Monochrome Stories

Crimson's POV

"Where are we going?" Ivory asked as he stuffed all his stuff inside his bag. 

"Can you just... Be organized for once?" I replied. "Let me do it." I insisted as I took his bag and fixed the stuff inside. "And we aren't going anywhere. I just didn't wanna go out today."

"Oh... Are you sure you don't wanna go out?"

I closed the zipper of his bag and gave it back to him. "Why? Do you have something you wanna do?"

"Well, I was thinking we could visit Carnation and Kuro. Their college isn't that far from here. I could send them a text and tell them we're coming over."

"Hmmm... Do I wanna see them?"

"Come on. You must've missed them. We were a band."

"Yeah... We were..." I paused and took a deep breath. "Fine. Let's go." He smiled as he took his phone out. His fang-like teeth were showing again. "Aren't you going to get those fixed?" I asked.

"Fix what?" He replied.

"Your teeth..."

"I don't really plan on getting them fixed. They aren't an issue to me, so I don't think there's any need to fix them."

"Fair point." I said as Ivory's phone rang. "Who is it?" I asked. 

"It's Carnation." He replied as he answered. "Hello? Ah, yeah. He's here. You wanna talk to him?" He looked at me and handed me his phone. "Good luck." He whispered. 

I put the phone against my ear. "Hello?" I asked. 

"You fuċkɨnġ twerp!" She exclaimed. "Do you have any idea what kind of shit we had to go through ever since you vanished?!"

"Hey, Carnation. Don't scream at him." I could hear Kuro's voice calm her down. "Give me the phone."

"But..."

"Give it." There was a bit of a pause, then I heard Kuro speak again. "Hey, kiddo. How've you been?"

"Hey." I replied. "I've been doing great. Thanks for asking. Oh, and congratulations on your relationship."

"Thanks! This girl is a whole lot of work, but I can probably manage. Anyway, I'm really glad you and Ivory made up again. This calls for a celebration! We're just finishing some stuff here at school. Let's meet at a place called Cafe Mocha. I'm pretty sure it's somewhere near your school."

"I have a feeling we're gonna get lost, but sure. Let's meet there. Talk to you later. Good luck with whatever you're doing. Bye."

I gave Ivory's phone back to him just as the call ended. "So, how was it?" He asked. 

"I'm probably gonna be killed by Carnation, but it'll be fine." I replied. "They wanna meet with us at a place called Cafe Mocha. Do you know where it is?"

"Cafe Mocha... I think I do. My friend and I hang out there from time to time."

"Your friend?" I chuckled and playfully punched him in the arm. "So you do have more friends besides me."

He laughed and punched me back. "I might be shy, but I can make other friends too."

"Whatever, man. Come on. I could use some coffee."

The two of us headed to wherever that stupid cafe was, and just like I predicted, we got lost.

"I thought you said you knew where it was?" I asked. 

"I... Might not have been the one that knew where it was..." He replied. "I usually just followed my friend."

"This is why we use our phones for Google Maps." I took my phone out and opened the app. I tried to figure out how to work it out, but then Ivory suddenly tapped me on my shoulder. "What is it?" I asked. 

"Do you see that?" He said as he pointed at something at the bridge. 

"See what?" I looked closer to where he was pointing and noticed a girl with blonde hair standing oddly close to the edge of the bridge.

"Crimson!" Ivory exclaimed, but I couldn't stop running. That girl was gonna kill herself, and I don't wanna regret not helping her. 

I finally got to the girl, and grabbed her arm. "Don't... Do it..." I said as I was trying to catch my breath.

The girl had a blank look on her face, but as soon as she saw me, it turned into a look of disgust and hate. "Don't touch me!" She exclaimed as she slapped my hand away. 

"W-what?" I asked.

"Crimson! Wait for me!" Ivory exclaimed as he finally caught up to me.

"Great." The girl said sarcastically. "There's more of you." The girl actually looked oddly familiar to me, but I just couldn't remember where I saw her. 

"Look, I was just trying to help." I explained. 

"Help? You were trying to help? You could've helped if you just left me the fuċk alone!" The girl exclaimed as she stormed off. She looked really pretty, but she had a really foul mouth. 

"What just happened?" Ivory asked.

"I must've misunderstood." I replied. "That girl didn't look like she wanted to kill herself."

"That's good, I guess... But you know what else is good?"

"What?"

