Each Silent Emotion | Complete

3. Sign in Saturdays

On Friday nights Moon had a habit of staying up past the usual bedtime within the week, even if her eyes felt heavy—because who didn't.

At one point she'd be scrolling through her i********: feed or jumping from one story to the next, her phone would slip from her hand to the bed as her eyes shut unexpectedly for a few minutes. Then she'd wake up and turn the dim screen on again, the light fighting off the sleep in her eyes—that meant an anime she pirated would start playing from where she left off.

It wasn't her problem it felt as those this time, this Friday was the only time she felt everything could be done—sleeping meant she would loose it.

The nights consisted of anime, webtoons, dramas, music—both watching her collection of music videos and 1000+ songs, crying or laughing because of them—or novels. Even to the extent of midnight learning new vocabulary in the languages she held fluency and those she barely even knew the alphabet.

Anything other than sleep, she was on a marathon and she was going to reach the finish.

Which was exactly what happened to her as soon as her byes and plans were made between her, Nia & Aster for tomorrow—Saturdays. Exhaustion was what each bone in her body screamed all day long but suddenly it grew legs and ran as she showered then wore a fresh fitting set of other clothes, or just maybe the warmth of her beddings and mattress itself pushed her exhaustion to oblivion.

But all she knows, she pulled and all nighter on learning ASl and KSl alphabet, in an attempt to learn the similarity and differences in alphabet due to the well—the obvious letter writing difference.

Her eyes pleaded for rest, as her thumb swiped to the next video, searched for the next video. Her hand cramped at the amount of signs being practiced and forced upon it, that was when she finally gave herself to the arms of exhaustion and sleeping lurking.

At 4:20 in the morning—was when Moon slept—she slept the next day, completely unnecessary as she was tired before 23:30pm on Friday night.

Anywho.

That, ladies, gentlemen & non binary pals, was the problem of all her agony—well, the pillow that hit her head with the speed of light and weight of a truck—had been the cause of agony.

Moon overslept and not just by a few minutes but an hour & 40 minutes. Aster with herself agreed on 10AM that meant Aster would have showed up before 10, 9:50AM probably.

11:40AM—a few minutes, twenty minutes, before it was officially afternoon and half the day gone just like that. Her eyes squinted at her phone screen with the brightness that made her eyes burn, that and the heaviness they still held onto.

To be honest, Moon didn't believe her phone. Closing her eyes briefly she opened them again—11:41AM—for f***s sake, she was already a horrible student.

"She's been here since 10, right on time."

Nia spoke, in a way that kind of made or agreed on Moon being a horrible student on the first day, digging a deeper trench of guilt.

Her phone made her eyes hurt, sure, but the sunlight that bounced through the whole room as Nia opened the curtains—made her wish she'd crawl back under the covers, as though the sun burnt her vampire self that she needed to hide.

Turning towards Nia, who now stood by the door, her squint turned into a glare—no harm intended, just why did Nia not dragged her out of bed when the clock struck 10:00:30s on the digital clock in their living, when she had showed up already begging for forgiveness.

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

She was cautious not upset, all she wanted to do was know why—had Nia let her oversleep if Aster was with her waiting—waiting together for someone dreaming about food.

"Aster said it was fine if you'd sleep a bit more because, well, she had me—but an hour passed, then more time too!" Nia mumbled pulling the blanket completely off Moon's body as the girl was slowly falling asleep right in front of her. "Hurry up and go down there, your date is waiting."

"Thank you and f**k you"

Sitting up Moon crossed her legs with both arms pressed into the mattress for support, of her unsupported back that sometimes ached without support in this back straight position.

The consequences of her actions, were a movie she was currently living front row seat, with credits and acknowledgements in her eyes and neck—especially her neck, how horrible of a position was it for the ache to run so deep, maybe it was even a strain.

Trying her best to massage it with her right hand, her concept of massage was nothing other than tightly squeezing the arm and stretching her neck to the side to fell it in the muscles. Her left hand dipped into the mattress even more as it was the only support form, for her back.

"Tell her I'll be down in 15 minutes, and—"

"No, apologise yourself."

With that said, Nia closed the door behind her not letting Moon's sentence even qualify as a sentence not request—but as much as Moon didn't want to acknowledge how right Nia was for that, she had—her mistake meant her own damn apologises.

Jumping out of her bed with her right hand fixed on her neck, Moon speed walked towards the bathroom—she had to hurry up with freshening up and desperately needed the toilet.

§

12:10 PM

The clocked mocked her as she stared at the now lit phone screen, she had used more than 15 minutes and that meant Aster was being kept waiting yet again.

The tickling that came from the water running down the back of her neck, made her tsk. She had been gently—as gently as she could—patting down her wet hair, that had a habit of retaining water and for that she really regretted getting it wet because time was an enemy right now.

Slipping her phone into her pocket, the second time, as the first time it slipped down to the floor missing her pocket—she was preoccupied by her bathing towel wiping the water around her neck. With a final wipe, she tossed the bathing towel landing on the unmade bed she'd deal with later in the day or tomorrow.

A few droplets made their residence on her green coloured t-shirt, with each drop the fabric became a deeper shade of green sprinkled all across her shirt—like she's been in the rain shower for a second too long without an umbrella.

Using the back of her palm, Moon wiped the droplets tickling her eyelashes. Grabbing her notepad and pen, Moon left her room in a rush—Aster had been waiting for too long.

