Color Blind

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I nodded, feeling guilty despite the shooting pain in my head...or maybe because of it. It was hard to tell.

"Ok." I looked down. "I'm sorry."

That weekend, Kenney was on his way up to see me as I was walking down the lobby stairs. Walking faster, I tried to figure out how to ditch him on the sly.

He smiled at me. "'Sup gul? I was just on my way to see you. You must have read my mind." I looked around quickly. Kenney did the same. "What?"

"What?" I asked him back.

"Why you looking around all crazy like that? Somebody chasing you?" He looked past me.

I laughed. "You're silly," and I tried to walk past him again.

"Hold up." He stepped in my way. "Guess what?"

"What?" I asked, hoping that he would be quick about it.

"You know how I told you my aunt still sometimes holds her Power to the People meetings?"

"Yeah."

"Well, at the next one, she wants you to do your thing."

I smiled at him. "Really?"

"Yeah. She was really diggin' it."

"I'm glad." Then I thought about Collin and how I probably couldn't go. Then I remembered how pissed he was going to be if I kept him waiting too long at the library. Quickly my smile faded and turned into a frown.

"What's wrong?" Kenney's face was reflecting my own. He did that to people a lot, and to me especially.

"Nothing, Kenney, but I'm late. I have to go."

"Late for what?" Kenney stepped in my way again. He was starting to piss me off. "I don't see any books."

"None of your business." I brushed past him.

"Hey," he grabbed my arm.

"Ouch Kenney, you're hurting me!" I winced as his fingers brushed against my bruises.

"What?" He looked at me in confusion. "I wasn't even holding you tight..."

"Forget it." I snatched my arm away.

"You ok?" He pulled my arm back to him. "What happened? Let me see."

"No."

"Yes." I tried to pull away as he lifted up my sleeve, but he wouldn't let go. Kenney gasped when he saw the black and blue fingerprints on my arm. "What the..."

"Kenney, I have to go."

"Did Collin do this?"

"I have to go..."

"Not until you tell me what happened."

"Kenney please," I begged, which wasn't like me at all, and he knew it. "Please let me go. I'm really, really late now."

He took his hand away and whispered, "What happens if you're late?"

I just shrugged and eased past him. I didn't give Kenney a second look as I disappeared through the door. Some of the other girls had stopped to watch our exchange by then, so he just let me go and didn't try to follow.

After all of that rushing, Collin never even showed up to the library. But later on that day, he had the nerve to stroll up into my dorm room, full of attitude. That fool down at the front desk was still letting any old body roll through the door. That was alright this time, though, because I had plenty of words to say to Collin.

Before I got the chance to ask him who the heck he thought he was standing me up, though, he slammed the door closed and pushed me down on the bed. Then he got on top of me and pinned my wrists down on either side of my head. This, I totally wasn't expecting, so I shut my mouth and let him talk first.

"Why was your boy muggin' me today?" he demanded, squeezing my wrists tighter.

I looked up at him innocently and shook my head. "I don't know."

"Yes the hell you do!" he shouted. "Yes you do!" He grabbed my arm and dragged me down onto the floor. It seemed like Collin got stronger every day. When I tried to push him back, he took my finger and bent it all the way backward. Just before it popped out of joint, he stopped. "What did you tell him?"

I gasped in pain. "Nothing."

"Bullshit. You had to tell him something for him to look at me like that. That mf* think he can run up on me? That what he's thinkin'? You tell that bitch I got somethin' for his ass if he comes my way."

I shook my head, knowing full well the first thing Collin bought when he moved off campus was a chrome-plated nine millimeter Smith and Wesson.

"Oh, so now you wanna worry 'bout that fool?" he dragged me over to the door and pushed me up against it. "You tell..." when I tried to pull away, he pushed me again and put his hand around my neck, "you tell that n*, to mind his f* business. You understand me?"

I nodded because I knew Collin meant what he said. He had been buck wild his whole life, and now that he had a gun, I was afraid of him, too.

"Collin," I gasped, trying to talk over my pounding heart. "That's just the way Kenney looks at people. He looks at everybody like that. I promise, he doesn't know anything. I promise. Please don't. Please..."

"What?" he glared dangerously at me. "You in love or somethin'?"

"No!" I shook my head frantically. "I love you, Collin."

"What?"

"I said...I said I love you. Only you." I looked up at him, and saw the anger melt easily away from his face. "I'm sorry, Collin."

He let me go.

"I'm so sorry," I repeated and wrapped my arms around him.

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LOVE IS BLIND COPYRIGH @ 2015