"Are you accidental - Temporary?
Does the moon sink in your skin;
are the daffodils talking again?"
-S.A. Khanum | Rome Falls
• • •
"Look, Rich! It's the love of your life!"
"Think she'd hex me if I slapped her ass?"
"Try it, Tozier, and I just mi...
"Bare your throat, love, they say it kills you faster - what does it mean when you keep coming back to life? Neck criss-crossed and raw and pink and soft. Tell the wolves to go home. I will be cold. I will be immortal." —Venette O | RUN BABY RUN
• • •
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• • •
"Hello Benny-wen!" Luella Mae greeted warmly as she took a seat in the town's library later on that afternoon.
The other 'New Kid' to Derry — though she was arguably newer considering she had moved in two months ago versus his mere twelve — was a short, chubby boy in both stature and physique. His face was kind and his smile warm, and Luella Mae found herself unable to help the widening of her lips in response to his own when they pulled up into a dopey, lopsided grin.
"Hey, Lu!"
Luella Mae had met Ben Hanscom the very first day she had attended school. He had been rushing down the halls as a pink-faced, sweaty mess when he slammed into her after they simultaneously turned the same corner. The books in his hands went flying whilst the deck of tarot cards in her own scattered across the linoleum floor, and after the boy had apologized profusely and practically begged at her feet for forgiveness, Luella Mae had introduced herself and asked him to escort her to her next class with a bright, blinding smile — which, coincidentally enough, happened to be the very same class he had been running to in the first place. Then, upon discovery that they shared an equal love for books and a similar social outcasting, the two had been meeting up at the library for a few hours nearly every day since.
"See you've got a book of files from the town archives yet again, prieten dragut."
Ben blushed yet rolled his eyes nevertheless. "You know I don't understand it when you say things in- in..."
"Romanian," Luella Mae offered helpfully, smiling with a certain infrequent fondness when he nodded his head in adamant agreement. "But don't worry, Ben," she continued anyway, reaching over to pat his hand lightly while her many bracelets jingled against each other as a result of the action. "I've never said anything you wouldn't appreciate."
"Then what'd you say this time?"
"I called you 'sweet friend'."
Blushing yet again — as seemed custom when it came to the hue of his cheeks — the meatier boy scrambled for a change in subject. His eyes roamed desperately around the library before lingering on the books she had lying on the table beneath her overly ring-clad fingers. "Divination Through The Ages and... Herbology: A List of Magical Herbs and Their Uses..." Ben read aloud in amusement, eyes flashing with mirth as he gazed fondly upon the girl who wore one too many bangles on her wrists and strange, obscure adornments in her hair, on her fingers, hanging from around her neck, and attached to her clothes. "You really are wicked," he teased.
