Luna oh Luna
Luna woke up at 10am on what one might call a normal day, but today she would be walking at 6am. Not because she wanted to but because she had to. She had class at 8am: Econ 302 Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory. A class she went to for a month before she decided the professor was no good and she would learn through discussion which happened to fit with her sleep schedule: 1:20pm.
Waking up at 6am was not necessary , she did not take long to get ready. This was about consistency. This was an attempt to get her life back on track, to be a more productive and efficient person. She watched three Youtube videos the day before to make this day happen. To be a better person. To be a better student.
In all her hours of watching Youtube she left with one notion think about the person you want to become and do the things that a person like that would do. She wanted many things. She had a list of things she wanted. She wanted to be fit. She wanted to be off academic probation . She wanted to do more with her day. She wanted to fill like she wasn’t wasting time.
Her first thought was to make a list, but she knew after groaning to get up out a bed that was so conforming to her body that she would not move to check a list. Carrying around a piece of paper ticking off morning task was not appealing. There was no adventure.
Her second thought was to time block every task but she simply did not have the time to do that nor the patience to set it up. Instead she made sticky notes.
No. 1 make the bed
No.2 turn on heater
No. 3 take medication
No. 4 pee
No. 5 brush teeth while cleaning around the house
No. 6 Check and Delete emails
No. 7 Find a motivational Youtube video
No. 8 get dress and do makeup while listening to video
No. 9 make lunch put it in bag and get out the fucking door.
When it came to where the notes she go she had to think. Her bedroom had four walls: 2 completely covered in windows and the others completely covered in trinkets, magazine cut outs and whatever else she could find to put on the wall. She loved her wall to much to vandalize it with a neon pink sticky note. She just needed to see the notes they were not a work of art. So she choose to put them in the most annoying places.
“Why is there a sticky note on the toilet cover” Gavin yelled.
Luna yelled back from her room,“I’m doing a thing”. She was on No. 7.
He was coming into her room, she could hear his feet punching the wooden floor. “That still doesn’t explain why there is a sticky note on the tetter that says brush your dirty ass teeth as you clean the house. I thought you was calling me stank for a minute there yeah”
Luna turned around to face him. She knew when he started making up words for everyday normal items it was time for face to face. “Gavin if I wanted to tell you you were dirty, you know, I would just tell you to your face”.
“You got a point there”. He paused for a moment. “Just to let you know, you are doing better. I see it. No matter how busy I am, I pay attention to you”. Luna didn’t need to say anything. She just looked at him with somber eyes.
When Luna met Gavin there freshmen and both lonely but eager to make life-long friends in college like their parents. Gavin wasn’t trying hard to find friends. He figured that engineering was a major where all the engineering majors became friends. When his older brother, Odin, came back from college his sophomore year he raved about his finance brothers. But Gavin wasn’t trying to be like his brother. When it came to meeting people he just wanted to meet people. They didn’t have to be an engineer. So he decided he would put a sticky note on his door. People looking for friends will go searching and find them he thought. And then came Luna.
While knocking and slowly opening the door and polite voice spoke “Hello”.
In a hurry, Gavin rustled for his shorts. He forgot he left his door open. “Oh fuck, one moment”
“Is this a bad time. I can come another day or in like an hour”
“No, No. Just give me two seconds”
“One Mississippi, two Mississippi” the door began to open.
Gavin was halfway in his shorts when she walked in. Her hair was braided, box braids. They were fresh, like she just got them done yesterday. Her eyes were colored like coffee beans. There was no doubt that he thought she was beautiful, but he knew half-naked that he would have other chances, not this one, to fully absorb her aura.
The heat hit her like a fly squatter when she stepped into the room. To Gavin it seems she didn’t even notice that Gavin was frozen, one leg in one in the air, the fan blowing into his boxers making them puff.“You didn’t open your window.”
“No” he said slowly as he slid his leg into his shorts.
“I can see why you are in out here in you boxers. You should open the window and put the fan facing in on the screen. I promise you it will help. I’m on the fourth floor and my room is cooler then this sauna you got going on in here. What’s your major? It is clearly not aerodynamics.”
“Engineering”
“I don’t mean to be rude, Gavin but how”
he knew exactly what she meant how was I an engineer when I could not find a way to make my room cooler, but he was more concerned about “How do you know my name”
“It’s on the door, weirdo. It’s on everyone’s door. My door says Luna.”
It had been three weeks into the school year and within one day of meeting they hadn’t spent a day apart since Luna walked in on Gavin half naked and blushing. Everyday one or the other would knock on the others door. If the door was open they would just walk in. Privacy ceased to exist between them. They had carried each other home on druken nights. Danced together. Tucked the other in bed. Spent a night on the dorm floor because stairs were not an option. Held back hair while the other wasted five shots of vodka into the toilet. One was never mentioned with out saying the others name.
There was a point in time where he did not see her for an entire week. She didn’t post when she usually posted everyday on her story. At first, he didn’t think much of it. They were still new friends and first round of exams where coming up. He figured she was the kind of person who liked to study alone for an exam. Luna always talked about how when they were together she could never get anything done and he knew that she had one this week. But this was odd.
He texted her:
How are you feeling about your exams
(no response)
At first he thought he would just give her space. Gavin knew how spending to much time with someone could drive to obsession. He was feeling obsessed. In not about to put up with this shit. It’s been too long. College was hard and he understood that, but he also understood it was harder when you went through it alone. He cared about her too much for her to be alone.
The stairs to her dorm were not kind. It was not long into their friendship that he realized why she spent all those nights sleeping on his floor and why her legs were so toned but he made it.
The door was the same as it had always been. Dark mohogandy word with Luna written on decorative sticky notes that the RA put on the doors every week it seemed. Not knowing what he would find when he walked in he knocked.
nothing
He knocked again “It’s me”.
nothing
“I know you are in there.” One thing he knew about Luna was that she was always up at 7am. Even when the spent nights out until 2am he body would move her at 7am.
nothing
“Luna open the door” he knocked a little harder but not hard enough to wake the others on the floor.
The door opened a inch and puffy coffee bean eyes snuck through the crack. “Yes Gavin, yes I am in here”. She was in the same clothes he saw her in last week. A whiff of musty beef jerky with a hint of onion made it way into the hall way. Clean, crisp braid were now frizzy and loose.
“Is it safe for me to come in?”. Depression had many looks. But he never thought that he would see it on her. They were still new friends but good friends. All he could do was act as if nothing was wrong. Act as if nothing seemed wrong. Checking on Luna wasn’t going to happen in the hallway.
Luna sat on the bed she was embarrassed, guilty. The ring on her finger seemed like her only way out. She rocked it slowly by her thigh some where he couldn’t see from the desk chair. The four day yogurt container with its crusted interior caught his eye.
Gavin didn’t know what to say. He rested in his thoughts. How long has she been like this? What the fuck do I say? He stood up hugged her to where her breath was restrained “I got you. I will always have you”.
A single tear rolled down from the left eye while the other pooled. Seconds later the left tear dropped in the shoulder of his university hoodie. He held her she tried to put away to wipe her tears but he just hugged her harder. Hearts touching trying to match rhythm.
When did let go her went into her drawers dugout clean clothes, “Here, go ahead and take a shower. We are going to go for a walk”.
The water in the shower was brown when she twisted the towel. Depression was ugly but who knew how dirty it was. But she was clean now. It was a clean start. She wrapped her towel around and tucked the end in her chest. There was no cold crisp air here. She thought to herself before she stepped into the hallway “I just have to get out my room. That’s my goal for the day”.
And there he was, sitting on the floor, waiting.
