Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 124135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Bonnie shut the door. The room was silent. I put my hands in my pockets. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do now.
Bonnie came forward. I couldn’t take my eyes from the shoulder that her white jumper hung off. At her pale skin. “Why are we here, Cromwell?” Her voice was shaking. When I really looked at her, I could see she was nervous. I’d made her nervous around me. I hated myself for that.
I took her guitar from its case. I handed it to her and pointed at a stool. Bonnie hesitated, but she took the guitar from me and sat down. Her hands ran down the neck, just feeling it.
“Sing,” I said, my palms sliding over my jeans when I sat down opposite her.
Bonnie shook her head. “I don’t think I can.” Her hand tightened on her guitar’s neck, and she licked her lips. She was nervous to sing.
“Sing. Play,” I said again. I shifted in my seat, feeling like a dick. But for the first time in years, I found myself actually wanting to help someone. In the only way I knew how.
Bonnie took a deep breath and strummed the opening notes. I closed my eyes. I could see the color better when I did. Like before, I saw olive greens. I saw the shapes and lines and tones. Only with her this close, they were…more.
They were brighter. They were more vivid.
My body twitched as it tried to slam up the walls to block them out. It had been my MO for three years. It was rote. My body trying to shut out the colors. It never really worked. Not once in three years had I been able to fully block them out. They only settled for being somewhat dulled.
But not right now. Right now they were so bright that they were almost too much to cope with. But as Bonnie started singing, the violet blue took over everything. The jagged line at the forefront, the color that refused to be dimmed.
My heart raced as I let my brain do what it had been born to do. Bring color to sound and spark like Guy Fawkes Night in my head. My muscles unwound and the music seeped into the fibers, giving every one of them life. With every barrier I let fall, my body relaxed, the tension I’d carried for so long fading away on Bonnie’s voice.
My head nodded in time to the beat, until she changed the tune, and a jagged navy-blue line, shaped like a lightning fork, sliced through the violet blue, greens, and pinks.
“There.” I opened my eyes.
Bonnie stopped playing, hand frozen on the guitar’s neck. I leaned forward, seeing the still photograph of the colors in my mind. Capturing the moment the canvas was ruined.
Bonnie was watching me, breath held. Her hands were tense on the guitar as if she didn’t dare move. I edged forward, taking my stool with me, until I was in front of her. I couldn’t get close enough to the guitar. So I moved forward even closer, Bonnie’s legs between mine. She looked up at me. I could smell mint on her breath from the chewing gum she always chewed.
“Go back a few bars.” I never took my gaze from hers. Bonnie placed her fingers and played. I was frozen as the color washed over me like a shower. My chest felt so warm.
When the navy blue sliced through my brain, I stopped her hand with my palm. Eyes closed, I moved her hand on the neck of the guitar. I knew where I wanted her fingers to be and what notes she needed to play. “Strum,” I ordered. Bonnie did. I moved her hand again. “Again.” I moved to another chord. “Again.” I did it again and again, following the color pattern in my mind. Painting the colors in advance and following their lead. I mentally painted the notes until they meshed back into the ones Bonnie had created.
My hands lifted off the guitar and Bonnie kept playing. I felt her breath as it moved past my ear, as her voice sang the words of the song so softly. I moved in closer, needing to see the violet blue dance before my eyes. I listened until the last note rang out and took the finished canvas in my mind with it.
Bonnie’s breathing was shallow. It was shaking. I slowly opened my eyes. When I did, I realized just how close I’d gotten. My cheek was next to hers, the ends of my stubble touching her skin. My ear was near her mouth.
I’d moved closer to hear her sing.
To hear that perfect violet blue.
Bonnie’s breath stuttered. I hung close, not wanting to move away. Slowly, I pulled my head back until I faced her, her nose only a centimeter away from mine. Her eyes were huge and filled with something I hadn’t seen in her before. And I wished I knew what it was.