The Color of Love
Chapter 1
The day I won the Gold Medal at the
International Violin Competition, a video from
five years ago resurfaced online.
It was pouring rain in the video.
I was kneeling next to a guy lying on the
ground, covered in blood.
I was screaming for help, my face a mask of
terror and desperation.
That night, Jake, my ex from five years back,
the one I hadn’t spoken to since we broke up,
called me.
L
His voice was shocked, almost lost.
“You actually cared about me? What? I never
knew.”
1.
I found out about the video just after my
celebration dinner.
I was on the curb, trying to grab a cab home.
Someone in our music group chat had
forwarded a link to the video.
A bunch of people were tagging me.
“Is that really you, Tori? This has to be a
rumor, right?”
L
“Tori’s usually so reserved. The girl in the
video looks a little like her, but it can’t be
her.”
“Am I the only one wondering who the guy on
the ground is?”
The chat was buzzing.
When I didn’t respond, the topic shifted back
to congratulating me on the Gold Medal.
I just typed “Thanks” in the chat.
I ignored the questions about the video.
Streetlights glittered, the night air cool.
I opened the video and stared at the person
<
on screen, the one screaming her heart out.
She felt like a stranger, a ghost from another
life.
My phone started ringing.
It was an unfamiliar number.
I usually ignore calls from numbers I don’t
know, so I almost hung up.
But I was still reeling from the video, a little
out of it.
My finger slipped and I accidentally answered.
On the other end, I heard Jake’s voice.
It was clearly him, though I hadn’t heard it in
く
five years.
He sounded rattled, urgent.
“That’s really you in that video?”
The sound of that voice, so familiar, so
achingly clear, hit me hard.
It was like an invisible fist squeezing my
heart.
My breath hitched.
I felt like I’d been caught red–handed.
I fumbled to hang up.
His voice, trembling, cut through.
“You actually cared? What? I never knew.”