To Color Your Life

6 years ago.

"Get up now!"

Justin felt someone kick the blanket off him. The sunlight hit his eyes unpleasantly and echoed with a dull pain in the back of his head.

"What the hell are you doing?! Do you even have brains?!"

The rumble of empty beer bottles mingled with his brother's angry growl. Just a wonderful alarm clock early in the morning! It already starts to piss off!

"Jacob, please shut up. These preachings of yours make my head split." Justin sat up in bed and rubbed his temples. How much did he drink yesterday? There was no point in counting after the seventh bottle. Making a bet with the younger Denver was a bad idea. He would win anyway.

"Shut up? ARE YOU TELLING ME TO SHUT UP?!" the brother exploded. "You know what? You must be thankful that our parents are not in the city! Did you completely lose your mind with this stupid company of yours?! You could have been shot without any trial!"

"What are you talking about?" Justin lifted his head to look at Jacob, but this only made him sick more, so he lowered it back and put it on his open palms. All he wanted now was to go to the toilet, drink and sleep. And all at the same time.

"Well, of course, what am I talking about?" Jacob threw his hands up dramatically, "With such a dose of alcohol in your blood, it's no wonder you don't remember anything!"

He went to the window and, drewing back the curtains with one quick move, opened it. The room became even brighter, fresh air rushed in, driving away the vapors of yesterday's alcohol. Justin shivered and reached for the covers, intending to go back to bed.

"Not only do you arrange illegal races, which was obviously not enough for you, you also decided to play racing with the police! You were drunk! And you were trying to escape from the police! You are lucky you were passed out when you were arrested. If the policeman hadn't turned out to be a normal man, he would have shot you on the spot for resisting!"

"If you are saying that I was passed out, how would I be able to resist?" Justin chuckled to anger his brother even more. Hell, he didn't remember that moment at all. Perhaps one needs to end up with alcohol.

"You may not, but Aaron threw quite a show there! Chris and I stayed at the police station until morning to get you off the rap, and paid tons of money as a fine!"

"Ahh, is that why you're so irritable?" Justin nodded sympathetically, reached for the jeans lying on the floor, fumbled in his pocket, pulled out a stack of bills, tied with an elastic band, and threw it to his brother, "Here, a little moral compensation for the trouble taken."

Jacob caught an impressive bundle, examined it for a couple of seconds, and then turned around and threw it out the open window.

"Are you fucking insane?! There were three grands there!" Justin's sleepiness vanished in an instance. He jumped out of bed and rushed to the window. But the precious bundle, which flew down, could not be seen from the height of their penthouse.

"What? What is it, dear brother? Does it feel nasty when your earned money disappears in such a meaningless way?" Jacob grinned back, but there was no hint of amusement in his eyes.

"Fuck you!"

Justin spat at his brother's feet and headed for the bathroom.

"By the way, I fired the cleaning lady, so now you'll throw out empty bottles and wash the floors in this room all by yourself!" It sounded in Justin's back, but the answer was only a loud slam of the bathroom door.

. . . 

A bright red Ferrari came to a screeching halt at the parking lot in front of the building, and stepped into the parking space with a slight and spectacular skid.

The guy got out of the car. He was wearing blue faded jeans and a gray sweatshirt. A black scarf with a skull design covered the lower half of the face. Large sunglasses hid eyes which were red from lack of sleep. Long, shoulder-length hair, bleached to a snow-white shade, were blowing in the wind.

Justin looked around idly, ignoring the girls' interested glances, and headed for the main entrance.

Among his acquaintances, he was called 'Idol' because of the habit of hiding his face in all possible ways. But Justin just didn't like it when people stared at him, and he hated it when it went beyond and strangers climbed into his personal space.

He had his own small social circle. Frankly, not the most exemplary one, which greatly infuriated Jacob and worried his parents and grandfather.

The relatives had their own plans for him. And they sincerely wondered how he could be so careless and cause so many problems while his twin brother was just a model of the ideal son and grandson.

Jacob was distinguished not only by his high intelligence and business acumen. He knew how to make useful contacts and get close to those who had great potential.

One of his close friends was Christian Denver, the illegitimate son of a big businessman, born of some cheap prostitute.

Among Justin's friends, Chris was called the Dog. His younger brother, Aaron, the rightful heir to the Denver media empire, was the very person who came up with the idea of this nickname. His father instructed Chris to watch out for the unreasonable younger brother, so that he did not do stupid things.

And, apparently, yesterday they were close to a big fiasco since they even ended up in a police station. About which he did not happily remember.

The only thing that Jacob didn't do when he was scolding Justin this morning was throwing lightning bolts at him. What an annoying brother! Justin sighed.

