Read Colorblind for Free Online Page B

we were facing each other and, thankfully, listened to me. “Don’t shoot me and I won’t shoot you,” I explained.
    She looked mildly frustrated with me as she lowered her arm, gun hanging from her hand at her side now. “You choose now of all times to team up? How many times have you shot me?”
    “More than Robbie,” I explained proudly. “I think I’m up by one. I’m gonna win.”
    She scoffed, and I looked down at our bodies, suddenly aware of how close we were. Her face was so close to mine that I could feel her breath, and I could tell by the hitch in it that she’d just noticed our proximity too. I tried to readjust our positions, but she stopped me.
    “Shh. He’ll hear.” She was right, and her smirk told me she knew it. My heart rate picked up as she leaned in close to my ear. Her breath tickled my cheek as she whispered, “I suck at laser tag, but this is a lot of fun. Next time we should lose the boy.”
    My heart hammered harder. If Robbie couldn’t hear our whispers, I was sure he’d find us just by listening for the sound of my pulse.
    Chloe leaned away and reached up to tug lightly at a strand of my hair, grinning at me. She bit her bottom lip in a way that looked practiced, drawing my eyes to the motion, and then grinned wider as she dropped the strand of my hair and moved to trace her index finger up along my jawline instead. Her touch was softer now. Her thumb skimmed across my cheek and my pulse quickened to a rate I was sure it’d never reached before. My back was pressed against the wall and she was pressed against me, so I wasn’t sure I could leave her, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. My gaze hooded, I glanced back down at her lips again. She moved closer, and our noses brushed. She was going to kiss me. I closed my eyes…
    And then I was twelve. I was twelve, and I was at a hospital, watching through a large glass window as the nurse on the other side quickly moved to pull a curtain across. Behind her, a team of doctors and surgeons surrounded a table my mother rested on. She disappeared from view, shielded by the curtain, but I could hear the heart monitor beeping so quickly, at a pace I was sure my own pulse could never reach. I pressed my right hand against the glass and let out a sob as my dad gripped my left…
    I opened my eyes and registered a new kind of beeping even as Chloe jerked back away from me, surprise registering on her face. Her vest was beeping and flashing red, and behind her stood Robbie, his gun poised and pointed at her. His face looked almost comically grim as he leaned to the side just slightly, pointed his gun at me, and pulled the trigger several times in succession. My vest lit up just before the voice came over the intercom again. “Alright, guys. Time’s up. Close game; it was a one-point difference in the end. Come on out and check out your scores.”
    I looked from Robbie, who clearly knew exactly what he’d just happened upon, to Chloe, who was red-faced, embarrassed, and hadn’t taken her eyes off of me. And then I moved quickly, brushing past the both of them and hurrying out of the maze.
    “Harper!” Chloe called after me, but I ignored her. I burst out of the smoke, shrugged off my vest and returned my gun, but didn’t glance at the scores. Instead, I went directly to the bag I’d brought, fished out my car key, and handed it to the very confused employee who’d been watching me the whole time.
    “Give this to my friends,” I told him.
    And then I ran.
    I sprinted all the way home on foot, over three hours earlier than I’d planned on leaving the arcade. I ran until my legs were sore and straining and until my throat was aching and dried up from panting and until my heart was thudding so hard it felt like it was trying to tear its way out of my chest.
    I collapsed on the sidewalk at the entrance to my neighborhood twenty minutes later and pulled my knees up to my chest, struggling to get my breathing even. I buried my head between