Chapter 1: The color purple...

Em lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling, but not seeing it. Her arms straight out from her shoulders, hands hanging off either side of her bed. The familiar comfort of her bed underneath her, she lay thinking thoughts that no words could express.

She lay still, listening to her breathing, listening to her roommates laughing and talking in the living room. Not roommates, actually, but housemates. Who really pays much attention to the difference anyway? She felt alone, but not lonely. At peace with herself and her thoughts, at least for the moment.

As she sat up, she looked at her hand, noticing the lavender comforter and blanket underneath.

Purple.

The color speaks of passion, of royalty. Yet the shades she favored were soft, gentle, comforting.

Like me, she thinks to herself. She knows there is passion within her, but it doesn't always get a chance to come out, stifled as it is. Most of the time she feels soft, gentle, but knows there is a wild passion within that struggles to get out, like a tiger in a cage. Pacing, pacing, back and forth.

Sometime a paw would bat out from the cage. A thought popping into her head. Like a random little desire to say fuck for no reason. The word rolls over and over in her brain, despite the fact it won't actually pop out. She almost cherishes it, despite the utterance of cuss words being against her habits and tendencies.

So there she sat, a shell of gentleness, softness, caging the passionate tiger within.