THE GOLD | b. hargrove

the anniversary

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗬
𝟭𝟭𝘁𝗵 𝗷𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟭𝟵𝟴𝟱
  
The ringing of Harriet's alarm at half 5 that morning had been pointless, because she was yet to sleep at all. She was lay on top of her duvet, staring at the ceiling and had been for the past God knows how many hours. She didn't move to silence the beeping, simply swung her arm over and hit at the top of the alarm clock until the right button was knocked and returned the room back to its previous silence.

Her eyes felt heavy from the tiredness and the bouts of crying that had taken place through the night. It had been the type of crying where you have to bite down on something to quieten the sobs, the sort that sit deep in your chest as if they're trying to break out through your rib cage.

Someone knocked on her bedroom door but she didn't have the energy to even vocalise a response, let alone get up to answer, so she instead stayed glued to her mattress and waited for whoever it was to enter or leave her be. After a minute, the door was pushed open gently. The sound of its wooden edge rubbing against her carpeted floor sounded deafening due to the pounding in her head. She closed her eyes for a second, but keeping them closed any longer just caused them to burn so she was forced to look back to her bland ceiling once more.

"Harriet sweetie?" Her Aunts voice came softly from the doorway, but when she didn't get a response she padded into her room and sat on her bedside. "Are you alright?" She stroked the young girls hair gently, trying to soothe her niece though it felt futile. There was nothing in the world that could comfort someone in a situation like this.

"M'okay." Harriet eventually croaked out, her voice coarse from the dehydration and exhaustion. She couldn't bring herself to look over at her aunt, the sorry sight of her swollen face would be a dead giveaway that she was lying.

"I'm gonna call the school and tell them you won't be in today, okay?" Karen whispered, continuing to stroke at her hair. "Do you want me to stay home with you today?"

Of course Harriet knew that it wasn't just her who would be hurting today, that her uncle had lost a brother too. But it was a different kind of hurt that she felt. She had lost her parents, her entire life really. And she was just a kid. A kid when it happened, and a kid now. "No, s'okay." Her words were slurred like a drunk, but it was all she could manage after her restless night.

"Okay sweetie, but you make sure to call me if you need me, alright?" Her aunt sighed. It was awful to see her niece so upset, it was like when she'd first moved Hawkin's and had been inconsolable each night. She felt hopeless, not sure on the right thing to do, but she knew the girl needed her space to grieve and didn't want to force her to share her pain if she didn't want to.

Harriet just hummed in response, acknowledging that she understood that her aunt was there for her. She tried closing her eyes again, this time lasting a few more seconds than the previous. Her aunt took that as her wanting to sleep, which was true in some ways, and placed a kiss on her forehead before making her way from the bedroom and carefully closing the door behind her.

She could hear hushed voices coming from the kitchen as the rest of the Wheeler house went about their morning, clearly trying to keep quiet as to not disturb her. At one point she'd heard Billy's car pull up outside, the recognisable belt of its engine probably could be heard from 2 streets over. He'd been picking her up each morning since school had started up again but she hadn't had the foresight to tell him not to bother today. It was partially wishful thinking that this year she'd be fine and would simply go about her day as usual. He must've been sent away by one of the household because after a few minutes she heard his car drive off, and not long after that the rest of the house emptied out and left her alone in her room.