Sunday, September 1st, 2024.
The sound of the cashier smacking gum was as loud as her perfectly manicured nails tapping the keyboard—if not louder.
Standing in front of the counter were three young ladies, their faces contorted in a manner that entirely revealed how irritated they were by the cashier's nasty chewing habit.
"Anything else?" asked the cashier.
All three girls shook their heads, but then, "Wait!" one of them said with her palm held up. "Add these." She slapped three strawberry-flavored lollipops onto the counter.
Up and down the cashier's eyes moved as she silently stared at them. Chewing her gum even louder, her gaze shifted between the lollipops and the three young ladies who stood before her.
"What?" one of the girls asked with eyes that matched the languid stare of the cashier.
"That will be 8.79," the cashier said as she bagged the snacks they bought.
A ten dollar bill was slapped onto the counter, and she gave them a one-dollar bill, two dimes, and a penny as change.
Stepping out of the store, they unwrapped their lollies and popped them into their mouths.
"Mm! Nothing tastes better than strawberry candy on a Sunday evening," said Merrily as she pulled the candy out of her mouth with a popping sound. The other two girls—Daphne and Lorelai—nodded in agreement.
Slowly and leisurely, they walked in the most ladylike manner, every step in sync.
Their heads held high, the box heels of their boots clacked boldly against the solid ground.
"Hello, boys," they said, waving in sync as two guys walked past them, almost stumbling over as their eyes followed the girls.
But of course, that reaction was only natural.
After all,
They were the hottest girls in town—the 'Honey Blues'.
They claimed to be as sweet as honey, and each of their eyes had a distinct kind of blue—hence the name.
Every boy in town, at one point or another, had a crush on all three girls.
Yes, they were that great.
"Oh, girls, I've decided… I'm going to elope." The words came out so casually that the other two girls didn't quite catch them at first.
"I am definitely going to elope," Merrily said again, and at that moment, Daphne paused as the words from earlier slowly replayed in her head.
"What?!" Daphne exclaimed, pushing some strands of golden hair behind her ear as if it would help her hear better. "You're going to elope?!" She asked, her big light-blue eyes staring at the back of Merrily's brown head.
A soft sigh left Merrily's lips before she turned and shrugged.
"You're going to elope?!" Daphne asked again, holding her lollipop in one hand.
"Where is Elope?" asked Lorelai, who clearly had never heard of the place before. "Is it a fancy place?" she asked, smiling in anticipation.
Yes, they were the perfect flowers of the town.
However…
Lorelai who was the third of their triad—although considered the cutest, loveliest and prettiest of the three with her fiery red hair and sapphire blue eyes—was, unfortunately, also the not-so-smart one. But thanks to Merrily and Daphne, the boys didn't know that.
"No, Lorelai…" Daphne paused, then sighed tiredly before speaking again, "Elope is not a place; it's a word that means to run away from home with a lover."
Lorelai's eyes widened, and she drew her candy out of her mouth, "Huh! You have a lover?!" She gasped in utter shock.
"Shhhhh!!" Merrily and Daphne quickly hushed her as an elderly woman heading toward the Connelly store which they just exited, stared at them with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Hello, Mrs. Patrick," Merrily smiled brightly at the woman.
Mrs. Patrick—now retired—was once the principal of Cloakwood High. And though the girls didn't have the privilege of schooling under her reign as principal, the woman's reputation for having a no-nonsense personality was enough to make frivolous youngsters straighten up.
Sheepishly, all three of them smiled at her.
"Miss Lorelai," she called, and Daphne and Merrily's eyes widened while Lorelai stiffened.
The silence from the woman after calling Lorelai's name stretched so long that all three of them began to sweat and nervously gulp down saliva, dreading what she might say.
Their eyes remained on her lips as they watched them part to speak…
"Tell your daddy I didn't get my stock of bread in time last week, so this week's had better come with an extra apology loaf."
A synchronized sigh left their lips as she turned and walked toward the store entrance.
"Yes, ma'am! I'll personally pack it up for you!" Lorelai called out, just before the woman disappeared into the store.
"Lorelai, be careful," Daphne scolded, frowning at her for nearly causing trouble.
"Sorry, I was just so surprised to hear that Merrily had a lover."
"Lori, I don't have a lover," Merrily finally said.
"Oh, you don't? Ah, thank God." Lorelai let out a sigh of relief and popped her candy back into her mouth.
Daphne—still surprised by Merrily's sudden declaration—took on a motherly expression. With her hands akimbo and a strict tone, she said, "Merrily Pollock, explain yourself right this instant!"
With a pout, Merrily sat on a bench under a willow tree, its leaves slowly losing their shine to the impending winds of fall. It was about twelve feet from the store.
"Well…" She placed their snack bag beside her and continued slowly. "Since my daddy refuses to let me leave this goddamn town to go to college somewhere else, I've decided—I'm gonna elope."
It had been a week since freshmen at Raggswood State University began trooping into the school to start a new chapter of their academic lives. And although Merrily Pollock, like her friends, had already been admitted to the university, she refused to attend.
"Well, technically, it's not even eloping if you're going on your own. You'd just… plainly be running away from home." Daphne sat down beside her. "Well, don't look at me like that. I'm just telling you the truth." Daphne shrugged when she caught Merrily glaring daggers at her.
"See, that's the point!" Merrily suddenly rose to her feet again.
"I don't have a boyfriend! Neither of us has a boyfriend!" Daphne exchanged a quick glance with Lorelai, silently asking, How did we suddenly shift from eloping to boyfriends?. But Lorelai looked even more confused than Daphne.
Again, Merrily sucked on her lollipop before drawing it out of her mouth to continue her speech.
