flavors.

everywhere she went, the people around her were glowing, every color of the rainbow. every aura came with a taste. strawberry red, creamsicle orange, lemon yellow, kiwi green, blueberry blue, and grape purple. she could see if they were aggressive, creative, optimistic, ambitious, calm, or independent. her mother was milky honeyed blue, protective of and nurturing her two daughters, tall and serene. her father was bell pepper vermillion, an optimistic light in her life who was fascinated and passionate about his work as a physicist. her sister was lime green, calm and a little quirky, who loved to travel and to take photos of nature. even her cat had a color, raspberry purple, playful and energetic, always climbing over their birchwood fence and running around the neighborhood, chasing after butterflies.

and her? she was deep, midnight black. the absence of color. the absence of taste.

and then she met him. and he was white. sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami white. all the colors. and all the tastes.