It was probably the second or the third year when Justin was trying to finish his senior year at the university, if one takes into account all the times that he kept not showing up at the classes. But his relatives could not calm down and come to terms with the idea that he was not going to graduate from the university as an external student, like his twin brother. If he is going to graduate at all.

He was a black sheep in their ideal family. Maybe that's why he decided to dye his hair the opposite of his natural color? And with a blond hair, his popularity among girls has increased. Although Justin didn't care about the latter.

He rubbed his temples, trying to remember in which audience the professor was, to whom he had to turn in the report a month ago. That old man turned out to be principled and refused bribes. He even contacted Jacob, and the latter in the morning gave a whole lecture on Justin's lack of morality, while his negligent brother was stuffing breakfast into himself.

"So, where do I go now?" Evans looked around and realized that most likely he had entered the wrong wing of the building. The corridors were empty, and the sounds of music came from the auditoriums.

It looks like it was an art department.

Damn, that's why he hated this building! Minotaur maze of some kind!

He paused in front of the stairs leading to the second floor, pondering whether to return or climb higher.

"Hello, Kelly, where are you? Yes, I'm already running! Wait for me!" the girl's voice echoed down the quiet corridor like bells ringing.

A girl hurried down the stairs from the second floor. She was holding a folder with sheets in one hand, she was holding the phone in the other hand. There was a panama hat on her head, but it seemed that the girl had just tilted it on her head, rushing somewhere in a hurry.

"No, I haven't forgotten the notes," she answered into the phone.

Justin didn't like to ask girls for help. But it's better to ask this one where the professor's office is than to wander the corridors like a zombie during the apocalypse.

"Hey, you!" He shouted at her, but apparently louder than necessary.

The girl shuddered, stumbled. The papers flew out of her hands and flew into the air like a fountain. She herself flew down the steps.

Justin rushed forward, climbed a couple of steps in order to catch her and, from inertia, collapsed to the floor with the girl.

"Fuck," he swore, notably putting the back of his head on the floor. The head that was still buzzing after yesterday's binge now ached even more.

The glasses slid to his forehead, and he pulled them off with his free hand. Then he opened his eyes.

Something purple obscured the entire view. He rubbed his hand over his face, brushing away the girl's hair.

"Crap!! Kelly will definitely kill me!" The girl, a second ago, lying on his chest, jumped to her feet and began to collect the papers that had been scattered in all directions.

"Can't you even say thank you?" grumbled Justin, getting up.

"It's your own fault! You scared me! Why did you call me so unexpectedly?" she asked with indignation in her voice, not even glancing at him.

Justin scratched the back of his head. From this perspective, she was right.

He continued to stand and watch as the girl was crawling on the floor and collecing her things. She had a slender figure just to his taste. When she turned her back on him, the guy grunted contentedly, looking at the butt of an uknown girl with a strange hair color.

"Listen, you! Instead of staring at my ass, you better find my glasses! I can't really see. At least the paper is white."

What? Did she just order him what to do? Evans wanted to burst out with anger, but instead for some reason looked around. There were glasses a meter away from him. He picked them up, looked through the lenses. His head started spinning like in a centrifuge for astronauts.

"How many diopters are there?" he wondered. Jacob also wore glasses, but the lenses in these ones were just creepy.

"It's minus five," the girl answered, felt the glasses held out to her and put them on.

She raised her head. Then looked at Justin.

"Cool skull," she said, staring at the design on his neckerchief.

Evans blinked. Usually girls winced at the sight of the skull.

"Yours is cool too."

"What do you mean?" she did not understand. She got to her feet, holding the papers in her hands.

"I mean your hair. The color. It's purple."

The girl's eyes widened as if in surprise. She lowered her face, but Justin noticed that she smiled.

The girl rummaged in her bag, took out something. "Listen, your scarf is cool, of course, but it doesn't help."

She handed him a pack of gum. "Here. Take that. You smell like you drank a centner of vodka yesterday. Well... I mean... It's noticeable if someone stands close to you, of course." She added, feeling embarrassed, and thrust the gum into his hand.

Hmm, their contact turned out to be very close. He couldn't argue with that.

The girl turned around and walked on with a brisk step.

"Hey!" Justin called out to her again as she was about to turn the corner, "Do you know where the 245F auditorium is?"

The girl looked at him as if he was an idiot and laughed, "It's in a different building altogether. You entered the wrong building," and left.

Justin looked at the rumpled package of gum in his palm. He pulled out a couple of pellets, put them in his mouth, and trudged back to the parking lot.

It's time to quit drinking, he decided.