the next day, both of the two were happier and more excited to see each other than normal, more than they already were before.
christian was waiting for the girl in his usual spot, writing in his notebook. when he saw her, his eyes lit up, like usual, but this time, he got up and hugged her tight.
she showed him her new drawing like normal, which was a ballet dancer.
and he showed her his new lyrics. she was oblivious that the song was about her.
she told him that she wanted to hear him sing some time, and he was a little too excited. he asked if she wanted to come over again, but she needed to go home straight away to her mom today.
after their two and a half drinks, they parted ways with another hug. he kissed her on the forehead again, and she giggled loudly.
he left in a good mood, with her smile still on his mind.
she left, getting more worried after each step she took towards her apartment, with fear in her mind.
.
she opened her apartment door, and she smiled at her mother, laying in the big hospital bed in the middle of the living room.
"hey mom," opal smiles at her mother, darcy, walking across the room to kiss her on the forehead. "you feeling alright?"
"i'm much better today; even better that you're here now. how was your day with you and mr. akridge?" darcy asks, humor laced in her voice. she sits up a little more as opal plops on the side of bed next to her. she holds the young, sickly woman's clammy hands.
"ugh, mom. don't call him that, it makes him sound old." the girl groans. her mom laughs. "he's good, i'm sure.. i told him about... dad."
darcy takes in a deep breath, and stays silent for a few moments. "this christian boy must mean a lot to you, then."
opal nods. "he does."
"i would like to meet this boy, you said he was cute?" darcy winks at her daughter.
"gosh, don't even start with that." the girl laughs.
"does he have a dad?"
"yep. very married, too. looks like you're out of luck."
"dang, it's because i'm bald, isn't it?"
"will you stop using your bald head as an excuse for everything?" opal laughs loudly.
she tells darcy all about what christian and she and him did today, and soon, the home nurse, aspen, comes home from the store with a hand full of grocery bags. opal rushes to help her.
aspen is often at their apartment, more so than her own. she says that opal and darcy are her home now, since they are all the old woman has left. her kids moved away, and her husbands divorced her a long time ago.
she's a sweet old woman who treats opal as her own, and darcy already made sure that she has custody over opal if she ever... doesn't get better.
her job is to make sure everything is stable with darcy, just in case something happens and the ambulance takes too long. aspen would make sure that darcy has taken her medicine, and changed her IV every four hours.
after spending some time with her sickly mother and aspen, opal lays in her room and starts to draw. and she cried. she know's her mom is getting weaker by the day as her breast cancer is slowly beating her down.
she thinks about christian, one of her only sources of happiness left. he distracts her from every bad thing in her life, and she remembers how her hands fit so perfectly in his, and how awkwardly tall he is compared to her, how imperfectly perfect she rested in his arms when they hugged goodbye.
so she drew his hands. his warm hands that opal likes to stare at when he wrote down his imagination.
**
it's honestly so cliche and shitty and cute all at the same time idk
how tall are you?
song recommendation of the chapter: a change of heart - the 1975
