The Lonely Moon

The Diner

I woke up the next day still thinking about what Sarah had said last night, thinking back on it I was too shocked to give her an answer, I should give her an answer as soon as possible, but today I have to go to work, so I don't have time to. I get dressed for work and head downstairs, surprised to find Sarah in the kitchen making breakfast. I look over at her and say, "You seem to be up early, for a Saturday." I clearly caught her off guard because she jumped a little and said back, "I always wake up early on the weekends, no point in wasting them sleeping." I tilt my head and say, "Well I guess you have a point there." She finally notices what I'm wearing and asks, "What's with the getup?" I say back, "I work on the weekends at a small diner a little ways away." She stares at me in disbelief, "Really, you have a job?" I look at her, "Yes I do, one that I intend to keep for the entire time I'm in school. I have to get going or I'll be late, thanks for making breakfast though, I'll grab some when I get off work." With that I said goodbye and walked out the door. I walk at a normal pace because work is the one place I don't want to be late to. It's about a 10 minute walk from her house to the diner and when I get there, the owner of the diner sees me come in and greets me, "Good morning John, it's good to see someone your age concerned with being on time to work." He seemed a little aggravated, so I asked him, "Did something happen?" He looked up from the newspaper he was reading with a bit of an annoyed expression and says, "Yes, that other young man, Matt I think his name was, called and said that he would be late because his alarm didn't wake him up. Humph, more like he just went back to sleep. Enough about that though, how are you John?" One of the things about the owner is that he cared about all his employees like it was his own family, which sometimes got annoying, but most of the time it wasn't too bad. I stare at him blankly and say, "I'm doing alright, I got into another fight with my dad, so I'm staying at a classmates house." He stands up and looks at me in concern, "How bad did he hit you this time?" I look at him, knowing that I can tell him this, " He hit my in the gut a lot, enough for it to hurt, but it doesn't matter know, I made my intentions known to him, so the only reason I will visit that house is to visit mom." He sits back down, "Good, you need to get away from your father. Do you know what brought on this one?" "I told them that I was going to be staying at a classmates house and he freaked out like I was trying to run from him." The owner goes back to the paper and says, "Well at least you're out now." That was the end of the conversation. The rest of the day went by without incident. As I started to leave I said goodbye to my coworkers and the owner. When I stepped outside, Sarah was waiting outside for me. I said, "Hey, what are you doing here?" She said, " I thought I would walk with you home." "How did you know what time I get off work?" She looks down a little, " I saw your schedule sitting on your desk, sorry I didn't mean to snoop around your room." I say while starting to walk, "It's okay, I don't mind." So we started walking home, on our way we stopped by the way at the market to pick up something to make for dinner. As we walked home, I looked over at her and realized, that for the first time in a long time that I was actually enjoying myself. When we got back to the house, Sarah started cooking dinner while I sat in the living room, I offered to help her, but she insisted that since I worked today that she would cook today. As we were sitting at the table eating she kept fidgeting and looking up at me and then immediately away. Finally I got tired of it and asked her, "What's wrong?" She was surprised, "I have just been thinking about what I said last night and how you never gave me an answer back or said anything in response." I looked up from the food and said, "I can't say I love you yet and mean it, but I do have feelings for you and I still want to know more about you and be around you as much as possible, but as for your answer, I don't have it yet." She looked down and said, "Well, that's better then what I thought you might say, it's okay I can be patient and wait, but I want you to know that my feelings won't change no matter what. I also have a question." "What is it?" She looks nervous, " Can I look behind your mask again, the last time I was too concerned with you that I didn't get a good look. I would like to look if you don't mind." I stood up from the table and moved to the light in the room and, hesitating, I took off my mask. She got up and got closer and as she looked, her expression went from one of concern, to anger, to sadness. Finally she sat back down and said, "Thank you for showing me that, I didn't know that the eye on the mask wasn't yours." I put my mask on, " I didn't want people to have another reason to ridicule me so I wear the mask to hide all of that." My face is disfigured badly, scars, deep cuts, burns and my eye missing.  We finish eating and as she is about to head upstairs she asks, "Do you work tomorrow?" "No I don't, I have tomorrow off. Why?" She shied away and said, "I just wanted to know if we could spend the day together." "Sure." I said. With a happy expression she went off to bed and I followed shortly after, wanting to wake up early so I could spend some more time with her.