Blessing of Luna

Chapter 2

"Man do I hate orientations. They always act like we don't know anything about how school works. Like none of us have ever been in public school. It's almost insulting. Am I right?" Rob stretched his arms above his head as he spoke, an air of annoyance in his voice. Rob had been another one of Damien's only friends to stick around with him after the accident happened, more curious than disgusted or freaked out like everyone else was. He was mostly into technology and spent most of his time he wasn't out partying, sitting at his computer playing video games and drinking soda.

Damien was too distracted by the woman he saw earlier to immediately respond. The woman had seemed so familiar to him, yet something about her scared him. She was almost too beautiful, flawless like an angel one might see at the top of a Christmas tree or in a painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

"Dame, you alright, bro?"

The snapping of Rob's fingers in Damien's face had him focused back on the reality going on around him. "Yeah, sorry Rob. I was just thinking about something."

Rob shrugged, knowing his friend always had been kind of a space case, prone to wander off into his own daydreams. "Nice to know you still space out on us, D. I swear man, where do you go in these crazy trances of yours?"

Damien hadn't intended to space out, there was just a lot on his mind that he was still sorting through. Everyone around him didn't seem to recognize him as the one they once slapped the label of town freak show on but the feeling of the pain of the isolation and prejudice still lingered inside of him. He just didn't feel like he belonged there. Despite how friendly Rob and Chelsea were, deep inside, Damien still felt alone and empty.

"Hey Rob, mind if I get a lift home? My old man took the truck."

"Sure, bro. Want to get a burger like old times on the way?"

"Yeah, sounds good."

#

Once they made it back to Damien's house, Rob asked Damien if he wanted to go hiking over the weekend to try and get some sense of normalcy.

"Yeah, I'd like that. It'd be nice to head into the hills like we did when we were in the old scout days. I can get some killer photos for my portfolio." Damien had taken up photography after his accident when he decided that collecting memories was more important than going to the skate park to see how many bones he could break to be the next Tony Hawk. He was pretty good at it and did some freelance work for the local coffee shops in the town he moved from. He often got asked to put his photos in small galleries but he refused the offers since he didn't see memories as something to sell for money.

"Cool! I'll bring my old man's poles. You still remember how to pier fish?"

How could I forget? Damien and his father often went pier fishing on the weekend when his family held their annual summer get together, bringing the catch home so his mom could cook them in the family fish fry. He fought back his emotions as he remembered the fresh smell of cooking catfish that had been dipped in buttermilk and battered in breadcrumbs alongside his uncle's famous seasoned fries. His mom often had to swat him to keep him out of his grandmother's hush puppies before the family had a chance to sit and eat together. He couldn't help but lick his lips as his nose remembered the delicious smell of those hush puppies.

"D, my bad man. I didn't mean to kick up any painful dust. Gonna be okay? We can do something else if it makes you feel more comfortable." Rob had been told by Damien's father that his son was still trying to recover from his mom's death without Damien knowing, asking him to try to help as best he could to help ease Damien back into a sense of a normal life.