Moon stood by the entrance to the open space of the living room and kitchen, her eyes fell on Aster. Her right leg rested ontop of the other, her beige short complimented her fair skin tone along with the fitting light blue t-shirt. Aster hadn't noticed the person studying her body from head to toe, as she had her attention down on her phone fastly typing on the keyboard.

Briefly, Moon took her gaze off Aster in search of Nia but there was no trace neither a sound of Nia being around. It was a Saturday after all, she had probably gone back to sleep or gone out.

Turning back to Aster, Moon noticed how freely her hair was—no ponytail nor bun—just it flowing freely past her shoulders, a few strands Aster pushed behind her ear gave Moon a good view of her hearing aid and earring—that looked like a star. She needed to get closer for a closer look, walking up towards Aster she walked as quiet as possible and as far out of sight for her to notice.

Yeah, they were star shaped earrings.

Taking her seat beside Aster suddenly made Aster turned towards her startled, her phone resting on her lap with the screen still lit. Now Moon just felt bad, with an apologetic smile she mouthed sorry.

Aster hadn't signed nor typed anything, the two just stared at eachother and the more Moon did, she realised how closer she sat. She was close enough to take into account the brown beauty mark on the top left eyelid, wouldn't be visible if someone was as close or staring at her with intentions of studying her.

Aster squinted her eyes, in an action of questioning what Moon was staring at her face for so long—kind of made her self cautious if something was sticking out.

Taking her gaze off Aster, Moon cleared her throat, staring at the notepad she flipped through it looking for blank page, writing something down as fast as her hand could she gave her notepad all the attention.

And Aster watched, waiting to read it.

'I want to apologise for keeping you waiting for so long.'

Aster stared at the text, right after reading it Moon let the notepad rest on her lap as she needed her hands freed.

"I'm sorry, again." She signed.

Well that, Aster knew. Taking the notepad from Moon to her own lap, she lightly tapped Moon's left hand to release the pen she held in her grasps—their fingers brushing against eachother as Aster took it into her hand.

'Don't worry about it, should we get started?'

"Yeah, what's today's first order of business teacher?" Moon asked after reading what the text Aster wrote. Compared to the first time when she wrote on the whiteboard, this was easily readable handwriting—it made hers look sluggish.

Aster get it a bit if thought, before telling Moon to say the words she signed aloud—that would help her determine where Moon should start from.

"How." Aster signed and Moon said out loud, a smile came over Aster lips as she nodded—Moon smiled as well, she was getting a hang of it somehow.

Staring at Aster intensely she tried to make out the word she signed. "Are?" Moon asked, not really certain if that was correct—because it wasn't, nodding her head to the side in disapproval Aster stared down to the notepad, holding the pen directly above the sheet of paper.

Dropping it before she wrote anything, Aster's gaze was on Moon yet again, her attention on Moon.

She had a better opinion than writing.

"F. A. R"

"A. R. E. You." Moon spelled out the letters Aster signed extremely slow for her to catch on. Holding up both her thumbs implying she was right, Moon clapped her hands in accomplishment.

The sense of fulfilment was blooming like a million of fireworks in her chest, she felt all warm inside that sge couldn't fight back a smile.

"I think I know 25 signs & the alphabet, and how to introduce myself." Moon said staring at Aster, she was pretty sure Aster barely caught that—she spoke a bit fast than earlier.

Aster furrowed her eyebrows.

"I'll speak slower." Moon spoke putting emphasis on each word, her index finger pointing to her lips. "I know the alphabet, self introduction and about 25 signs." as she said the last word, she did an 'ok' sign with her right hand—a way of asking Aster if that was okay.

"Yes." Aster signed.

"Give me, your phone." Moon spoke holding up her own phone.

Aster did so with no questions asked, handing Moon her unlocked phone she watched Moon type something down—a million questions flooding her mind in the moment.

'Texting is better.' Aster read the text from the new contract Moon—that was literally saved as the emoji of a half Moon, a full Moon would have worked better and for thst she didn't get why the half moon instead.

Anyway.

'You just wanted my number.' Aster typed back.

With their current state, across from eachother, Moon read the text then looked up to Aster—their eyes met briefly before staring down at the phones, one with pursed lips and another fighting back a smile.

'How'd you know?' Moon sent her response, her lips still pursed.

'Call it a hunch, but you're smiling.' Aster sent her text, the smile on her face being released as it couldn't be held back—watching the text go from sent to seen, made her stomach to cartwheels but she couldn't let herself look up—Moon was watching her she knew it.

Aster might have short circuited as she felt her head being patted, once then twice before the hand just rested on top of her head.

Finally looking up, she met Moon's eyes.

"Cute." Moon mumbled as she watched Aster's cheeks turned to a shade of pink, along with her ears—but she wasn't the only one smiling as Moon lips held a soft smile—Aster was extremely cute right now.

Aster couldn't bare it. Both her hands came to Moon's shoulders before shoving her away with all the strength she had, that was a lot of caught Moon surprised as she ended up falling back flat on the couch.

Moon didn't rush to get up, as she only began to laugh.

Aster watched her laugh as she clapped her hands with a million questions filling her head. One being how did Moon's laugh sound like—was it heavy or light—Two, what was the deafening sound through her body that made her mind hazy.