The Colours of Merida.

Day one

The world was rather cool Monday morning, though it wasn't that surprising considering that September was the bringer of Autumn. Soon, the leaves would fall and the rain would come, and before you knew it Christmas would be here.

Merida liked Autumn and she was eager for it's rein. So much better than unbearable heat of summer where she wanted nothing more than to claw her skin off just to cool down; to turn on every fan in the house, but then have to wear her headphones to escape that infernal droning. But warmer than Winter where she couldn't go anywhere without a thick puffer coat to keep her warm and dry; without the looming fear of snowfall and it's deep chill and the icy wasteland in it's wake. Autum was just right; a pretty month of fading green and growing orange. A time where it wasn't too hot that she didn't have to choose between comfort and dressing for the weather.

Even now she was able to wear one of her favourite over sized hoodies without sweating or shivering. The colour of forest green.

Another song ended in her headphones, and the short pause between songs made her sigh and look up from where she was leaning against the railing around the corner from Ebony's house. She had agreed to arrive at Seven am, fifteen minutes before the bus was due. But in her usual paranoid style, Merida had left her house early to account for the none existent traffic she would come across on her walk, and had arrived at Ebony's twenty minutes before seven and had been waiting and listening to music around the corner for the last fifteen minutes. As a new song started to play, she reached up and pressed the small pause button on the side of her headphones.

At five too seven, Merida couldn't wait any longer and slowly walked around the corner and up the driveway of Ebony's family house.

It didn't take long before the door swung open and Ebony's mother, Amanda, is grinning and looking down at her with a smile. "Merida, how are you doing?" she asked, stepping aside.

Taking this as her cue to enter she stepped into the warm house, her hoodie suddenly feeling like too much. She itched her neck around the collar.

Overhead, Ebony's voice drifted downstairs as she sang somewhere above, and Merida could only hope that her friend was multitasking. It was only fifteen minutes until the bus was due after all.

"Am I getting a hug today?" Amanda asks with a cheeky smile.

Merida's brows twitch as she shook her head.

Amanda heaved a sigh and shakes her head. "Why am I not surprised. Not gotten over your touch phobia then?"

"It's not a touch phobia," Merida said frowning. "I just don't want to be touched." By you, she silently added in her head. She didn't understand why Amanda had never grasped that concept, there wasn't anything difficult or particularly ground breaking in the statement itself; a difference in opinion if anything. It didn't matter if it were only a hug, or a friendly pat on the back; Merida simply wanted to be able to choose who touched her, and if she wasn't comfortable with a person touching her, she would tell them.

However a child not letting an adult, or even mother or friend, touch them was most definitely peculiar, and according to some people, offensives and against their rights.

Why some people got so high rate about not being able to touch a child only confused her more. And now as an adult no one touched her without her consent.

"Yeah, yeah," Amanda said waving a dismissive hand. "Same difference."

"The differences are actually quite--"

She was cut off as she shouted up from the bottom of the stairs: "EBONY! MERIDA'S HERE!"

The sudden shout made her heart leap and flinch from the sound, and she wasted no time in slipping into the living room to sit down for a moment as Amanda stomped upstairs, still shouting to Ebony.