Glass Dragon

Chapter 9

As we start to leave he grabs my wrist but keeps his head down "can-can I stay with you" he asks and looks up at me when I don't answer. "Yeah" I say with a smile and he holds my hand as we walk back to my house. "You're late" my mom says as we walk in. "I'm sorry" Michael whispers, shyly hiding behind me. She looks over to us and notices him "is that Michael" she asks with a sweet smile. He nods and she lets go of the knife and kneels down "you don't have to be afraid of me Michael" she whispers "I won't hurt you." He shifts from foot to foot but slowly walks out from behind me. She takes his hand and he almost backs away from her "it's ok." He lets her take his other hand and she whispers "you're a very special boy and we will always love you for you,don't let anyone tell you otherwise ok?" He nods with a smile but starts to cry. Aya smiles and whispers softly "this is why I like Mary, she always knows what to say." "What do you mean" I ask and she shakes her head "no one has ever told him anything like that." "Not even you" I ask. She shakes her head "I've told him that I understand what he's going through but no one has ever just told him that they love him." "Aya" mom asks. "Yes" she asks looking back to them. "Will you be staying tonight as well?"
"Yes."
"Then Michael can sleep in Dragon's room."
"What" I ask, not paying attention to what's going on "I heard my name, what's going on?" " Michael is going to sleep in your room" she repeats. "Oh" I say almost disheartened "ok." We eat dinner and laugh at jokes told around the table and Michael giggles at a few thing but, other than that, doesn't say anything the whole time. We rinse our dishes and put them in the sink "night, Aya. Night, mom. Love you." Michael follows me to my room and gasps when he sees all the paintings. I arranged them in a way that they would form trees and flowers, out of focus maybe but cool nonetheless, with the light as the sun. "You think that's cool, look at this" I say and turn of the light. The splatters of paint glow in the darkness as stars and glowing butterflies. Having put the paint on the light as well, it looks like the moon. I take out the second bed from inside mine and let him lay next to me. I lay down and my dalmatian jumps on him to curl up behind me. He slightly glares at the dalmaition but it turns to a dismissive grin as he lays down again. "Night" I say quietly.  I see a genuine smile spread across his face as he whispers "good night" back. I wake to rain tapping at my window and press a button on my alarm so it lights up in red and displays the time. 3:30? To early. I almost lay my head back down when I hear crying from the kitchen. Michael.