Color-blindness
"Lorenzo, where's your homework?"
"Homework? Did we have math homework over the summer?" Lorenzo asked, turning to face his stepbrother, Chet, who was sitting to the left of him.
"Yeah. Did you forget about it?" Chet answered.
"Well, we were busy doing the Race, remember?"
"Oh, right."
"Well then," the teacher began, "Lorenzo, since you don't have your homework, maybe you can redeem yourself by telling me the gradient of the purple line on the board." She pointed to the whiteboard.
Lorenzo looked up at the whiteboard, which had a grid drawn on it in black, and a number of different colored lines. He counted one red, one orange, two yellow, one brown, and two blue, but no purple.
"You do remember how to calculate the gradient of a straight line, Lorenzo?" the teacher asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I do, but…um…" Lorenzo stalled.
"Lorenzo, the purple one. It's perpendicular to the blue one."
"Fuck." Lorenzo cursed under his breath. There were two blue ones!
"What did you say?" the teacher demanded.
"Nothing! I…"
"You will be seeing me after class, understood?" the teacher ordered.
"Yes." Lorenzo replied meekly.
Chet waited outside, while inside the classroom, the teacher berated Lorenzo on his choice of words. He could already tell that they were going to be late for English.
Chet didn't get it. He could calculate the gradient of the purple line in a few seconds, but when he saw Lorenzo's eyes scanning the whiteboard, it didn't make sense. Lorenzo wasn't terrible at Math; he got a final grade of D+ last year.
So what was the problem? It's not like Lorenzo couldn't see the line…
His thoughts were interrupted when Lorenzo came out of the classroom.
"We should probably get going. We'll be late for English." Lorenzo stated.
"You don't say." Chet replied sarcastically.
"You're late, boys." Their English teacher stated.
"Sorry, sir." Chet replied.
"Try to be on time tomorrow."
"Yes, sir." Chet and Lorenzo made their way to their seats at the back, sitting down and pulling out their books. Chet pulled out his pencil case and some spare paper, searching his pencil case for colored pencils and ripping off a piece of paper. He wrote on the paper in purple and handed it to Lorenzo.
Lorenzo's attention turned from the teacher to Chet as his stepbrother handed him a note. He unfolded it, and saw that it was written in blue pencil. The message was:
What color is this? -
Lorenzo looked at Chet with an expression that said Are you serious? Chet gestured to the note, and Lorenzo rolled his eyes and wrote his reply in blue pen, handing it back to Chet. Chet read his reply:
Blue
Chet was very confused at this point. He ripped off another piece of paper and wrote the same question in blue pencil before handing it to Lorenzo, who wrote the same reply:
Blue
Chet did the same thing with every color of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, light green, dark green, pink, brown, gray, and black. The replies were: red, orange, yellow, yellow, brown, gray, brown, gray, and black, respectively. Chet wondered if Lorenzo needed glasses.
"What are you boys doing back here?" Chet looked up to see the teacher looming over him and panicked.
"Um… nothing, sir." Chet replied.
"Really? Then what are these?" the teacher asked, picking up the pieces of paper and going through all of them, while Chet bit his lip nervously.
"And why, Chet," The teacher began suddenly, "are you asking Lorenzo about colors? Surely, you know them all by now, at seventeen years old."
Some of the other students giggled. Chet felt like he wanted to disappear into thin air, but he didn't want to leave Lorenzo to be humiliated.
"What about you, Lorenzo? Do you know the colors of the rainbow, or should we send you back to pre-school?" the teacher asked, turning on Lorenzo. More students tried to stifle their laughter.
Lorenzo scowled at the teacher. "I know the colors of the rainbow." He stated.
"Oh, that's good," the teacher snarked, "then perhaps you should name them, refresh your stepbrother's memory." Chet blushed, trying to hide his face, while Lorenzo rolled his eyes.
"Red, orange, yellow, yellow, blue, and blue." Lorenzo listed the colors. The rest of the class thought that this was weird for some reason, as they all started whispering amongst themselves.
"Could you repeat that, please, Lorenzo?" the teacher asked.
