For those of you who don't know, I have deleted my story "The Healing of Old Scars". I tried to move on with the story, but found that the characters refused to mesh together, and that I was forcing relationships that weren't believable. So, I have reworked my plot into this story, which is not, in fact, a Chibs/OC story. In fact, this is something I was a bit hesitant on working on—Opie/OC. Opie is such a tricky character, I wasn't even sure I would be able to do him justice. However, I've found his chemistry with my OC remarkable, and so this story should last much longer than the previous one. So, I'll stop babbling here and get on with the prologue—enjoy!
Within the cramped town of Charming, California, everyone was curled up in their beds, fast asleep and completely unaware of all that was going on during that warm summer night. The air was humid and sticky, clinging to any daring patch of bare skin. Fireflies buzzed all around, flashing across the starry night sky. One of the last nights of summer vacation had begun, thus inviting teenagers of all shapes and sizes to frequent any establishments that wouldn't dare to turn them away. Some were trying to sneak cigarettes and a quick drink of beer, while others didn't even bother to hide their digressions.
One teenager, however, was still tucked away in her small home, her parents too enthralled with their sweet dreams in the room next to hers to take not. Instead of sleeping, Quinn Delaney was busy packing away all of her belongings in preparation for that very next morning. Her floor was littered with both empty and filled boxes, as well as various piles of clothes. The seventeen-year-old was clad in a pair of gray, cloth shorts and an oversized t-shirt, her thick, curly hair pulled into a sloppy pony-tail at the back of her neck. She stood in front of her bookcase, which nearly took up an entire wall of her bedroom. It was crammed with books, leaving little space of anything else. Quinn traced her fingertips over the peeling bindings, chewing her bottom lip as she tried to decide which she would be forced to leave behind.
Just as she pulled out a withered copy of "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens, a soft tapping came at her only window. Glancing over instantly at the abrupt sound, a smile broke out on her pale face at the sight before her. A burly young man, only a couple years older than herself, was grinning at her through the glass; Opie Winston waited patiently as she padded over to him and removed the barrier between them.
"What are you doing here?" Quinn asked. She was forced to take a step back as Opie slid through the window and landed clumsily with a loud thump. They both held their breath, listening for any creaks in the hard wood from her parents, but were relieved when all that met their ears was the crickets from outside.
Opie stood at full height in front of the seventeen-year-old now. He was tall and broad-shouldered, possessing a figure that most high school football players would have killed for. His dark hair was dark and tangled, no doubt in desperate need of a comb. The only article of clothing he was clad in that actually mattered was the black, leather cut resting over his long-sleeved, gray shirt. The Reaper—a Grim Reaper holding out a crystal ball emblazoned with the Anarchy symbol—was adorned on the back of the cut, along with a curved patch reading the words "Prospect". Opie's mandatory one year as a prospect would be up in a month, and then, if Quinn's predictions were correct, he would be patched into SAMCRO, fulfilling his one and only dream of being a patched member.
"Something came up that we have to take care of in the morning," replied Opie vaguely. It was a tone Quinn still had a hard time getting used to—normally her best friend would confide in her about everything, but, when it involved the club, it was a completely different story. "I wanted to at least say good-bye."
Ignoring the weak tug at her heart, Quinn smiled up her beloved companion and leaned against her bedframe casually. "You didn't have to come in the middle of the night just for me," she quipped.
Opie cocked an eyebrow down at her and smirked, "You're a terrible liar, you know that?"
"Yes, I suppose I am," responded Quinn, turning back to one of her boxes and beginning to transfer a pile of clothes from the floor into it in order to hide her own glowing smile. "You remind me of that rather frequently."
When she did not receive a response, she glanced over her shoulder to see what Opie was up to. He had picked up a packet of papers from her otherwise cleared desk and was now reading them with an intense expression upon her face. Quinn just caught the flash of the emblem of Columbia University stamped across the top of each page before Opie's eyes met hers. "You could have at least asked before you read them," Quinn laughed rather nervously, her insides squirming as she waited for him to finally put down those damned papers.
"I still can't believe you're going," said Opie, his disappointed tone breaking Quinn's heart. "It just didn't seem real until now."
"Yeah, I know," replied Quinn, compelling her hands to keep folding her blouses—it stopped them from trembling. "But I'll be back for Christmas—then you'll be sick of me all over again. After the New Year, you'll be thrilled to be rid of me. And don't forget the summer will come soon after that, and we'll be doing this all over again."
Two large hands stalled her fingers, forcing Quinn's chocolate brown eyes to turn up to meet his dark blue ones. Her heart skipped a beat as Opie pulled her into a tight embrace. Opie's bear hugs were legendary in Quinn's eyes—it always felt like he was trying to pull her inside of him and never be offered the chance to let her go. "I'm gonna miss you, Quinn," he whispered into her dark hair, his hot breath tickling her bare skin.
Opie eventually released his best friend, untangling his limbs from hers. "You have no idea how much I'm gonna miss you, Op," she replied, grinning to hide the lump forming in her throat—from him or herself, she wasn't sure. He swiftly pressed his lips to her forehead, causing her eyelids to flutter close. Inside her beating heart, Quinn couldn't help but dream of the day he would bundle her up in his arms and make her his, once and for all. She had waited for so many years for that moment, and yet it never came. Opie would always choose another, leaving her to wait in the wings for the moment she would have swoop in to pick up the pieces of his broken heart.
That next morning, Quinn helped her parents load up their car with all of her belongings. Due to her father's own duties to SAMCRO, he wasn't able to ride with her to the airport to bid her farewell. Instead, Quinn was forced to tearfully embrace Otto Delaney one last time before she went off to New York. He whispered to her about his pride and love for his one and only daughter, and how he understood what she needed to do.
With one last look at her home and the father who had adored her for her entire life, Quinn clambered into the car with her mother and began the long drive to Sacramento. She never took notice of the figure straddling the Harley idling only a distance from her household, not even as he revved his engine and rode off just moments before her own departure from Charming.
So, that's the prologue. I hope I made the characters as realistic as possible. I just wanted to introduce Quinn, Opie, and their relationship, but there'll be much more action in the next few chapters, I promise. Don't forget to leave a review!