𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐋𝐄𝐅𝐓 𝐌𝐄 , 𝐛. 𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡

𝟎𝟏𝟑. 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓

013. THE FIRST AND THE LAST

     ▌ A WEEK. It had been a week since they last spoke. Seven days. Ten thousand and eighty minutes. six hundred and four and eight
hundred seconds. Bailey has never, ever, spent that long without the losers. Never. But here she was, sitting at her desk, with no contact towards any of the losers for, what felt like for her, an eternity.

     She sat on her wooden chair, looking at the mirror in front of her, brushing her knotted hair, trying to look presentable for Stan's bar mitzvah. She didn't know if any of her former group were going, and she wasn't particularly on bad terms with Stan. Her finger dabbed on some lip balm on her reddish lips, soothing the marks she previously chewed on.

A floral dress lay on her body, which she had previously stolen from her sister. The pink roses flattered her fiery red locks. Bailey wasn't
the type to have fancy clothing, it was never needed. The dress was fancy enough for her. It was a little above her knees, which wasn't the most comfortable for Bailey, meaning she tugged it down every minute.

She separated two strands of her red hair, and pulled them behind her head, clipping them to her head. A memory of her mother played in her head, she'd always watch her do all these sorts of hairstyles but this one was her favourite. It made her most look like her mum. No one was home, so she was able to peacefully do what was needed.

     The redhead walked down the side apartment stairs, the sun aiming straight at her floral dress, and blue eyes. In Derry, there was only one local synagogue so it was quite obvious where to go.

———

     Bailey pushed the two large doors, hearing small chatter from inside. She took two steps in, her eyes scanning the room back and forth to find any empty seats. 'Bailey!' A voice called out, causing Bailey to turn, she watched Maggie Tozier waving over to come sit down. Bailey noticed Richie in a blue suit staring at her. Looks like one of the losers did come after all.

Bailey gave a genuine smile to the glasses boy's mother, sitting down beside Richie.

"Hello, Bailey." He said, very seriously. It was as if he was trying to impersonate a spy? or maybe trying to act as if not seeing Bailey for a week suddenly turned him into a man. whatever it was Bailey was extremely lost.

She looked at him with a confused expression, yet still responding with the same energy. "Hello, Richard." She said, a laugh breaking the seriousness. "Didn't think you would come." She spoke.

"What? And miss seeing Stan slice the tip of his dick off? No way I'm missing that" He shrugged.

"Rich- you do know that's not what he's doing"

"Wha-" He looked at Bailey, disappointed.

———

The ceremony had almost come to an end, Stan was up, saying his speech which he had been practising for ages, but when it was the end, he carried on, not like how the losers had heard before. His feet trailed off the centre, coming down the mini steps while speaking. Once he eventually stopped, he spat out "I know I'm a loser, and no matter what, I always fucking will be." making a run for it out the two large doors Bailey had entered from.

He was going to be in big trouble, Bailey thought, knowing Stan's father and how important this was for their family.

The guests all had uncomfortable faces on, but not Bailey and Richie. They had a sort of shocked and smiling face on. Richie got up, clapping soon getting shot off by his mother dragging him down.