Message from the Moon

Chapter 8

Xethe and I became quite the spectacle over the course of our work. It got to the point where we didn't even acknowledge the oglers peering in the room. Curiosity got the better of a few of them, so on occasion we were forced to notice the eyes when the nose between them poked over our shoulders.

Some simply wanted to see the progress we were making, if any. Others were a tad more forward. They would take my face in their hands, marvelling at the contrast between our skin tones, the brown of my eyes, the thickness of my hair. They would try to run their fingers over the dark acne scars on my cheeks and the white jagged scar on my chin, and would voice exclamations when a blush heated their palms.

Though this happened over a dozen times, I never quite got used to it. I did stop jerking away after the first few. It was still incredibly uncomfortable, but I got a close look at a fair few pairs of eyes. Of the dozens, I only ever saw one other set  with another touch of color speckled within the icy blue. That person had light orange.

Spending almost literally every waking second with someone really drains your ability to stick with small talk, so eventually we found ourselves in much deeper conversations, to keep from fading into complete silence. One of the things I asked Xethe about was the purple in xyr eyes.

"Have you truly only seen one other with any color? What color do you see us all as?" Xe seemed taken aback by my question.

My cheeks burned at the tone of xyr voice, my chest cringing inward as the dunce cap rose from my brow. "Well, yeah, aren't you all just white?"

When xe burst out laughing, I just about jumped right through the wall and out the ship. Immediately, my skin began to crawl. I said something wrong, I knew I did. The familiar feeling was creeping its way into the blush of my cheeks. I hate feeling stupid, and I hate the feeling like I deserve to be punished for every slightly less than smart remark I make. But Xethe didn't seem to notice the shimmering of my eyes as I tracked xyr hands. When they came to rest on either cheek, I remained frozen so solid I might as well have been a statue.

"I forgot that your eyes are different from mine," xe was saying, gently pulling down my lids. "Ah, yes, look at that. Rods and cones to process light. How very Earthen of you."

Though xyr tone suggested teasing, my heart rate refused to slow. "Xethe," I whispered. "Please stop touching me."

Xyr hands were immediately gone, but it was still difficult to slow my breathing. That had happened too fast. I could hardly handle these feelings when I was in a good mindset, but being trapped on the Moon while desperately trying to stop the next mass extinction was not doing wonders for my mental health, as you can imagine.

"Are you alright?"

I blinked before looking into xyr worried gaze. Guilt seized my throat.

"Ah," I spluttered. "Yes, I... I'm so sorry, that was dramatic, we can just ignore that..."

"Riley, please tell me what's wrong."

My eyes dropped to my toes. "It's nothing," I mumbled. "Just a dumb reaction I can never seem to stop. I'm sorry if I made you feel bad or anything."

"Do not worry about me. Please, help me to understand so that I may refrain from doing so again."

The suffocating feeling in my chest grew the longer xe looked at me. I floundered, trying to get my brain to focus. But all that would rise to my tongue were further apologies.

"Riley," xe murmured. I forced myself to make eye contact. Xyr gentle smile broke through the buzzing. Just a tiny bit. "You are alright. I apologize for what I did to make you unhappy. I am not angry with you, I promise. Please, just tell me how I can be better so that I can refrain from causing you distress again."