Red

Red

It was the start of the new school year and I just got started on my new job in the bookstore near the university, it wasn't like I took the job because it was near the uni so that I could go there easily, no because I didn't go to university at least not anymore. I was a 19 year old university dropout. The subject I was studying, math, just wasn't cut out for me so I dropped out in the middle of the year.

Because I dropped out, had nothing to do and was so short on money that I had to go on rations, I started looking for a job. Preferably a nice and easy one that paid decently, so I could pay the rent and have a normal dinner for once. I started searching in the neighbourhood but none of the shops, even the ones where I didn't really wanted to work, needed any help so I kind of despaired a little. That was until I found a very small old looking bookshop which had a sign up saying 'Looking for help' so I went inside applied and, without an interview or anything like that, I was hired.

Usually there was only me and the usual one or two customers in the shop, a very relaxed job if I had to say so myself. But one afternoon when one of the regulars just left a girl came in, the girl gave me a weird, almost creepy, feeling. She had black than black hair, so black that it seemed surreal how dark, in contrast to her hair het skin was a sort of translucent white almost glowing in the afternoon sun. Her nose was perfect, not to big not to small and precisely in the centre of her face, on her head she wore a dark green cap that matched perfectly with the dark blue of her one piece dress. When I looked her in the eyes I saw beautiful dark brown, with a tinge of indigo, eyes staring back at me.

The girl started browsing the trough some books, eventually picking one, sat down and started reading. She looked so beautiful sitting there, the perfect amount of sun on her back and hair somehow making her even more beautiful. I was so infatuated with her that I didn't even noticed that the book, which just had a red cover, suddenly became a shade of grey. Or that the brightly red coloured bookshelf behind her turned grey, I was just staring at her and only her, I didn't pick up on any of these things.

After what seemed an eternity, albeit the best eternity I ever experienced, my shift was over and I had to go home. It was maybe only two minutes that I didn't see her, but when I got back and wanted to go home she wasn't there anymore. It was at that moment that I saw the book that she had started reading, I picked it up to see what it was about and was surprised because the title read 'red' just that one word, a grey covered book with the title red.

I was pretty tired after a day of work, so when I got to my apartment I just ate some instant noodles and went to bed early. The next day after I woke up I shut up my, supposedly, red alarm clock but saw that it was grey, after that I when to the kitchen and began making breakfast with, supposedly, red cornflakes but once again it was grey instead of red. It slowly began to dawn on me I hurriedly tried to find anything even slightly red but everything that was supposed to be red was now a shade of grey, then I remembered the book 'red' from yesterday wasn't the cover for that book also red? How long has this been going on? What exactly happened to me?

After a while I sat down and began thinking, what good will it do to panic it isn't like it's the end of the world, right? It's only that the colour red is gone, that's all, nothing more nothing less I can just live my life perfectly normal even if I don't see any red anymore, yes yes. After my self consolation I got up made breakfast and got ready to go to the bookstore, because my shift started early afternoon around 12:00 AM just before lunch.

When I got to the bookstore I just started my usual work, I sorted books that lay on the table and when I was done with that I got myself an interesting book to read, because people only started coming to the store from around 4:00 PM. So there I was all alone in an old bookstore reading an old book trying not to think about the fact that I couldn't see the colour red anymore, and just as I was enough distracted by the book that I almost forgot about it, someone opened the door of the bookstore and came in. It was a girl my age with almost blood red eyes, of course I now just saw grey ones, she also had sparkling blonde hair and a big smile plastered on her face. Together with how wild het hair flung as she opened the door and the tomboyish clothes she was wearing, it always looked like she was mocking me, as she said "Yo Alex how you doin.

"Just as always Ev" I answered, her full name was Evelyn but I found it a pain to say so I just called her Ev, "what're you doing here?

"Oh just wanted to see you, what's wrong with that, hahahaha?" She responded with an unnatural kind of fake laugh.

"Nothing in particular, but if you come to a bookstore at least buy or just read a book, and don't be like last time where you just stared at me for three hours, I means come on three hours!"

"Okay okay, today, because you asked, I will buy a book." She said as she shook her head. "Actually I already know what I'm gonna buy.

"Huh!?" I almost screamed "you, thought of something in advance!?" I was honestly surprised, Evelyn was the kind of girl to just go with the flow, she never thought of anything in advance, except of course ways to tease me.

"Haha you surprised? Hahaha" she let out her typical loud obnoxious laugh, and began browsing in the bookshelves after she found what she was looking for she sat down. The title of the book read 'fading as the rainbow'

As I was thinking about the strange title of the book, the door went open once again. I looked at the door, and there she was, the beautiful girl with the green cap and dark blue one piece dress. She didn't speak, hell even her walking was silent. The girl gave of a weird feeling, a feeling that something is about to happen. And something did happen, the girl walked over to a bookshelf picked a book, almost without looking, and started reading. This time the title of the book read 'orange'. The cover of the book was, as I knew, in the same colour as the name of the book. But as I looked at the book in her hand my face turned white. The book, that just now five seconds ago was orange, was now a kind of grey.

[author's note]

Well what do you think? First chapter of my original work that I think is pretty good right. I just started so some things may sound a little weird and be sure to point those out to me so I can improve them.