Page 15 of The Wicked

“White is also the absence of all colors,” I said before I could catch my tongue, and his gaze shifted to me, then to my arm as if to remind me what had happened the last time I contradicted something he said. But I didn’t back down. “Green is also the absence of all colors; basically, all colors are the absence of all other colors, so how can you say you do notfancycolors in general?”

His right brow lifted. But he didn’t break eye contact, and I refused to look away, either. I noticed the music in the background beginning to ascend slowly.

“Aside from stealing money from people who can kill you, you like physics too,” he said.

“It wasn’t a physics question.”

“It sounded that way to me.”

“You just didn’t make any sense. I was only trying to understand you.”

From the corner of my eye I could see Casmiro’s eyes widen and Angelo shift uncomfortably.

“I didn’t make any sense,” Elio stated as if testing the words on his tongue.

“Yes, you—”

“Zahra.” Devil’s voice came out in a low hum of warning.

“What? I was only pointing out what I thought was an error ofthought. Isn’t that allowed around here?” I raised a brow, looking around like we had an actual audience, before meeting Elio’s gaze again.

The silence stretched, and I was glad because I saw the shift in his eyes.

The man was…angry.

“Seriously, cut it out,” Devil said.

I felt the fear I’d once harbored slipping away as control took over.

I counted up to five in my head before looking away from him, and the moment I did, Upper spoke up. “I think Zahra’s right.”

“Fucking hell,” Devil whispered under his breath.

“The color green is the absence of all colors, pink too, brown, yellow—all of the bloody colors, so like—black, they all stand on their own.”

“Isn’t black a shade?” Dog piped up, and I smiled, leaning back on the chair, glad everything was playing out how my mind wanted it to. “I read once that black and white aren’t colors but shades?”

“What the fuck is the difference, Dog?” Upper countered.

“I’m here wondering how Dog got that information,” Milk added.

“Found some textbooks in a dumpster once. One was about all the fucking colors; I don’t even know why I read that shit. I don’t know why it stuck too.”

“We’re all gonna die,” Devil muttered again.

“Black and white are augmented colors. Not like the other colors; they’re like the parents of all colors,” Milk said, nodding as if she was only just understanding what she said.

“Colors don’t have parents, Milk. You’re an airhead,” Upper said.

“You’re the airhead if you don’t understand simple metaphors, Upper.”

“I know bloody metaphors; I went to school, unlike you and these other shitheads.”

“When the fuck did you have the time to go to school?” Dog asked.

“We’re all dead.” Devil rubbed both his eyes in defeat as he shook his head, the music in the background ascending even further.

“He probably climbed up school roofs and hid in their ventilators just to attend classes,” Milk said with a smart-ass smile curling her lips.