She kept a careful distance as they walked. Held herself slightly too far away to touch. Studied the passing lockers and swallowed back the emotion blurring her gaze.
“Right,” she said finally, her tone unperturbed, as they neared the gym.
And when the crowd swept them in two separate directions, she didn’t fight the tide. She simply let herself be carried far, far away.
Due to Molly’s extraordinary efforts at avoidance, tracking her down took Lise an entire hour. At long last, however, Molly’s best friend managed to find her in the bathroom farthest from the actual reunion, where she’d hoped to erase any sign of tears in absolute privacy.
Lise let the door swing shut behind her, propped her butt against a white porcelain sink, and passed Molly a clean tissue. “Want a hug?”
“Not right now.” An embrace would break her, and she needed to get through the rest of the evening with believable aplomb. The acting job of a freaking lifetime. “Thanks, though.”
Lise didn’t look offended.
“What’s going on, Mol?” When her head tipped in inquiry, strands of her wavy brown hair brushed her half-bared shoulder. “Karl’s slapping hors d’oeuvres down on plates like they personally insulted his mother’s virtue, and his vocabulary currently contains two—and only two—categories: various forms of the wordfuckand curt descriptions of quiches. And here you are, putting on your brave face in your sexy suit all by yourself, on the other side of the damn school, even though you’re leaving that man’s very fine ass in two days. Something’s clearly amiss, so you might as well tell me about it.”
Molly couldn’t remember the last time she’d worked through aproblem by talking it over with someone. But her old way of doing things had only given her insomnia and high blood pressure, so maybe it was time to proceed a little differently.
“I, uh...” Using the side of a knuckle, she brushed away another disobedient tear. “I’m going to warn you now: This is the most late-nineties-teen-movie crap ever, which serves me right. I should’ve never agreed to Karl’s cockamamie plan.”
“I’ve hereby been warned. Bring it on.” Lise waggled her brows and held up her hand for a high-five. “Get it?Bring It On?”
“That came out in 2000,” Molly told her, reluctantly amused, but high-fived her friend anyway. “Okay. So...”
Over the course of the next ten minutes, she spilled everything in a way she hadn’t done since before her dad left. About halfway through, Lise ushered them both into a dark classroom so they could sit, but she brought a bundle of paper towels with her, because she was a very forward-thinking individual. And once the tale had been told, Molly blew her nose on one of the paper towels while she mopped her eyes with another.
Single-ply. Way too rough for these purposes. There’d be no hiding her distress after this, unless she fled from the classroom directly into the dark night. Which would also be very teen movie of her, but more the horror iterations than the romcom ones. Because, come on: a fat, haughty female character crying and running from a school dance after having engaged in recent sexual escapades? She’d be freakingdoomed.
Kind of how she felt already, to be honest.
“This is purely a pragmatic question.” Lise stacked her forearms on the back of the orange plastic chair she was straddling, then plonked her chin on top. “Why haven’t you just... left theparty? Taken the limo and gone home to the Spite House, then sent the driver back for Karl?”
The question sounded casual. Lise’s eyes on Molly, though, were as sharp as the tacks securing various announcements to the classroom bulletin board.
“I guess...” With a sigh, Molly mirrored her friend’s pose. “I guess I thought maybe he’d come after me, and we’d talk more. Fix things. Which probably isn’t going to happen, but the idea of leaving without him feelswrongsomehow.”
Lise didn’t mince words. “Because you love him and want to stay with him.”
There was no point pretending, was there? Not when Lise already knew her far too well and wouldn’t hurt her with the truth anyway.
“Yes. I love him.” Unfortunately for her. “Too bad he doesn’t loveme. At least, not enough to tell me so in words.”
“So you and Karl are spending the evening within easy distance of each other but functionally apart, even though you’re leaving on Monday,” Lise summarized. “The two of you haven’t officially broken up, but you’re not officially together either, and you never were. Thus, both of you are miserable at reunion-prom, neither of you appears to have any clue how to rectify said misery, and now I’m the fat, funny bestie swooping in to give you the sage advice that’ll fix everything.”
Lise’s headshake was rueful. “You’re right. Thisisthe most late-nineties-teen-movie crap ever. So much”—she did a creditable set of jazz hands—“drama.”
“Thank for you for saying I’m right. You know I live for that.” Molly’s nose was still running, and she dabbed at it with a freshpaper towel. “I’m fat too, though. I mean,legitimatelyfat. Not what the media back then tried to make usbelievewas fat, like Kate Winslet or whoever. Anyway, my own genuine fatness isn’t very nineties-teen-movie-main-character of me, and I apologize for the discrepancy.”
Lise waved a dismissive hand. “Kate and I hereby accept your apology.”
“Very gracious of you both.” Sighing, Molly laid her cheek on her forearm. “Here’s the thing, Lise. I’m sure your counsel will be wise beyond your teenage years, but I doubt even the sagest advice could fix everything that’s wrong at this point.”
“Maybe not.” Lise smiled sympathetically at her. “How about I give it my best shot anyway?”
“Go...” Molly’s nose was stuffed up from crying, and she twisted away to blow it on a paper towel before turning back to Lise. “Go right ahead.”
Lise raised a finger. “My turn to issue a warning: I’m about to go Socratic on your stubborn ass.”
“Not the worst thing that’s ever been done to it.” Molly shrugged tiredly. “My first—and last—foray into kink with Rob featured the least sexy spanking of a consenting adult woman in human history.”
