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The Key Chased the Blade

Starry Night

I fell asleep in Simon's bed that night. I hadn't even realized it until I woke up the next morning and saw Simon's stupid Starry Night painting on his wall. And even then I had to do a double-take. About when I finally accepted reality, I had rolled over on the bed and saw Simon sprawled out on his stomach, sleeping, on the other side.

I shrieked and fell off of the bed.

There was a huge clatter and I knocked over Simon's nightstand. I started swearing. Jesus. I landed on his stupid colored pencil box too and dented it. Simon was going to kill me. They were his expensive Prismacolors too. But Simon didn't even wake up, even though I had made the biggest ruckus of all history, and I realized I'd forgotten that he couldn't hear me. Then I cussed again and picked myself up off of the floor. I'd have to be quiet in case his parents heard me though. But I quickly realized it was too late for that.

Simon's door opened and his mom appeared. I swore right then I could have thrown myself out the window and killed myself. I'd rather have burned in eternal damnation than faced Simon's mother when she knew I slept with her son, even in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But after her initial expression of shock, something I had never expected in my entire life happened. I saw her expression soften to one of worry. And her worried face was at me.

"Honey, did you have a nightmare?" she asked softly.

She didn't have to whisper, it wasn't like Simon was going to hear her and wake up, but the phrase kind of struck me hard that way. She called me "honey". She didn't call anybody that but Simon. And I hadn't ever been called honey in all my sixteen years of existence. For some reason, it just made a huge lump form in my throat and I almost started crying. I couldn't even get words out. I kind of just stuttered. "I... I..."

"It's okay, Noah, let me help you with that." She wandered into Simon's room and helped me pick up Simon's knocked over things and put them back in order. I realized I really must have looked like I'd had a nightmare. My clothes were all wrinkled and I could feel the mats in my hair; I wasn't even wearing a bra for Christ's sake. Mrs. O'Neill probably thought I'd gone up to Simon's room after a nightmare hoping I could talk to him about it. I knew in the past I'd gotten Simon into craploads of trouble after calling him in the middle of the night with my problems, so she'd probably assumed I'd done the same now.

Simon's mom placed his hearing aids back onto the nightstand where he usually kept them. "Th-thanks," I managed. "I kind of - kind of tripped..."

"It's fine." She smiled gently at me. This was not the woman I knew before. I kept expecting her to throw me out with a patronizing glare, but she didn't. "You know, Noah, I don't usually do this, but why don't you get dressed and I'll take you to work with me? We could have a girl's night out afterward. How does that sound?"

"It's-it sounds great," I found myself saying. I couldn't even believe myself. A girl's night out with Mrs. O'Neill? That would be like committing suicide. But for some reason I was agreeing to this. I really was. "I'd really like that."

"Okay, that's good." Her smile grew in warmth. "How about we head downstairs, then?"