The Lonely Moon

The Warmth of Another

 The next morning I woke, not with a start like normal, but the the warmth of another next to me. I tried to roll over, but quickly realized that Sarah was holding me while she slept. I decided what was the harm in missing school today and decided to go back to sleep. The next time I woke up, the warmth was gone and I shot up in a cold sweat with tears streaming down my face. I heard Sarah across the room ask me, "Are you okay?" I said back to her, hiding my eyes, "Yes, just nightmares, but while you were next to me, I didn't wake up terrified." Sarah walked back over to the bed. I noticed that she had my mask in her hands. She says, "I hope you don't mind, but I was just looking at it for a little bit, it's very well crafted. You can hardly tell the difference between this fake eye and a real one. Who made it?" I respond, "I did because I couldn't handle the stares and ridicule." She puts the mask down, hugs me and whispers in my ear, "I don't think you should wear it, you are perfect just the way you are." I return her hug and reply, "Maybe I can go without it, but it may still be hard for me, by the way what time is it?" She chuckles a little, "It's almost noon. We completely just skipped school." I stand up and say, "Oh well, it's Monday so nothing important happened today anyways."  "I guess you have a point." Sarah looks at me with such a sweet smile, it makes it impossible for me not to smile back. She gets closer to me and starts to examine my face, touching it here and there, occasionally touching one of the sensitive ares and making me cringe a little. After she was down she backed away a little and said, "Sorry, I know I just started doing that out of nowhere, but I was just curious." I say, "It's okay, I have never had anyone interested in actually looking at this side of my face, usually they just say disgusting or that I'm a freak and walk away." Sarah lays down, putting her head in my lap and says, "I think it's proof of your courage, but I think that way because of knowing your story, before I heard that I just thought of the sadness and pain it causes you." I smile at her and say, "You are the first person to tell me that it proves my courage, but I guess you couldn't say that without knowing the story behind my face." She sits up and moves to my side, grabbing my arm and whispers in my ear, "Will you hear what I have to say?" "Sure." I say as I was caught of guard by that. "Will you go out with me? Will you be my boyfriend?" She says will stuttering. I look over in surprise and say in embarrassment, "Are you sure you want that? Does my face really not bother you?" She looks directly into my vacant eye socket and says, "No because I know that you got it trying to save someone who was important to you, you got it trying to protect, that makes me love you even more." I close my eyes and when I do, I realize that the only thing that I feel at that moment was her warmth surrounded me and holding me, comforting me. I put my arm around her shoulder and pull her closer to me and say in a low voice, "Then I will accept your offer, I will become your boyfriend and you will be my girlfriend." She smiles so brightly that it would put the sun to shame and hugs me tightly. I close my eyes again smiling, thinking to myself that the warmth of another is a wonderful thing.