To Love a Boy ☆ S. Harrington

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⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹⨯ . ⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ 

𓆉 ⋆.˚𓇼 ⋆.˚𓆟

October 29, 1984

Pulling the needle through the fabric, Magnolia had finally finished the last stitch on her dress.

"Check it out, Mews," she said, holding up the dress to the fat, orange cat lying on her bed. Fast asleep, Mews gave no reaction. Magnolia rolled her eyes.

Last year, she was too busy wallowing in self-pity and practically on house arrest, so her Halloween was a bust. But this Halloween was going to be different. She had made the perfect costume and there were rumors about a party at Tina's.

After everything that had happened last year, Magnolia had practically become an expert at sweet-talking her aunt into letting her go out. All she had to do was promise to do the dishes for the next two weeks and return home, safely, before midnight. It was lame, but so was being a social outcast.

Suddenly, Dustin burst through her bedroom door, not caring to utter a word, instead moving straight for her dresser.

"What the fuck, dude! You made me stab myself," she complained, waving the small needle around. When she was left with no response besides the boy continuing to dig through her drawer, she finally stood up. "What're you doing?" she demanded.

Looking back at her, he tried to play off his suspiciousness with nonchalance. "Nothing," Dustin shrugged.

"Bullshit. What's in your hand?"

"Uh... I'll be right there, Mom!" he lied.

She watched in disbelief as he went running out of her room. "Theif!" she called after him.

It was the fifth time that month he had taken quarters from her. At first, when he asked, she complied, but by the third time, she banned him from even mentioning money around her. Having lost her job a year ago, it made it a lot harder to find a new one in a town where everyone talked, and she wasn't exactly financially stable enough to give her younger cousin donations to support his arcade addiction.

𓆉 ⋆.˚𓇼 ⋆.˚𓆟

October 30, 1984

"This sucks," Talia shook her head.

Magnolia grabbed the essay from Talia before the blonde girl exited the car.

Magnolia sighed and got out, too. She leaned against the car door. "Not necessarily," she tried to comfort.

"Maggie, you can be honest."

"I am! A perfectly decent college would accept you with this. And, you know what, at least you get to think about college. I don't even know what I'm doing after we graduate."