This 0ne Guy

Part 12: The Mask

Torrence shook his head smiling "Nope, see those date there?" He pointed to various Signs on the calendar and continued, "So say you were born on April 1st, you would be an Aries" He explained

Olivia had a look on her face of sudden realisation and she smiled. "Oh that's so cool! ME next!" she said excitedly and took the calendar from Torrence. She slowly read through the different signs and finally she stopped and pointed at one. "This ones my sign" she said pointing at Libra. "September 30th, right in the middle" She beamed and handed the calendar back to Torrence. He smiled and took it, placing it back into the drawer and turning to face Olivia.

"I'm glad you are having fun" He smiled and took her cup from the floor. A timer went off from somewhere and Torrence perked up. "Dinners ready" he said and turned towards the door. He paused before leaving "Come on, I know you are hungry" He told Olivia as she reluctantly stood up.

She groaned and followed Torrence up a few flights of stairs, through some hallways and miraculously, they made it to the kitchen. Torrence motioned for Olivia to sit down when they both were inside the dining room. "So what's for dinner?" Olivia asked rubbing at her mask and sitting down in a chair.

"Don't touch your mask" Torrence warned her sternly.

"Why?" Olivia asked.

"Because your skin hasn't healed yet" Torrence explained

"But it's itchy" She told him.

"Then we will put some ointment on it before we eat" Torrence said as he took two bowls out of the cupboard. There was a pot on the stove with red juice in it and some shell noodles.

Olivia nodded at Torrence and stood up, "where is the ointment?" She asked and stood up. Torrence served the two bowls full of the soup and sprinkled some cheese, pepper, and salt into both.

"The ointment is in my pocket" Torrence told her and placed the bowls on the table. To Olivia's surprise it smelled so good. Her mouth watered and she folded her hands in front of her. "Do you want me to apply it or are you more comfortable doing it yourself?" Torrence asked and held out the tube.

"I want to do it" Olivia volunteered and took the tube from his hand. "Where is a mirror?" She asked, looking around.

"There is one in the bathroom" Torrence told her motioned for her to follow him. They exited the kitchen and right there was the door to a restroom. "Here you go" Torrence said and opened the door for Olivia.

She walked in "Thanks" she muttered and closed the door behind her. Now, totally alone, Olivia slowly removed her mask in the isolation of the bathroom. The skin underneath was bumpy and displayed a bright red color. Olivia noticed that upon her removing the mask, it began to itch a little more. She brought her hand up to the side of her face and it stung when she brushed her nail against it, even she was gentle. There were flakes of skin beginning to peel off towards the outside of her face and she gingerly picked them off, making sure to not touch the side of her face with her nails. After cleaning up the side of her face as best she could, she put some warm water on some toilet paper and carefully laid it across the infection.

To Olivia's relief, the paper quickly cooled down and made the itching go away. She smiled and waited a moment before taking them off and opening the ointment bottle. It was a brand new bottle so Olivia had to poke the end of it out with the cap. Once it was open, she squeezed a little onto her finger and slowly massaged it into her face. Luckily, that did not hurt when she did this, it just felt like rubbing Vaseline everywhere. When she finished, she realized she wasn't able to put her mask on without smearing it in the ointment she just applied. Now what? She asked herself I can't let Torrence see me like this...He kind of already has seen me though. Olivia took a deep breath in, grabbed the mask off the counter and opened the door slowly.