Red loved the rain. Weirdly, she loved the sun even more.
Her namesake - her favorite color - at the most vivid she'd ever seen it, the most perfect, was when she closed her eyes directly into the sun. Beautiful. Roses and peonies and strawberries and autumn - but also blood and death and the end of a day that's been nothing but war. She could see none of those with her eyes closed, but the color was red.
But now she'd closed her eyes and let the rain wash her fears away. She couldn't even feel the cold, only the water sliding over her skin, soaking through her shirt, her hair. She was all alone in the field, with nothing but the sheeting rain for company.
A hand touched her shoulder.
"Gray?" she muttered, eyes still closed, turning around. "Is that you?"
Hell no, it wasn't him. She stiffened, rage coursing through every part of her body. She was seeing red, and it wasn't literal this time. "Scott? The hell are you doing here?"
Her ex-boyfriend's cocky grin faded. He was wearing a ragged shirt, dusty jeans and shoes caked with mud. Worse for wear, she noted with dark glee. He ran a hand through uncut hair.
"I came to win you back, Erina," Scott replied, and she flinched at the sound of her real name. "I made some shitty decisions - "
"Cheating on me and then hitting me when I confront you is a shitty decision," she said calmly. Deadly calm. "You are a piece of no-good shit nobody had the decency or concern to flush away, and I am fucking done with you. You hear me, fucker? Leave me the hell alone."
She turned away, rage making her shoulders tremble.
"If your stupid friend hadn't gotten in the way you'd still be mine!" he called after her.
"I was never yours, asshole!" she called back.
"Then who's got you now, huh? Your best friend?!"
"Fuck off!"
"That friend of yours? You think I don't see how that fucktard looks at you? You were mine but you liked him more, didn't you, you bitch? You want that asshole more than me?"
"The fuck are you talking about?" Red had to stop. "Gray - "
"Right, that's his name. You want him more, don't you? He wants you."
"You're delusional. Get the fuck away from here."
"You do, don't you? I liked you and you let him get between us. Your precious little Gray."
"Gray had someone else, idiot." Why was she protesting?
"You liked him more. And he liked you. You did it, when we were going out, didn't you? And you break my nose for cheating on you, you little bitch."
His words were slurring and jumbled, and Red was starting to get worried. Cold manipulation from Scott she was used to, but - now he was seriously starting to sound unhinged.
"Just - go away, Scott." She tried to make her voice sound reasonable. Considering she still wanted to call him every insulting name she could think of - and in three other languages besides - she achieved it quite well. But the guy was getting unstable.
"All 'cause your little friend Gray's in love with you," he said, laughing a high, drunken laugh. "You didn't think I'd find out, did you, you little bitch? Did you?!"
In love? Gray? The words pulsed in her head. But Scott staggered toward her, kicking up puddles, and she snapped back to reality.
"You're delusional!" She shouted back. "Now get the hell away from here before I call the police!" The prospect actually made her wince - she'd never been on good terms with authority, despite behaving like an angel for years. An angel in leather.
"No, you just wait, Erina Collins. You just see." He staggered away.
Red stood there under the rain, the words swirling in her head like Poe's maelstrom, until Gray himself found her.
********