Peacock Green by Charley Rogers

The colour is Peacock Green. Or so it says on the bottle.

The shimmer catches the light, and she sparkles as she moves.

Peacock Green. Bold, bright, assertive. She paints on the colour hoping its essence will seep through her nails, through her hands, into her skin, her blood. That she will become this bold and courageous colour – embody it, project it.

The colour is Peacock Green. Or so she tells her friends when they ask.

The shade catches the eye, and she feels stylish holding a drink.

She wears the colour hoping people will relate its essence to her, thinking her complex, interesting, outgoing. That someone will notice her Peacock-Green-painted nails, the ones on her dainty and feminine hands, and ask her to dance.

Peacock Green. Or so she thinks, noticing the chips in the veneer as she picks up her jeans from the bedroom floor, trying her best to negate the brash notes emanating from these once-ethereal talons.

In the harsh light of day the paint is uneven, gaudy. The chips reveal raw, bitten nails underneath. She hides her hands, hides the colour, hoping he won’t wake and notice her slipping out the door. Quiet. Unseen.

Charley Rogers is an English Lit. graduate of the University of St. Andrews and Cardiff University, and lives in Cardiff with her partner. She loves science fiction, speculative fiction, and anything unusual, and is the editor at Paragraph Press. Charley is also a contributor to the Wales Arts Review, writing mainly on Sci Fi.