She had an overwhelming sense of blueness follow her around. Itās like the color was an aura surrounding Eleven, it was her own special color. Mike saw the way it haunted her. The sadness in her past, in her present, in her everything, it all haunted her.
In silence, he saw the blue. In her fear-stricken expressions, he saw the blue. In the shallow one-word sentences she delivered that didnāt say a lot, but revealed so much, all he saw was the blue she would never escape. The blue would follow her around forever, chasing after her and calling her to relive the pain.
But then there was the yellow. The yellow was so much rarer, but when it was there, it stuck out in a way Mike could never forget. It was the few smiles she delivered, making his heart pump faster and faster. The yellow was stitched into the blonde of the wig, but in reality, the happiness, the confidence, the normalcy she felt wearing that wig was what made her yellow, not the wig itself.
The yellow first appeared on the La-Z Boy. Her laugh, musical and short, like she couldnāt truly feel it without the guilt and undertones of blue, but still, the laughter was there nonetheless. Eleven radiated sunlight and love and happiness and it was like you couldnāt ever see her as being anything other than yellow when she laughed. Mike only ever wanted to see her as yellow, but he knew she was far past the point of ever being able to have yellow in her soul.
Green was hard to see. It was practically impossible to notice unless you looked for it, but it was there, ever so slightly. In her eyes, in between flashes of all the other colors, you could see green, just barely. It was the color of frustration, of envy, of being an outsider. The way Elās mind seemed to yell, āWhy me?ā Why did everything happen to her, why couldnāt she just be normal like everyone else? She tried to shove the green away, to stuff it so far down no one could see. Wishing wouldnāt change anything, after all. But it was still there, deep down.
But the green had another form. This was a calmer green, a more natural one. It was the way she grew, making her feel like one of the massive trees rising way above her in the woods. She never saw anything as tall as those trees before, but they didnāt scare her. She wanted to be just like that. They seemed to scream down from the heavens words of strength, that they were there to stay and grow. Eleven wanted to be like that. The green was in healing, when she opened up to others, when she found the courage inside herself to talk. Green wasnāt all so bad.
Orange was a new color, but it presented itself so boldly it was impossible to ignore. She had never seen orange in other people, she never had the chance to be orange herself. But then she was out there in the world, and Mike, a very orange person himself, practically shoved the color into her. Orange was warmth, it was comfort, it was safety. This was Elās first time seeing it, but she radiated it herself.
Mike saw so much orange in her, even if she didnāt see much of it herself. He saw it in her dedication to protect her friends, in her determination to help. Even when she just saw a monster in herself, all she cared about was the good. Mike sometimes thought to himself that he saw her orange a lot of more vividly than his friends, and thatās why he was so drawn to her, but he couldnāt help himself. Those quiet moments just the two of them, she made him feel even more orange inside. When it was just the two of them talking in his basement, when they hung back behind Lucas and Dustin to be on their own, when Mike had kissed herā all these moments made Mikeās heart beat faster, but he couldnāt ignore the overwhelming comfort and safety of orange that came with it.
Purple was imagination, creativityā purple was dreams. Eleven wasnāt the biggest dreamer, she never had much of a chance in her life to dream of great things, but that soft lavender was still there. Purple was what she felt she should be ashamed of, itās what she was taught to ignore and push away and focus on what was really happening. Her Papa didnāt have a drop of purple inside him. But still, it grew like a flower inside her heart that she couldnāt control, it was a longing deep inside her that kept her awake at night for 12 years, imagining and dreaming that somewhere out there in the world, there was so much more than this.
The purple was that hopeful part of her that had dreams for the future. Maybe her dreams werenāt big by other peopleās standards, but they were everything to her. They were hope, motivation, a reason to fight. She found purple in promises, in believing that there was something for her in the future. She could have her own bed, she could have as many Eggos as she wants, she could go to the Snow Ball with Mike. Mike didnāt ever want to break one of his promises, because he didnāt ever want to see her have to dim that purple part of herself again.
Eleven had all these colors inside her, all these colors that Mike had admired so much. But there was one color that stood out from the rest.
She was red. Everything about her was red. Her passion, her fury, her determination, it was the red inside her.
stormborns
andulkaphoto
izzy806
2087
dededos
jbbartram-illu