Lorenzo sighed. "Red, orange, yellow, yellow, blue, and blue." He repeated.
"You just listed yellow and blue twice." The teacher pointed out.
"Yeah, because those are the colors of the rainbow." Lorenzo stated.
"Is that right? Well, then, I'll be sending an email to your parents. Next time, try to refrain from trading notes in class." The teacher walked back to the front of the class to continue his lesson.
"Yes, sir." Lorenzo responded monotonously.
"Your father received an email from your English teacher this afternoon." Alice stated.
"Really? I wouldn't have guessed." Lorenzo snarked.
Alice set down the glass of wine she held in her hands on the kitchen counter, and glared at her stepson. Lorenzo could handle a lot of glares, he did it all day, but he couldn't help getting scared when Alice glared at him. Her glares were the most menacing, and neither Lorenzo nor Chet wanted to make her mad.
"Sorry, mom." Lorenzo apologised, looking down at his feet. Alice's expression immediately softened, and she sighed.
"He mentioned something about your vision, that you might be color-blind?" she stated, uncertain.
"What does that mean?" Lorenzo asked.
"I don't know, but we've arranged a doctor's appointment for tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay."
Chet sat in Math class, doing a pop quiz alone, because Lorenzo had been at the doctor's all morning. His mom said something about color-blindness, but he didn't understand a word of it. He was too busy worrying about his stepbrother.
A cute girl sitting to his left momentarily distracted Chet from his work. He wondered if she always sat there. When the girl looked up and saw him, she smiled and waved, making Chet blush, but he smiled awkwardly and waved back. The girl's expression became a worried one, as she gestured to her nose and then to Chet. Chet was confused, putting a hand up to his nose and feeling a warm liquid trickle onto his fingers. Chet looked down at his hand, seeing a line of red accompanied by droplets of the same color, and realising that he had a nosebleed.
"Fuck." He cursed under his breath.
"Language, Chet." The teacher stated aloud. Chet looked up to see the teacher glaring at him.
"Sorry, miss," he apologised, his voice nasally due to him pinching his nose shut to keep the blood from getting out, "I have a nosebleed. Can I be excused?"
"Be quick about it." The teacher demanded. Chet nodded, and speed-walked out of the classroom. On his way to the bathroom, he bumped into none other than his own stepbrother.
"What happened to you?" Lorenzo asked.
"Saw a cute girl." Chet explained. "Followed by nosebleed."
"Really? I didn't realise you were so anime." Lorenzo mocked.
"Shut up."
"We have Math right now, don't we?"
"Yeah, but I wouldn't go in there right now. The teacher gave us a pop quiz. Besides, the bell rings in five minutes anyway, so I'll just go get cleaned up and we'll go back at the last second to get my stuff, then we can just go to English straight after."
"Wow, that made you sound smarter than you actually are."
Chet glared at Lorenzo as he opened the door to the boy's bathroom, immediately going to the sink and washing his face. Lorenzo leaned against the wall next to his stepbrother.
"So what did the doctor say?" asked Chet as he wiped off his face, "Are you really color-blind?"
"Yeah." Lorenzo replied, slightly annoyed.
"How long does it last?"
"Forever."
"Can't you get surgery or something?"
"No."
"Well, there's gotta be something we can do about it."
"I've lived my entire life with color-blindness so far. I can deal. If you can find a cure, let me know, but otherwise, let's just not talk about it."
Chet threw the paper towels soaked in water and blood into the garbage. "Okay. Got any tissues?" he asked Lorenzo.
Lorenzo pulled a packet of tissues out of his bag and handed them to Chet, who thanked him, and not a second later, the two heard the bell ring outside.
"Hurry up, we'll be late for English." Lorenzo stated, already walking out the door. Chet stuffed two tissues up each nostril and followed him.
Chet was up late that night on his laptop, searching for possible cures for color-blindness. No matter what he typed into the search bar, all the results said the same thing: color-blindness is incurable. Chet got more and more frustrated for every minute that passed.
Chet just couldn't imagine a world without green, pink, or purple. But once he knew about Lorenzo's color-blindness, Chet realised that he didn't really appreciate the fact that he could see those colors, while some people couldn't. That was just plain unfair, so Chet wanted to make sure that Lorenzo got the full experience that the world had to offer.
