As Christmas Break ended, Luna was slowly getting depressed because she couldn’t handle the fact that her dad practically kicked her out of his life for “her own good.” It felt surreal, but after having that one dream, her first night home; she could finish her homework by having no issues or questions about anything in the book.
The next day was the first day back to school, and she was more excited to be back in school. She wanted to see Oliver and all of her friends, but mostly Oliver. She did her hair a bit differently than usual, with some help from her mom… she had wavy hair for the day. She wanted to feel different because it would be nice to have a change in styles. When she got to school, she went to check if all her waves were still intact. When she went to Mrs. Lewis’s classroom, she felt her excitement because she saw Oliver already in his seat.
“Hey, is this seat taken by anyone?” He didn’t respond… then again, he didn’t even acknowledge her existence.
“Too late, it’s taken by me. Do you have a problem with that?” Nothing, it was as if he was in his own world destroying everything in his path.
“Hey, Oliver… you okay?” Luna took it upon herself to poke his arm, he was extremely startled by her touch because he ‘woke’ up from the whole moment.
“Jesus girlie, give me a warning when you are going to scare me.”
“I legit just asked you if anyone was sitting in my seat and since you said nothing, I clearly thought that no one sat in my seat… did someone sit in my seat?” I wanted to make him smile because he looked like he was just told that mom left or something close to it. As he was smiling, that smile turned into a chuckle, into a full laugh.
“Sorry, I am so tired. I couldn’t sleep last night.” She could see it in his face that he got maybe an hour or two of sleep, but she wanted to know why just to get over this past break. She wanted to ask, but she didn’t want to pry into his life because they were still trying to become best friends and we weren’t at that spot… yet.
“Oh, I hope everything is okay… just know I am here for you to talk about anything. I hope you know that.”
“Of course, I know that, girlie. I just couldn’t sleep. I was worried about today.”
“Why were you worried about today?” Right when she said it, Mrs. Lewis came in and started the class. She wanted to know what made Oliver worried about today more than that… she wanted to know what was in his head at that moment.
Every time she looked over at him at his desk, she could just feel like something was off about him. More than that. Something was completely wrong with him, and she wanted to be the person to help him through the moment. Luna wanted to help him, just like how he helped her after transferring classes. She just didn’t know how. She ripped a piece of paper out of her notebook and wrote, ‘R U OK?’ folded it 4 times and slid it to Oliver without getting caught. When he unfolded it and read the note, he looked up with his drained brown eyes, the eyes that could tell stories of nights on end. He smiled at her, as if he knew she was worried about him. He took the note close to his chest and started writing something down. When he finished, he folded it back up and slid it back to her. ‘girlie, u r so funny looking. I’m just tired.’ She knew there was more to that story, but she knew she would not get the answer soon, so she let him be.
As the hours passed, she watched her hair get puffier and puffier throughout the day because she didn’t know how to maintain the waves in her hair. Luna ended up tying it up in a messy ponytail because she was tired of feeling her hair on her neck and ears. It made her feel like she couldn’t hear with her hair blocking her ears. When she finished her day, her hair was a huge dark brown puff ball that looked like it got into a fight with a hairdryer and the hairdryer won.
“Hey miss puffy, how’s it going?” It was Oliver making a corny joke about her hair. He looked different from the morning, but she didn’t want to say anything because that would bring him back to that mood and she didn’t want that.
“I’m too puffy to think. Ask me tomorrow.” He ended up laughing at her response because he was expecting a rude response, but since he was already having a bad day, there was no point in adding to his bad day.
“Wow girlie, do you really want me to ask you this same question tomorrow? I will, but if you tell me to ask you the next day, I will give up knowing what’s going on in your life.”
“That’s rude. I just don’t like my hair right now. I wish my hair could be straight because it will be so much easier than this huge puff ball as a ponytail.”
“Really? I like your hair when it’s puffy because you look more like you than when you have straight hair.” When did he see her with straight hair? She hasn’t done straight hair in a while, because Luna’s mom makes her sit on the floor for over an hour just working on each section of her hair. It takes a lot of energy out of Luna just to sit on the floor and deal with the fact that she can’t move or anything. It’s not fun.
“Well, thanks, you are probably the only person who likes my hair like this. Can I ask you something?” She needed to ask him what was up this morning, like she knew she shouldn’t, but her curiosity was getting the best of her. Plus, he looked perfectly fine in this conversation… So what's the worst that could happen?
“Depends… what’s going on in your head?”
“Well, I was going to ask what was really up with you earlier today? You are usually better at hiding your issues, but today you are worse than usual. I was worried about you. Is that a crime now? If it is… then I am okay with going to jail for worrying about you.” After saying all that, his face was turning a shade of pink that was confusing to her. She rarely saw him pink unless he was in the sun for too long. That only happens when we are in P. E at the pavilion.
“Today was just a bad day for me, but seeing you made it better. I’m sorry but you are going to jail for worrying about me, of all people, like come on girlie… I am perfectly fine.”
“You are a horrible liar, you know that, right?”
“I am not a horrible liar. Why would you say that?”
“Because you lied right through your teeth, just to get me to stop worrying about you… even though you know I will worry about you until you tell me what’s wrong. So stop lying.”
“Remind me not to play card games with you. I feel you would call me out for every moment.”
“Yeah, I would.” We ended up laughing even though she didn’t know what was wrong… she knew she would find out later on in life. She knew he trusted her more than trusted anyone else in his life. She felt the same way about him.
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