blue is for nightmares by laurie faria stolarz

I touch the top end of the candle with my oily finger. It’s no wonder why every guy at Hillcrest wants her, why every girl hates her-why Chad keeps coming back, even after three breakups. Even after midnight, with no visible trace of makeup, not a smidgen of cover-up, hair knotted up in a rubber band, she still looks perfect-angled cheeks salmon- pink, pouty lips loopy, golden hair and cat-shaped eyes with curled, jet-black lashes. I watch as she closes her eyes, as her lips settle for sleep, as the muscles around her forehead loosen and relax. Don’t you have a French test tomorrow morning? She rolls over onto her side and pulls the covers up to her chin. I have a serious history presentation tomorrow.ĭrea and I have been roommates for a little over two years, so she’s used to rituals like this. Just do me a favor and don’t burn the dorm down. She nods and yawns, caps her feather-tipped pen, and closes up the diary. I unscrew the cap off the bottle of olive oil and pour a few droplets onto my finger. Then I drop it into the orange clay pot by my bed. I wind a piece of string around it for a cleaner burn, so it won’t be as smoky, so I’ll have less chance of getting in trouble. It’s perfect for burning, all dried up-the leaves shriveled, twisted and gray. With the last curl of the S, I place the razor to the side and pluck a branch of sage from the drawer. They’re Drea’s initials, but she doesn’t suspect a thing, just keeps scribbling away in her diary, like any other night, sitting up in her bed, only a few feet away. into the rounded side, tiny flakes of sparkling blue wax crumbling from the surface with each incision and every drag of the blade. Then I grab the virgin candle and carve the initials D.

I pinch the safety end of the razor blade between three fingers to write. And the pain in my stomach-sharp, raw, scathing. Wind whirring in my ears, watering my eyes. The sound of his body lurking somewhere behind me. Always at night, in the forest, looking for Drea.

Blue is for nightmares by laurie faria stolarz