Rouge by Isabella Modra Read Free Book Online Page B

Joshua never cooked for her
anymore for two reasons: one, because he couldn’t cook to save his life and
two, because Hunter always came home from work with bags of leftover Chinese
food to last them both a week.
    Joshua liked to keep things
very neat and professional – a quirk that never seemed to stick with Hunter.
    Carpeted in deep brown and
layered in maroon and gold, Hunter’s bedroom was exactly the right shade for
her, with exactly the right amount of mess.  Her clothes were flung on the
armchair by the window and at the end of the bed, her school books lay spread
across the carpet along with her scarlet and black work uniform.
    Hunter threw things
carelessly across the room as she searched for a coat. The dress she wore slid
higher up her thighs and she cursed, yanked it back down and wished she had
more options for formal occasions. Normally Hunter didn’t care much for what
she wore or what people thought about her, but Joshua needed her, and for that,
she would try to look her best. That meant nothing too casual. The LBD was all
she had.
    “There you are,” she muttered
to herself as she snatched her knee-length gray trench coat from the hanger in
her wardrobe and caught her reflection in the mirror on the closet door. Her
hair looked straggly, so she raked her fingers through it and strung it up in a
messy ponytail. The bronze-colored necklace her mother had left for her glowed
against her pale skin. It wasn’t very long, the chain fine and sparkling very
close to her throat. The symbol was Chinese, and after a little research,
Hunter had discovered it was the symbol of fire.
    “Ironic, isn’t it Mom?”
Hunter said to her appearance in the mirror as she held on tightly to the
necklace. “Presenting me with a necklace that would remind me every day of how
you died.”
    Regardless of its meaning,
Hunter still wore it out of respect for her mother. Over the years she had come
to love it and rarely took it off. It was as though her mother had left a part
of her on the earth to be with Hunter always.
    “Hunter!” came Joshua’s
sharp voice from the kitchen and she snapped out of her daydream, releasing the
necklace and hurrying back.
    The wind and winter snow
howled outside as Hunter, led carefully by Joshua’s steady arm, skipped down
the apartment building steps. Cold droplets of melted ice dripped down the back
of her neck as she passed under the veranda and ducked into the taxi parked on
the curb. The snow whirled around them, and Hunter brushed flakes out of her
own hair and off Joshua’s suit in the backseat of the taxi. Her nails had
already turned a pale purple.
    As they were taken deeper
into traffic, Hunter found herself marveling at the sight of the city. Cloaked
in white, it was a stark contrast to the bright city lights and looming black
skyscrapers. Hunter loved New York, especially when the atmosphere was so
buoyant after the hype of Christmas.
    “So are you nervous?” she
asked, turning to Joshua who was resting his elbow on the window, his clenched
fist under his chin.
    “A little. But I’m glad
you’re coming. It’ll help to look into the crowd and see your face.”
    “Well you won’t miss me.”
She twirled a lock of her red hair, grinning, and saw something that looked
like pain flash in his eyes. It had been and gone before she could place it.
“Are you alright?”
    “Yeah, I just... I want you
to know that it means a lot to me that you’re coming tonight,” he said, color
rushing to his cheeks. He wasn’t very good at giving compliments. “Really, I
know you hate it, but God knows I need the support and... well you’re all I’ve
got.”
    Lights flashing past the
taxi as it sped through traffic glowed like silver in his pale blue eyes. She
remembered having nightmares about a cackling man with eyes just like Joshua’s
when she was a kid. His eyes were unnatural, almost alien-like. But they were
his, and always would be.
    “Stop gushing Joshua,” she
chuckled.