She smiled, looking between his eyes, his tongue still out.

"Just looks different to before," he told her, she didn't quite trust the colourblind boy, "darker, I'm guessing that's purple"

"Near enough," she smiled, pulling up her phone and taking a photo before he could react. But once he did, she only laugh.

"Astrid!" He let out, rolling his eyes.

"What?"

"Don't you dare show anybody that"

It was said with a laugh, but she couldn't join in.

'Who would I show?'

She wanted to ask.

'Who could I show?'

There was a time in their relationship that she only dreamed of being able to tell people, to go home and gush to Sophie and Niki about him all night.

To scroll through her photo album and show them every photo she found of the bright-eyed boy. The photo of him in a face mask, of him dribbling in his sleep, of him in new clothes he'd asked her opinion on.

All photos that held so many memories that only the two of them would ever know.

It was nice, to know they had something special, but it was also heartbreaking to know something that meant the world to her would never be known.

She'd spent plenty of nights with tears soaking her pillow, thinking of when this would stop.

When the world would keep moving but hers would stop, and nobody would know why.

Her eyes caught his, those dark eyes that had stared into hers so many times.

But now was different, somehow.

George had always seen her, always known her.

But now he seemed to really be looking, like he saw into her soul.

"You alright?"

It was quiet, a murmur at best; like he knew the answer before he even asked.

"Yeah," she nodded, forcing a smile on her face.

They didn't have much time together, she didn't want to shorten that time even more by bringing the mood down. She could wait till she got home to be upset, right now was not the time or the place.

"I'm fine, come here" she laid back on his couch, her arms around his shoulders as he followed.

"You sure"

Her eyes flickered to his lips but his stayed on her.

"I'm sure"

Her fingers ran through the back of his hair, trailing his nape in a way she knew he liked. But he wasn't easily distracted.

"What's wrong?"

He was close, lips almost touching hers as he spoke.

Astrid pulled him closer, their lips intertwining.

Everything stopped when they were like this, hyperaware of the hands on her waist, of his thigh in between her legs, of his tongue slowly making its way into her mouth.

It had always been a worry of hers, how their ending would come.

A question of when rather than if.

It used to bother her, not being able to parade him around like the purple she loved so much.

Then the doubt left, she was satisfied with their special moments, convincing herself that it was everything she needed; that there were better ways to do this. They lived in their clear black and white.

But there was purple on the horizon, not quite close enough to scare her, but slowly rising.

And she'd have to deal with it eventually, maybe sooner than either of them realised.

——————

Written: 19th November 2022

Published: 19th December 2022

Okie I still have a few more assignments to do but not till January, they are big tho so might not be a lot of updates till the end of January.

Btw MCC chapter coming up, I don't watch MCC tho so expect a summary of it hehe