Here’s to new horizons, you thought as you dragged the paint roller over your wall. The black paint bleeding into the pink give you a sense of satisfaction. Somber, like your mood.

happy people don’t paint their bedroom black your mom had observed when she’d stopped by to check on you. She was worried about you. No one in your life understood how you’d gone from being the quintessential sunshine girl to a black cloud over the course of the summer.

I’m gonna bottle up this feeling

But none of them knew your secret. They didn’t know why you woke up with a sinking feeling in your chest every morning. You’d betrayed your best friend, and she didn’t even know. Sofia had gone away to Paris for the summer, and you’d had an affair with her boyfriend, Rafe.

You’d known it was wrong. You’d tried to fight it, tried to ignore your feelings. But how could you when you’d always wanted Rafe? When he was finally looking at you in the way you’d always wanted? He was everything you’d always wanted, so you’d made the choice to have him in the only way you could.

you know you once were someone I adored. Well, never mind

As more of your pink walls were covered with the black paint, you heard the front door slam. There were only two people who you’d given keys to your apartment- your mom and Rafe.

“Mom, you didn’t have to come back. I’m fine, I just like the colour…” you trailed off as you looked away from your painting and saw that Rafe was the one in your room.

“Black, huh? Doesn’t seem like you, Princess.” Rafe leaned against your doorframe, his arms crossed.

“I needed a change” You murmur. It was a lot easier to bottle up your feelings for him when he wasn’t standing in your room.

“There’s a lot of that going around lately” He looks at you for a moment, studying you. His eyes trace over your face, your hair, your body. He’s looking at you like he wants to memorize you. The more he stares, the more you read into his words, wondering what he means.