Limerence

04

Kiera awoke with a dry throat. She coughed, before getting up to get a glass of water. She remembered being a little girl and drinking the water that resided on her bed side table. It always tasted like lukewarm metal, but when she was thirsty at 3am she didn't care. She stopped placing open glasses of water beside her bed after her mother had slipped some kind of pill into the glass.
Her mother had been a topic that Kiera had fretted over for the past decade, and she was tired of remembering the things she had to endure. The pill in her water, the constant beatings, being starved. She shoved it all out of her mind as she approached the sink. She reached above to the sink cabinet where her glasses sat, before grabbing one and filling it with cold water from the tap.
She drank it gratefully, some of the contents spilling down her chin. She was thirsty, and she didn't care enough to retain manners since she lived alone, just how she liked it.
Kiera picked up her phone beside her bed and saw a message from Margo, asking her if she wanted to meet up at the mall before classes started on Monday. Kiera looked at the date. It was Sunday. Kiera grinned and quickly typed "let's do it!"
She sat the phone back down on her night stand and rubbed her eyes. She couldn't remember exactly why she had decided to go to bed so early, but she felt fine now. A nice little dozing off fixed anything.
But then she remembered Dr. Hendrix. She had to see him on Monday, but that wouldn't work out if she had class that day. She would have to skip. Her mother always beat into her that she wasn't to skip, no matter what, but her mother had died 10 years prior. Her words meant nothing to Kiera now.

Kiera & Margo were at the mall, which was walking distance from Kiera's house, gleefully browsing through their favorite stores. The number one store they loved was "Cynthia's Candle Barn" where only the best candles were sold. They were currently in the store, perusing the massive stock of candles, from cinnamon apple to paradise coconut.
Margo's eyes lit up as she smelled a white candle, though Kiera couldn't see the label due to Margo's hand blocking it. "Smell this one." Margo said. Kiera smelled the candle and suddenly her eyes shot wide open. Flash. She was in the back of Dr. Hendrix's car, the aroma of Cedar Wood filling her nostrils and distracting her from the agony in her knee.
She snapped out of her daze when she saw Margo, looking at her with concern. "Why are you crying? Is everything okay?" Margo asked. Kiera looked at Margo and wiped the tears from her eyes, before smiling and laughing. "Yeah! It's just allergies." Kiera said. Margo laughed it off, though she seemed slightly off-put by the entire ordeal.
Margo & Kiera left the candle store, with Kiera having bought three cedar wood candles. They reminded her of Dr. Hendrix, and she needed them for that exact reason. Cedar wood would bring her peace, and remind her of the man who had saved her life.
The rest of the day was normal, with Margo & Kiera sitting down in the food court and eating pretzels from "Uncle Randy's Pretzel Shack." Margo & Kiera had always eaten at the pretzel shack in the mall, it was always their thing. Margo always got sour cream and onion and Kiera always got a plain pretzel with a side of salt.
It was nice to return back to childhood habits, back when the world wasn't so cruel and when they were innocent kids. But now they were both 21, and the world seemed to be built against them.
The taste of the pretzel took Kiera back to being 12 years old. She had just moved into the town and had transferred to Davis Middle School, where she met Margo. Her mother had died the year after of an accidental overdose, or so the police had thought.