Luna grumbled again at how hard it was to write with a metal brace over her hand, when she was sitting at the table trying to do her homework. It had been a couple days since she got out of the hospital and was still in a wheel chair.
Simon chuckled, again. “You’re making it harder than it is. Just write like normal.”
“That’s just like giving you chopsticks and telling you to eat like normal.” she complained.
“Actually, I’m quite skilled at the art of chopsticks.”
Luna looked at him, dubious. “There’s an art for chopsticks.”
He shrugged. “Beats me, I hate Chinese food.”
In response, she threw the pencil at him, and he ducked grinning. They both dissolved into laughter, and Luna ended up getting nothing done.
Dad’s convention extended longer, but he called and promised that he’d be home soon. He sounded worried that he wasn’t there when Luna had woken up at the hospital, but she reassured him that she was fine.
“You don’t mind Simon being there, do you?” he asked.
“Don’t worry, Dad. I’m fine.” More than fine, actually.
“I just don’t want you to feel uncomfortable… you know?” he said, awkwardly.
Luna closed her eyes. “Dad, I’m fine.”
“Okay… I just don’t need to have a talk with you, do I?”
“No!” she practically screamed.
She could hear him laughing in the background, and a scowl came to her face.
“Seriously, Luna,” he said, serious again. “I just want you to be comfortable.”
“I think I can defend myself, if I really need to, Dad.”
“Alright, alright, I’m backing off. Don’t strain yourself too much.”
“Okay. Love you, Dad.”
“Love you, too.”
So now she sat on the sofa with Simon as her pillow, watching the TV. Everything felt perfect for once, since she found out that she only had two months left -not two years.
“Aren’t you scared?” Simon asked abruptly, when commercials came on.
“Scared?” she said, taken back by his random question.
“Yeah. You know, knowing that you’ll…” he trailed off, not wanting to say it out loud.
Luna leaned her head against Simon’s shoulder. “Not as much as I thought I’d be. I mean, it’s impossible to think of… not existing. I had so many hopes for my life, even if it meant that my leukemia would stay with me forever, I just thought everything would be alright.”
Simon brought his arm around her shoulders, comforting.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she continued. “but I wanted… I wanted a shot at what we were all born to do.”
He looked down at her. “And what were we born to do, Luna? Some of us wonder what our purpose in life is, you know.”
Then, Luna realized that she knew little about Simon’s past or what happened to make it so that he came to live with her.
But she looked at him straight in those blue eyes that had held her captive the moment he’d saved her from the ocean. “To live.”
Those two words rocked through Simon’s body. Luna’s cloud shaded eyes looked at him with sincerity and truth, that told him that she knew what she was talking about.
YOU ARE READING
Heavenly Refuge
RomanceShe's told she would die. A disease that takes away every breath. What would you do if you were in her shoes? Luna Moon, a girl who's fate is to die by cancer's hands, is lost. She doesn't know where to turn. Until a strange guy saves her from drown...
