Red Sevens- Chapter 1

Rum is red, blood is red, even fire is red, to an extent. But passion, anger, love... none of these are red.

It was about 5:00 that she came out of the grocery store. She wasn’t paying attention to anything in particular, just waiting for the cars to stop driving by so that she could cross the street and get to her car. It’s a nice car- a glossy sapphire VW bug. The chrome lining shone dully in the bleak light.

It’s cloudy, cold, and even the air seems expectant, as though something was about to happen. But she’s not really paying attention, she just pulls her letterman jacket more tightly around her to thwart the chilly wind that whipped her cheeks and chapped her lips. The sky is whitish-gray, a winter sky. Depressing, but oddly soothing.

Suddenly she sees him.

He looks to be about 2 or 3 years older than her, probably out of college. His hair is dark, slightly disheveled, with piercing blue eyes. His face is slightly angry, a rebel’s face. He didn’t even button the black leather jacket he wore over a white t-shirt. Just like a boy, denying he could ever be cold.

She wasn’t exactly sure why she walked over to him. Maybe she was just naive, or maybe his look interested her. Like he knew more than the people around him, and hated himself for it.

“Hey,” she said nonchalantly, oblivious to the fact that there were now no cars to obstruct her course to her car.

He nodded, acknowledging her. Perhaps a greeting would have been too commonplace, too frivolous, for him to utter.

It annoyed her, as this type of person typically did. He thought he was better than her, that she was just another superficial college freshman that didn’t really think about anything.

So instead of doing the expected thing, asking what school he went to, she said straight out what she was thinking.

“You know, I’ve always thought that people walking out of grocery stores look like lemmings, all alike...”

A normal person would look at her oddly, either say “How so?” or nod, not knowing what to say. It was her little test, to see what his personality was like. After all, you can’t completely judge people by their looks.

It was an interesting comment, and she expected him to give her an interesting reply. She could usually tell what a person would say before he or she said it, just by their appearance.

However, he said,

“Nice try.”

She looked at him blankly. What kind of answer was that?

He smiled without it reaching his eyes.

“You’re not the first person to see that.”

Well. That was a really depressing thought. It would be hard to observe something without being cliché, now that he put it that way.

She wanted to say, “I like the way you think,” or say something a little cleverer, so that she wouldn’t seem air headed.

“Let me guess. You like the way I think.”

She stared at him, then grinned. Well, he was a lot like her, in that sense.

“Think more about what you say, before you say it.”

He started to walk off.

Wait!” she yelled.

He turned, looking uninterested. "Yeah?”

“What’s your name?”

“Derek.”

She nodded, and turned around. She started looking for her car. She’d forgotten completely where she had parked it.

She was sitting by the phone, in a cozy recliner. She was debating whether or not the call him. For some reason she couldn’t think of him as Derek.

Well, I really can’t call him anyway, she thought. I don’t have his last name, I don’t have his number.

So instead she called Josh. Green-eyed Josh Josh, guitar Josh, Raspy singing Josh, beautiful Josh. She hated Josh.

"Joe, right?” she said into the phone, pretending she couldn’t remember his name.

“Josh.” he said.

“Just called to say hey,” she said, snickering to herself. He’s going to ask what my answer is...

“Well, uh...” he began.

He’s nervous, she thought. That’s interesting...(not cute.)

“What do you say?”

“To what?” she said sweetly.

"Will you go out with me?” he said, not sounding annoyed at all at her fake stupidity.

Yes. Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes... “No.” she said brightly, and hung up.

Too perfect. Why, why was it perfect, when she’d done the opposite of what she wanted to do? Just because, she told herself. Because.

A few seconds later the phone rang again. She answered it, ready to hang up if it was Josh.

“Laciee.”

“Who’s this?”

“Don’t act less intelligent than you are, you have to recognize my voice. You’re that type of person.”

She was shocked, and a little worried. When had she told Derek her name, and how did he get her number?

“How did you...”

“So what are you doing tomorrow?”

He sounded a little more easygoing and amiable on the phone. Perhaps he, like her, disliked talking to people in person.

He wanted to meet her at little coffee shop in town, tomorrow afternoon. She wasn’t sure she should go, though. She didn’t know him very well and she’d heard pretty horrific stories that had to do with girls her age meeting guys they didn’t know.

In the middle of her deliberation, she heard the phone ring. She picked it up, wondering if it was him, calling back.

“Hey, is Laciee there?” The voice said before she could even get a word out.

“Yeah, speaking.”

“Ok, me and some friends are going into town tomorrow. You wanna come? We’re probably gonna hit that little coffee shop on the corner.”

It was Mya. She knew it was Mya. She had a lip gloss voice, as Laciee called it. Affected, a tad nasal, maybe, her words slightly unclear at times, annoyingly slurred.

She grinned. It was too perfect. Her friend Mya was always trying to fix her up with people.

“Yeah, that sounds great. I’m meeting someone there anyway.”

“Really?” said Mya, obviously expecting her to expound on the subject.

“Yeah. See ya then, bye!” said Laciee cheerily, and hung up.