Chet looked at time on his laptop, which said 1:34 am. He was about to give up, when he found a video about a man who was color-blind that got a pair of glasses that gave him the able to see all of the colors he couldn't before. Chet went to the website selling the glasses, and saw that even the cheapest one was at least $350. If he bought those glasses, Chet wouldn't be able to buy that new videogame coming out this year.
He wondered if it was worth it. And then Chet remembered that it wasn't for him. Besides, he could always buy the game later in the year, when it would be cheaper. Chet bought the glasses.
Lorenzo would be in for a big surprise.
Two Weeks Later
Lorenzo was getting a drink from the fridge when he heard the doorbell ring, about to answer it before Chet came sprinting down the hallway.
"I got it!" Chet called out. Lorenzo returned his attention to the fridge. Chet came into the kitchen a minute later, setting a small, cardboard box on the kitchen counter, and going to get a pair of scissors. Lorenzo decided to settle for a beer. His dad and Alice weren't at home, so he figured that this would be the best opportunity for him.
Chet came back with the scissors and opened the box, pulling out a pair of glasses with a black rim and tinted lenses. Lorenzo was about to ask what they were, before Chet put them on his face.
"Um, what are you doing?" Lorenzo asked, suspicious.
Chet had a grin on his face that usually meant Chet knew something Lorenzo didn't. "Have a look around." Chet suggested.
Lorenzo closed the fridge door, glancing the sticky notes plastered across its surface, before doing a double take when he noticed that something was off. Way off.
Lorenzo could distinguish six different colors.
He saw orange, yellow, and blue, as usual, but there were three colors he didn't recognise. He picked up one sticky note, lifting his glasses so he could see normally. Without the glasses, it was gray, but with the glasses, it was what Lorenzo assumed was a lighter shade of red.
"Chet," Lorenzo began, uncertain, "is this pink?" he asked.
Chet nodded, his grin getting wider. "Yeah, that's pink." He confirmed.
Lorenzo couldn't believe it. He took another sticky note off the fridge, looking at it both with and without the glasses. With the glasses, he could tell that there was some yellow in the new color, but he could only guess the second color was… blue? Chet told him that yellow and blue made green… is that what this was?
"Is this green?" Lorenzo asked his stepbrother.
Chet nodded. "Look down at your shirt. What color is that?" Chet asked in reply.
Lorenzo did what Chet suggested, and at that point, Lorenzo was straight up tripping balls. Until now, Lorenzo thought his shirt was blue. But with the new glasses, he could still see blue, but it was mixed with another color that he couldn't guess. Lorenzo thought about the colors he couldn't see normally: green, pink, and purple. He'd already established the first two, so all that was left was…
"Is this purple?" Lorenzo asked, his voice breaking a bit.
Chet's grin spread all the way across his face as he nodded.
"What the fuck." Lorenzo stated, completely mind-blown.
Chet grabbed Lorenzo by the arm and led him outside. "Well?" he asked Lorenzo. "What do you think?"
Lorenzo was speechless. Before today, he had no concept of how beautiful the world actually was, full of color and life, but now, he could actually appreciate it for what it was worth. He looked at the grass, which was a vibrant green, and at the neighbour's flower garden, full of pink and purple tulips. He caught sight of the sprinkler, and the light shining through the drops of water created a mini rainbow, but this time, Lorenzo could see all seven colors. He felt tears welling up in his eyes and one fell down his cheek.
"Are you crying?" Chet asked.
"I'm not crying, you're crying!" Lorenzo retaliated as the rest of his tears streaked down his face. He stifled a sob.
Chet pulled his stepbrother in for a hug, and Lorenzo sobbed into Chet's shoulder.
"Emotional, much?" Chet mocked.
"Shut up." Lorenzo argued. "But seriously, dude, thank you. I mean it." He said, wiping tears off his face and sniffling.
"That was a real "what the fuck" moment, huh?"
Lorenzo nodded. "I love you, man." He mumbled into Chet's purple shirt.
"Love you too, bro."
The End