"We've been in this town for eighteen years, going to nineteen soon, and we're still single because there are no boys in this dumb town!"
Lorelai, looking really confused at this point, said, "But there are Jake, James, Johnny, Bill, Philip, Joe, oh, and even Matthew."
"Don't include Matthew in that list," Daphne shook her head irritatedly as Lorelai called the name of her most persistent suitor.
"Okay. Matthew aside, there are boys, Merry." Lorelai shrugged.
Daphne nodded in agreement. "Don't pay Merry any mind Lori—she's just exaggerating…" she said with a chuckle. But when she saw Lorelai about to ask something again, she added, "I mean, she's just being overly dramatic." Lorelai's mouth opened and formed a silent "oh."
"I'm not being dramatic, and you know it! All the boys in this town are boys we've known all our lives! It's such a small town that it's impossible not to know every boy in it!"
"True, but—"
"Have you seen the big cities? I mean, don't you watch movies? Don't you go on the internet? All the handsome, sexy guys live in the city—not in mediocre, ancient towns like Cloakwood!"
It was tiring to remain in such a town.
"Girls," she said, sucking on her candy long and hard. She swallowed the sweetness and pulled it out of her mouth again.
"We were born here. Our elementary, middle and high schools are here. And I don't know the moron who made them build a university in the neighboring county, but if we go to that university too, it's assured—we will die here! We'll never get a chance to see any good-looking guy for the rest of our lives!!"
She breathed with frustration, the thought of never meeting good looking guys was utterly mortifying.
"You see, now I'm confused," Lorelai said. "Are you running away because you're tired of this town, or because there are no new, good-looking boys?"
"Boys! Have you seen the boys in those magazines that come from big cities?"
They took a small moment to recollect all the magazines they had ever collected, and all the hot guys featured on every page. Just the memory was enough to make all three of them blush.
"See?! Real guys are smoking hot! Every boy in this town is plain and simple. The only hot guy in this town is your brother Robby."
Daphne's face immediately paled and twisted. "Yuck! I thought you'd grown out of that mentality. You still think my brother is hot? He's twenty-five! He's old!" Her face cringed with disgust.
"Why? I also think Robby is hot," Lorelai blushingly agreed with Merrily. "But what is mentality?" she innocently asked.
"Urgh!" Daphne rolled her eyes and removed her lollipop from her mouth so she could explain. "Mentality is… uhm, it's... You know what, it doesn't matter," Daphne said simply, before sticking her lollipop back into her mouth.
"Okay, mentality means it doesn't matter..." Lorelai whispered to herself, trying to memorize the word and what it meant in her head.
"Robby is the only hot guy in this whole place, but he's never gonna see me as a woman, so he's out of the equation. He's turned me down a million times already, so I've given up on him." Merrily shrugged and sat herself back down beside Daphne.
She pulled Lorelai, who had been standing the whole time, to also sit beside them.
"Thank God you've given up on my brother, but let me get this straight now…" Daphne held both her hands up, candy in one.
"What you're saying is, if there was a new face—a young, handsome, sexy boy—in this place, you'd stay?"
"Well, I'll think about it... but for him to make me stay, he must check all the boxes first."
"Oooh, let's hear it," Lorelai said with excitement.
"Well, first and most basic, he must be at least six foot two…"
Just as she began listing and explaining her requirements, a motorcycle pulled to a halt at the far end of the street where other vehicles were packed.
"Broad shoulders—"
The rider of the motorcycle was dressed in black jeans and a jacket. Under the jacket he wore a black shirt with the first three buttons left undone.
"—Straight, long legs... You know a guy can be tall and still have legs as crooked as a witch's broom. So he has to have straight, sturdy legs."
The legs that straddled the motorcycle were long and straight, and their firmness was perfectly accentuated by the tight-fitting jeans.
"I think I have a thing for guys with blond hair..."
The rider's hands reached up to his head and slowly pulled off the black helmet shielding him. A lush wave of sun-stealing golden locks flowed over his broad shoulders.
"Eyes should be beguiling. I really don't care what color— just eyes that can captivate my very soul, you know…"
The rider's eyes shone bright amber, almost like they were competing with the golden suns drawn in storybooks.
"Handsome as Lucifer himself... The Bible did say that Lucifer was beautiful," Merrily points out, and the girls nod in agreement.
"Maybe a tattoo or two…"
Beneath the open collar of his shirt, a touch of ink could be seen.
"All in all, the baddest, hottest, sexiest boy Cloakwood has ever seen."
At that moment, Lorelai raised her head and her gaze fell upon a certain stranger getting off a motorcycle, walking toward their direction…
"Uhm, girls… I know I'm not the smartest girl alive, but… isn't that the guy you just described?" She pointed—their eyes followed.
Slowly, they rose from the bench—it seemed as though the world had frozen around them.
The only things moving were the stranger and the wind that blew entirely in his favor.
The closer he got, the wider their eyes and mouth opened—until their lollipops dropped out of them.
His hands reached for his head and his fingers pushed back long golden strands that had fallen over his face.
This couldn't be possible…
How could he be possible?!
Those long and lazy yet majestic strides… those eyes that seemed to have the sun inside them…
Her breath shook.
Her cheeks flushed.
Her heart… thumped.
And her lungs begged for more air.
"Oh my gosh!" Merrily gasped as he passed, his lazy, fiery eyes meeting hers for just a split second.
The wind that followed him swept over her much later after he passed, carrying a certain scent with it.
Merrily shivered.
Her eyes trailed after his figure until he disappeared into the store.
"Girls," she said, both hands pressed to her chest.
"I don't think I'm ever leaving Cloakwood."
The arrival of the stranger marked the end of Merrily's plans to ever run away—and thus began the most petrifying fall Cloakwood had ever seen.