Hollywood's Bleeding - Post Malone

A Pearl

Ophelia stands in front of the mirror. Diamond had picked this dress specifically for tonight. Idiots dooms date dress, as she had named it. It's sexy but not overly so. She fiddles with the pearls around her neck and giggles. The pearls were once a reminder of how pathetic she had felt but now she is proud of them. She will never be a bad girl but she will be herself and as Austin has told her - that's a pretty good thing. She hears movement from behind her and turns, it's Oliver and Rod standing at the door. "Hi," she says. "We wanted to come and say goodbye...just for now," Rod says. Ophila knows they will be focusing on Austin for the next few months and she is glad he has them. "We got you a gift," Rod says passing her a little box, Ophelia opens the box and smiles. "Oh they are beautiful," she says looking at the sweet little pearl earnings. "Thank you," she says looking up at Rod and Oliver. Rod nods at Oliver and he steps closer. "Do you know how pearls are made?" he asks. She does, but she shakes her head anyway, she wants to hear what he has to say. "Well," he starts as he takes her earnings out of her ears, "a pearl forms when an irritant becomes trapped in the mollusk. The animal senses the object and coats it with layers of...shit I don't know the name of. But that shit turns the irritant into a beautiful pearl. All it's doing is trying to protect itself," he says and then puts the pearls in her ears and turns her to look at herself in the mirror. "Most people in life would cut down an irritant, make it worse, but you...you are like a mollusk. You take people's sadness, their doubts, their fears and you roll them up. You place your kindness and love around them, you keep them safe and then when it's time you open yourself up, and, ta-da, there is only beauty. I was worried about my brother, I was losing that bond slowly but surely. You gave him back to me and I could not be more thankful. We will look after him, I promise. He will be ok and so will you," Oliver says. Ophelia spins around and hugs them both. They will never know just how much they mean to her. "We better go," Rod whispers, and then they are gone. Ophelia takes her bag, smoothes herself over, and then walks out of the closet.

Austin is sitting on the bed and stands as she walks in. "Oh, you are wearing a suit. You look so handsome," she says. Austin spins around showing off his suit to her. "Not shabby for an asshole, right?" he says with a bright smile. "No, not shabby at all," Ophelia giggles. "Come on, baby, let's go paint the town red," he says taking her hand and leading her down to the car. Starting the car, he places his hand on the crease of her hip. "I want to get a tattoo on my hip," she thinks out loud. Austin laughs and shakes his head. "Just don't make it boring," he says and then moves the car forward. They talk on their trip to the very very public restaurant. It's not fake and uncomfortable or even painful - it's like any other moment they spend together. Ophelia knows this is their last few moments together but she will never show them in sadness, nothing with Austin is sad. When they get to the restaurant Austin does not take her hand but he does watch carefully as Joe guides her through the crowd. Their table is, of course, by the big windows, and unlike every other time, they now sit across from each other. Austin does not drag his chair closer to her or place his hand on her thigh. It hurts, but she smiles through it. "Tell me a story," she says as they eat. "Uh...ok I got one. It's about Oliver and Rod. We had just moved to LA, I was twenty and they were nineteen. We all lived together - it was a shit show. Anyway, I had slept with this girl and Oliver had pissed me off so I took her red panties and shoved them in his pants pocket. I left for work and when I got back to the apartment I walked in to find Rod and tied him to a chair and was flinging balls of sticky wet bread at him. I joined in of course and then I told them the truth. Don't fuck with Rod," Austin says laughing, Ophelia giggles, she can just picture it. "How did they meet?" she asks. "At school. I have never seen anything like it before. Rod transferred from another school and at lunch break, I was telling our group of friends about the pretty new redhead. Then all of a sudden she walked up to our table and looked Oliver right in the eye. 'my name is Rachel', she said and Oliver, who could not talk to a woman without pissing his pants, looked at her without any hesitation, he said 'you don't look like a Rachel, you look like a Ride Or Die". I swear! Smooth as fucking silk. That's it, they have been them ever since," he says with a laugh. Ophelia giggles again. Rod and Oliver could not be better suited. She pushes her half-eaten food to the side and takes out her two neatly wrapped gifts for him. "I got you two gifts," she says sliding them across the table as Austin's face lights up. "I love gifts!" he says and grabs the first one. He opens it and then laughs. "Thank you, this watch is the fucking bomb," he says taking it out of the box." I put a message on the back," Ophelia says. He turns the watch, frowns, and then looks up at her with a smile. "My dick is bigger than yours. Well, I couldn't have said it better myself, baby," he chuckles and puts the watch on. He takes the other gift and rips it open then frowns again. "A cd? A blank cd?" he asks in confusion. Ophelia smiles and wriggles her eyebrows. "Is this...is this us? Fuck, baby, I am going to watch this every fucking day," he laughs and puts it safely in his suit pocket. "Never thought I would ever make a sex tape, but then again, there are a lot of things I never thought I would do," she says smiling at him. "I got you a gift too," he says pulling out a rolled plastic bag and handing it to her. She opens it and looks inside, it looks like a clump of knitted wool. She reaches in and pulls it out then fiddles with it trying to make out what it is. It's a bunch of badly knitted squares all sown, badly, together with blobs of wool glued to it. "It's a hat. I made it for you. Knitted it all on my own. Those are flowers," he says pointing to the blobs of wool. She giggles and puts it on her head, it's more like a lopsided cloth of wool than a hat. "Oh, that looks like shit," Austin says with a laugh. "I love it," Ophelia giggles out, catching it as it falls off her head.