3I slowly blinked my bright green eyes open, reveling in the dark cold of the moonlight. A cool breeze drifted across her face, smarting my pale cheeks, and I wiggled my fingers into the sandy soil beneath me. My electric green eyes stared up, the silver moon casting deep shadows around me. I looked into the forest off to my right and started to think. What are shadows? Are they simply illusions sent to confuse the best of us? Are they the darkest parts of us that we keep hidden from the world, following us around? Are they Angels sent to give us a message that we simply don't have the intelligence to comprehend? Or are they simply what science has explained them to be all this time? Whatever they are, they're beautiful… I thought wistfully. My head whipped around, red hair flying, as I heard a soft voice whispering to me.
"Penny for your thoughts?" I rolled my eyes at the small japanese exchange student, Hamasaki Minori.
"My thoughts have got to be worth more than that." I said tartly. Minori's dark eyes half-closed as she looked at me thoughtfully.
"You do not trust me." She said with a nod. I rolled my eyes sarcastically.
"No. where'd you get that?" Minori smiled softly.
"Your eyes betray your emotions." She whispered, looking out over the lake. "They show many things. Anger, and fear, and mistrust, and sadness." I looked at her in shock as she pulled her long black hair over her shoulder and began braiding it. "But why do you feel you can not trust me?"
"Look, Minori, you're nice and all, but I hardly know you. You've only been here for a short while, and I can't trust you just like that." I said angrily. Minori nodded.
"I understand." She said, closing her eyes. "You have been hurt. By someone you trusted." I blinked in shock. How did she-?
"No." I hissed, disguising my shock behind anger. Minori looked at me calmly, and her dark brown, almost black, eyes made me feel safe, loved. "Yes."
"Was it very bad?" I closed my eyes, feeling the tears coming strong. The taunts rang in my ears, the hits smarting against my skin.
"Yes." I choked out. My eyes flew open as I felt a pair of strong arms incircle me. I looked at Minori, and she looked right back. And there was such compassion in those deep eyes that I felt myself breaking, my walls crumbling.
"I am sorry for your pain." She whispered. And the dam broke. Tears streamed down my face and sobs racked my body as I sobbed mercilessly into her tan shoulder. I calmed after a while and sat up, rubbing my face. "Would you like to talk about it?" I nodded and took a deep breath before I began.
"When I was thirteen, nearly four years ago now, my best friend was Juniper Wilson. We did everything together. We even went camping for a week, just the two of us. I thought I could trust her with my life. And then all that changed." I paused for a moment. "There's a group of girls who bully me. Have been for years. Then, one day, Jennifer switched over to their side. She-" I stopped for a moment, the sobs returning. "She was awful. I couldn't face her ever again. She said the worst things. Telling me every single little thing I had done that wasn't good enough. She spread rumors about me. She ruined my reputation as a good person. And even now, all these years later, I have no friends."
"You have me." Minori said in a hushed voice. "I will be your yūjin." I gave her a watery smile and sniffled quietly.
"Thank you." We sat in silence for a few moments before she stood and announced that she was returning to bed. "Hey Minori, why do we have shadows?" Minori smiled.
"Naze cho wa garasu no tsubasa o motte imasu ka?" She said. "Why do butterflies have glass wings?" I watched as she calmly turned and walked away and confusion clouded my mind. I sat by the lake, pondering this saying, until I reached a conclusion and went to bed with my mind at ease.
-*-The next day-*-
I walked into the school with Minori at my side, looking defiantly at the people who shot me strange stares. My green eyes glinted as I caught sight of Jennifer and her cronies. They stalked over to me with a predatory look, like a leopard who's just caught sight of its next meal.
"Hello Sadie." Jennifer said, flipping her chestnut brown hair. I greeted her in a monotone voice, which seemed to catch her off guard for a moment. "What's up with you today? You're even uglier than usual." Her small group laughed and I gave them a disinterested look.
"I am who I am." I said simply. They instantly stopped laughing. I usually didn't get this far before exploding on them.
"Seriously. Like, your hair is so...red. It really clashes with you. But hey, it matches your idiot personality." They began laughing again and I simply sat there.
"I am who I am." I repeated. They continued throwing jabs at me, but I simply replied with the same thing every time. Until they got on my already thin nerves.
"It's no wonder no one likes you! You're so boring!" I whipped my head up. And the anger in my eyes made her take a step back.
"At least my idea of fun isn't ruining other people's lives. It isn't ruining people's trust, destroying everything they ever believed in." I stared into her amber eyes. "It isn't leaving people I love behind to join the 'cool kids' just to gain more popularity. Leaving that person behind to feel unloved, unwanted. Sending that person into a fit of depression would take them years to get out of. Because they feel they have no place in the world." Jennifer looked at me in shock as I finished my speech, then turned and looked at her companions, who were looking at her in unveiled surprise. Then she turned back to me, and the sadness in her eyes pulled at my heart.
"I'm sorry." She whispered. "I'm so sorry." I looked back at her in defiance.
"You put me through so much pain. So much torment. And that's what you have to say?" I looked back at Minori and smiled. "I have a real friend now. Someone who actually likes me. And wasn't just using me. Someone who has turned my shadows into glass wings." I turned and walked away. Later, Minori and I stood behind a row of lockers, talking quietly.
"That was very brave."
"Thank you, but you inspired me." Minori smiled.
"So you understood?"
"Yes, I believe I did." I smiled back at my new best friend. She looked up.
"That is good." She turned and walked away still smiling. I blinked, and she was gone. but a small tickling sensation was on my arm. A large black butterfly stood on my arm, looking as if made out of mist, and darkness. It spread its wings and settled onto my arm, leaving a permanent mark there.
"Minori?" I asked, flabbergasted. I recieved no reply, but somehow I knew that this small shadow was my friend. I made a living crafting small, glass, black butterflies and selling them. And for the rest of my life, I had a saying. One that would appear all over the world.
Naze cho wa garasu no tsubasa o motte imasu ka?