𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐧 - 𝐫.𝐭𝐨𝐳𝐢𝐞𝐫.

party games

Dawn had bumped it up again. 5 times. 5 of the best moments of her short life, 5 memories she would never forget, scratch that, could never forget.

She nodded at the boy, pressing her smooth lips to his pale cheek as she cupped the other side of his sharp face, "As are you."

"Truth or dare," Eddie swung his hand around at all of the Losers. He seemingly made up his mind when the bony finger pointed directly at her, "Dawn."

"Oh jeez, dare I guess?" She gulped, crossing her arms around her small chest.

Stan cupped his hands around Eddie's ear and muttered something very quietly. The boy clapped his hands excitedly, looking at the scared girl with an evil look in his eye, "Sing."

"What?"

"You heard me. Sing a song. Right now."

"But there's no music!" Dawn sputtered, trying to spit out any excuse to get herself out of the dreadful dare.

"Doesn't matter. Get over your irrational ass fear and sing for us. Any song, you choose."

"Aw man, it seems as if my vocal cords have snapped all of a sudden, such a shame."

"Dawn, come on," Ben chortled, "How bad could it be, just sing a song."

"Fine, whatever," she huffed and laid down on the mat, staring at the stars. Dawn took a deep breath in, shuffling different songs through her head. She finally settled on one, an old french song her mother would sing to her father when she would have too much wine. Marie's voice was like an angel, and you know what they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Dawn started to recite the lyrics by heart, as she had listened to the beautiful voice of Edith Piaf more times than she could count, and she could count pretty high. She took short breaths before each line, it was clear she had done this before, the piece was very well-rehearsed.

"Wow," Bill breathed after she had finished the last note, leaning against Stan, "That was-"

"Wonderful."

"Your mom made better noises when I was pounding her," Richie laughed, pulling his girlfriend's head into his lap once she had shuffled up.

"Ugh, beep beep Richie," Dawn groaned.

"Seriously, have you thought about doing that professionally when you get older?" Mike asked the short girl.

"Actually I was going to move back to Marseille and pursue the family business of baking. We own a bakery that my Aunt is running right now, but it would be pretty cool to perform on stage."

Richie's face fell quickly, going unbeknownst to everybody except Dawn, who furrowed her eyebrows as a way of asking 'what's wrong?' without actually speaking.

"You didn't tell me you were moving back to France, what am I supposed to do, go with you?"

"I figured if we were still together then-"

"What do you mean 'if'? Do you not think we are going to stay with each other?"

"No, you didn't let me finish. If we were still together then you could come with me, you know, start a family and shit. Or, if you didn't want to, we would break it off and drift apart."

"Break it off? This isn't some weirdly long fucking fingernail we are talking about, you don't just 'break off' a relationship!" Richie yelled at the now sat up girl, ignoring the fact that his friends were staring at the couple awkwardly.

"What other choices would we have?"

"We could try, I don't know, maybe picking up a fucking phone once in a while? Visiting a couple times? We don't have to end a fully functional relationship over something as meaningless as distance!"

"You and I both know long-distance relationships never work, Rich. We need to look at the bigger picture here, the best opportunities for us as individuals," Dawn was at the verge of tears, picking at scabs on her legs with anxious eyes.

"But we aren't individuals, are we?" Richie wiped the steam from his glasses with his sleeve, "At least that's what I thought."

"Well, then you thought wrong. I'm leaving."

She ignored the calls of her name and the grabs at her ankles, stomping away to her bike.

"Nice going, fuckwad. you scared her off," Eddie growled in his pitchy tone, glaring at the four-eyed boy.

"It'll be fine soon, she just needs time to cool off," Bill assured the group, trying to make normal conversation again.

None of them could help but steal glances at the place their friend disappeared, hoping she would turn around at any moment and come sit down with them, braiding Stan's hair or stealing candy out of Ben's hand. But she didn't. She was gone.