soft allure. ° tozier

eleven

August 12th, 1986

"It was nice to meet all of you, but I should probably get home now,"

Opal told the group after their lengthy discussion about the town and all of the people here.

They asked Opal a lot of questions, she answered as vaguely as possible,
evading the topic of her mother's passing;

she didn't want anyone to know apart from Richie.

"Do you want a lift home?"

Richie asked her placing a hand on her shoulder.

She smiled a little; it was sweet of him to offer.

"No don't worry I'll make my own way home, I don't live that far."
She spoke softly standing up from the booth; she had lied entirely of course.

The walk home was ridiculously far, but she didn't want to be a bother and take him away from his group.

"Are you sure darling?" He re-iterated,

"Yes, thank you, Richie. Today was nice; we should do it again sometime."

She grinned as she saw a hopeful smile arise on his face at what she had offered.

She lent down and placed a sultry kiss on the corner of his lips,
then stood back to her feeble height, waved goodbye to everyone and

proceeded to traipse out of the Diner.

The last thing she heard before she exited was

"Jesus Richie stop looking like you've fallen in love."

She smirked.

She was nervous to go home, not because she didn't like it there or because she didn't want to see her aunt.

But because in three days, it was her mother's death anniversary.

Because in three days, it would have been one year since the person she loved most in the whole world, had died.

On Monday she wasn't going to go to school, she was going to stay home and look over the box with all her mother's belongings.

The only significant thing she took to Derry.

It was just day's before the anniversary but whenever she was alone,

whenever she was stuck inside her head all she could do was ache.

All Opal could do was think that maybe she could have done something, perhaps if she'd been better,

then her mother would've stayed with her.

She had spent almost an entire year blaming herself for what her mother had done,

but she felt that if she didn't blame someone for what happened then her mother's memory would be let down.

Opal Faye tried her hardest not to think about it,

she tried her hardest to be strong but her mother was all that she had, and now that she is gone,

it felt like she had nothing left.

Even though she had her aunt, her new life in Derry and even that trash mouth Tozier.

She was intelligent and beautiful, but she was also hurting.