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A sharp pain emerged in my chest as I jolted awake. With a cold sweat, I swiftly sat up from where I laid. I looked down and faced a bed..gazed back up to see moonlight shining through the side of the wall, which was lavender, and covered with posters..and then looked beside me to see a sleeping friend of mine..Anne. Right, you’re here. You’re safe now..
Taking deep breaths, I focused on my wound. Out of all of the moments, why does it have to hurt now? I was asleep just a moment ago! Trying to retrace my thoughts, I remembered a dream. A bright light..something in my hands..yelling and swords hitting against each other until…oh, so that’s why. Just try not to think about it, and you’ll be fine! I crawled to the edge of the bed and looked out the window, this should do the trick. It’ll take a while to get used to Earth's scenery again, with the silver moon and calm night.
The neighborhood was more..ohh, what's the right word—modern, compared to what I’ve seen in Newtopia. I remember coming down here for sleepovers many months ago, and all the memories we made together, the good and bad. But nonetheless, I loved it here. I loved my friends, my parents, all the video games I got to play. This is where I grew up in, I should be happy to come back and see all these sights again. And yet, something stayed in the back of my mind, the reason I had to leave it all in the first place..my childish and cowardly behavior.
A lump formed in my throat whenever I remember that day. My parents shouting at me when I ran away. When I found the box and disappeared, taking everyone down with me. Ohh, they’re going to be so disappointed in me when I come back and explain everything—I just know it!! Everyone’s mad at me. They’re just holding it in. Especially Anne. She’s done so much for all of us, she must be so tired. She must be tired of me the most. Before I knew it, tears rolled down my cheeks and dripped off my chin. The pain in my chest aches more and more , and soon enough, I end up sobbing. This is stupid, you were supposed to take your mind off of all of this!! And yet here you are, crying over something that's your fault again. Why are you—
“Marcy?”
I turned around as my eyes met Anne. Her weight was put upon her elbows and she fixed her gaze on me, worried. Oh, now you’ve done it Marcy. No turning back now.
I wiped my tears away and hummed.
“What's wrong??”
“I-I —” The mix of the lump and pain makes me stop my speech. It's not like I would’ve given a truthful response anyways.
“It’s ok, take your time.” She crawled beside me, sitting back down with her back upright. “Is there anything I could do to help you right now?”
I shook my head.
“You sure?”
“Mmhm..” I managed to talk again, however my voice felt strained. “You’re tired, aren’t you? It's best if you went back to sleep.”
“Nono, all I want to focus on right now is you getting better. If you want me to leave you be, then fine. But only if it would help you.”
I blinked twice, leaning back a bit. “All you want to focus on right now is me? ”
“Yup, so just say the word Marcy. What do you want?”
“..I want you to rest, please.”
“Huh?”
While she looked at me with furrowed brows, I searched for the right wording in my head. “You’ve been through a lot. You deserve—no, need to take care of yourself. Me and Sasha are back now, so you can worry about all that other stuff later, ok? I want you to focus on yourself and what you want.”
Her eyes widened at my words, but the rest of her face stayed the same. It looked like she was the one looking for a response this time. Then, she let out a chuckle. I couldn’t tell if it was an embarrassed or shameful one, though.
“I guess that makes the two of us, huh?” The bed creaked as she slouched. “Fine, I’ll go back to sleep. See you in the morning, Mar-Mar.” And at that, she crawled to the other side of the bed, snuggling up into the covers. A slight chill could be felt from the side of me when her presence left. I didn’t realize how much I missed her warmth until it was gone.
After a few minutes of trying to cheer myself up, I felt a bit of drowsiness, which should be expected. It's very early in the morning, after all. I looked back at Anne, who didn’t seem to be asleep at all. No snoring, no motion of her body rising up and down, nothing. I yawned before crawling back to my side of the bed and going under the covers. My eyes started to close as sleep overtook me,
But then I felt a hug from behind.
“Is this ok?” Anne queried. “I’m sorry, I just feel like I should do a lot more..”
Warmth spread throughout my entire body, especially my cheeks. Thoughts raced through my mind, trying to think of something to say. “..Yeah!”
“Good, sorry again. But I was thinking..it would feel unfair if I just left you like that, wouldn’t it? The other way around wouldn’t be so nice either..”
I hummed in agreement, trying to hide my fluster.
“So, why not have a day all to ourselves when we wake up? We could do what we did back then and make a to-do list together! I know it wouldn’t be enough, but it's a good start.”
“S-sure! I’d like that!”
“Nice!” She wrapped her arms around me tighter, before quickly loosening up again. “Oops—Sorrysorry, you’re trying to sleep. I’ll let go now.”
“No!” Silence filled the air after that. Whoops. “Uhm..you’re very warm. Please don’t stop holding me like this..”
Anne was quiet again. Fuck. I started to open my mouth to apologize, but she slowly held me closer, my back against her chest. I turned around to meet her, and her face was just as red as mine. However her expression seemed more soft, giving me the sweetest and prettiest smile I ever saw, that caused my heart aflutter. Hiding my flush, I buried my face into her arm, and she giggled in return. This is all too sudden—she's so close!! It's not like I want her to pull away or anything, it's just so hard to function! But she's so warm and soft..like home. Getting over my panic, I held her back, wrapping my arms around her waist. She responded by sliding her hands up to my head and played with my hair. Never did I want this moment to end, to fall asleep and miss it all. But then again, I knew I’d wake up to a brand new day, where we would get better and try to take our minds off of it all. And you know what? That makes me happier more than anything.