I'm Fine

Story
Opal was brushing out her sister's hair when suddenly footsteps raced over to where they were. It was Luna. "Fauve!" She yelled. "I'm so happy to see you! Come on, let's go shopping!" Luna pulled Fauve away from Opal.

Fauve motioned to Opal, a questioning and hopeful look on her face. "Oh no Fauve, Opal can't come. I'm sure she has a lot of other things to do." Luna said, sounding sincere, but Opal caught the hint.

"You go on ahead Fauve." Opal smiled. "I do have some things I need to get done. Just go have fun." She struggled to keep the smile on her face.

Fauve seemed to believe that, and let Luna pull her out of the room. The moment they couldn't see her anymore, Opal let her smile slip away.

Fauve stuck her head back in, forcing Opal to quickly smile once more. "I told you you can go. I'm fine."

I'm Fine.

No matter what happened, she said those words. It was no use worrying anyone because the girl overeacted about little things, so she faked a smile and it was usually believable.

The thing was, hiding hurt feelings always put a strain on the person who was doing it. Opal started to look exhausted all the time and all she wanted to do was fall asleep and hide from the world.

No one noticed. If they did, she would smile and tell them those two simple words. "I'm Fine." Her mother and father were often busy so they usually couldn't push the matter any farther, her sister may not have fully believed it, but she didn't know how to fix it.

After about two months of Luna being Luna and Opal hiding how it made her feel, Fauve finally took action. She went to find the one person on earth who would know how to fix it.

"Stop pretending to be the perfect good girl. You're not Fauve's real sister, you're not Eliza's real daughter! Stop trying to be something you never can be!" Luna declared.

Opal took a deep breath. She kept her expression the same as always, she showed no signs of having even heard what Luna had said. Finally, Luna walked away.

Opal turned to walk to her room, when she saw him. Her best friend Larkin. Why was he here now? She just needed to not have to smile and be fine.

"Opal, I heard every word." Larkin moved toward her, arms open, as if he was going to hug her. She pushed him away, muttering those untrue words.

"I'm Fine."

Larkin took her hands, pulled her close to him and said two simple, yet true words. "You're not."

At those words, Opal finally started crying. Larkin hugged her. He was mentally cursing himself for not being there for her earlier.

"I'm willing to hold you until you really are." he whispered in her ear.

(And that's where Eliza, Garvey, Fauve, and Luna found them 45 minutes later, just hugging each other like nothing else mattered.)