He pointed at a shop just at the end of the bridge. "I found Cafe Mocha." He said as he grinned. 

The two of us headed to the cafe and went inside. As soon as we stepped into the cafe, we were greeted by a fluffy brown cat. 

"He's so cute!" Ivory exclaimed as picked the cat up. "I'm back, little one. Did you miss me?"

"Hey, are you even allowed to do that?" I asked. 

"Don't worry about it." An employee by the counter ȧssured me. "After all, this is a cat cafe. You can take a seat anywhere here with a table, and you're welcome to touch any of the cats."

The two of us took a seat by a big white persian. There were menus on the table, so I picked one up and skimmed through it. "What are you getting?" I asked Ivory. 

"Can you order me a neko lava cake?" He replied. He was still carrying the fluffy brown cat in the middle of his arm. 

"Does the cat like it when you do that?"

"Of course he does. It's what I always do when I come here."

"You don't say..." The persian cat beside me suddenly got up and rested its body on my ŀȧp. "Um, can you call a waiter?" I asked. "I'm a little trapped here."

"No worries." Ivory replied. "I'll just go to the counter. Coffee, right?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

"It's no problem." He said as he stood up, the cat still in his arms. Oddly enough, it looked completely satisfied being carried like that. 

I looked down on the cat on my ŀȧp and started stroking on its fur. "I think I'm gonna die today." I told the cat. "An old acquaintance of mine might kill me for vanishing on them for months. I'm scared, but I wanna fix it too. I don't wanna keep running away."

"You normally talk to people, not cats." A voice from behind me said. I turned around and saw the employee from earlier. He had long orange-brown hair tied in a ponytail. He was wearing glasses and had piercings on both of his ears. He had a white shirt on and a brown apron with the cafe's logo over it. He looked handsome as hell. Almost like a model, in fact. He was squatting down to talk to me. He must've noticed I was in no position to stand up. "Where's your friend?" He asked. 

"He went to place our orders." I replied. "Shouldn't you be by the counter?"

He chuckled. "I'm not the only employee here, you know."

"Right..."

"Hey, I couldn't help but hear your monologue earlier, and what you're doing is a good thing. Running away from your problems is never the answer."

"Thanks. I guess I'm just tired of running away."

He smiled and laughed a little. "Isn't it nice talking to a human?"

I chuckle. "Whatever. I don't think I caught your name."

"You can call me Citrus." He introduced himself as he put his hand out for a handshake. 

"Nice to meet you. I'm Crimson." I replied as I returned it. 

"Well..." He said as he let go and stood up. "I hope to see you around here again, Crimson." He added as he walked away. 

Minutes after Citrus left, Ivory came back. "They said it'll take about five minutes." He said. "Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah." I replied as the cat on my ŀȧp woke up and started to walk around. Goodbye, soft cat. "Where are Kuro and Carnation?"

"They said they were almost here."

"And what about Teal? Why didn't you invite him?"

"Teal?" He stopped for a minute and stared at me with a surprised look on his face. "Crimson, I-"

"Hey!" A voice from behind him interrupted. We looked over and saw Carnation and Kuro walking towards us. The both of them looked way different from when I last saw them. Kuro was wearing a coat and tie. He still has the piercing on one of his ears, but not the one on his lips anymore. His hair was still dark blue, but it was shorter, and it was darker. Carnation, on the other hand, had long brown hair with pink streaks. She was wearing a white sundress and sandals. The piercing on her lips was gone too and she looked more tame than before, but she still looked like she wanted to kill me. 

She rushed to my direction. I closed my eyes, expecting a punch in the face, but all I felt was her pulling me into a tight hug. "You idiot." She whispered. "You have no idea how worried we were."

"I'm sorry..." I replied. "I didn't mean to make you all worried."

She let go and pinched my cheeks. Her eyes were red, almost like she was crying. "Don't apologize. I might've just overreacted earlier. I'm really glad to see you're doing well."

"Yeah." Kuro added as he sat down and patted a nearby cat. "It's been too long. Now, where do we even start?"

"Aren't we gonna wait for Teal?" I asked. 

The couple looked at each other, then at Ivory. "Did you not tell him??" Kuro asked with a bit of concern in his voice. 

"I was about to..." Ivory replied. 

"Why?" I interrupted. "Did something happen?"

Carnation placed her hand on mine and looked at me with a serious look on her face. "Honey..." She said. "Teal passed away a few months ago."