“You know you can always talk to me, Bug. About anything. Any time. Sure, I imagine depending on the subject matter it has the potential to get awkward, but when have us Morrisons’ ever backed down from something difficult?”
She giggled, his words churning through her mind with each step. She needed to tell Will. She needed to square her shoulders, straighten her spine, and tell him she’d been in love with his best friend from the minute they’d met in their backyard.
She squeezed Dad’s arm. “Thank you.”
“Don’t let fear control your life, Molly. Figure out what you want in this world and pursue it relentlessly.”
As soon as Finn stepped off that stage, diploma in hand, she was going to talk to him about telling Will. They needed to come clean, to step into the light and own their love once and for all.
Her stomach sloshed as she walked to her seat, her heart raced as she sat through speeches, and her soul about left her body when Finn found her in the masses and threw her a wink from the stage as he accepted his diploma.
Her throat was hoarse from screaming for them both, and her face ached from smiling. She waited with her parents and Meabh for the boys, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she gnawed on a stubborn cuticle.
“You seem nervous Molly, is everything okay?” Mom’s concerned eyes pinned her while they waited.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just about to prank Finn, so I’m a little nervous.”
Before Mom could answer, Finn and Will rounded the corner and made a beeline for their small group. As they approached, Molly slipped her hand into her bag, curled her fingers around the oversized confetti cannon, and deployed it right in Finn’s face with a gleeful shriek.
A few bystanders gasped and squealed at the sound, pointing and laughing.
“Check. Mate.” Molly flipped the empty tube with a flourish, not taking her eyes off his as the cardboard crashed to the floor with a clunk.
Finn shook his head. “Far from checkmate, Mini Mo. I’ll find a way to get you back.”
Will scrunched up his nose and gestured at the multicolored ticker tape scattered at their feet. “Someone want to tell the rest of us where this battle came from?”
“Tiktok.” Molly and Finn answered together. Heat prickled up her neck as the parent’s in front of her went from wide-eyed and open-mouthed, to frowns and pursed lips.
“There’s this couple on Tiktok and they spend their free time trying to one-up each other with a confetti cannon war.” The more Molly spoke, the more her skin caught fire. It really was a dumb idea, but it was fun and she loved it. “It looked like fun.” She shrugged.
Finn nodded. “They hide in different parts of the house, lying in wait for their spouse to find them – cupboards under the sink, under their car, anywhere you can fit a human being really.”
He bent down to pick up the empty tube and waved it. “They have confetti cannons hidden all over the house, and they refill their tubes from oversized bags of shredded colored paper. Their kids even get involved, hiding the confetti cannons for their parents, and giving them a heads-up when they’re coming.”
She crouched down to sweep up the pieces of paper with her palms. “They can get pretty creative.”
“The husband leveled up to colored foam filled balloons.”
Molly jabbed a finger at him. “I would kill you dead, Finnegan O’Brien.”
He held his hands up. “I believe you. Which is why I’ll stick to colored tissue paper.”
Meabh bent down and helped Molly collect the shards of paper. “How did this little battle start between you both?”
Molly shrugged. She didn’t want to out Finn’s February-Funk to his mom, even if it was probably common knowledge, or easy to assume.
“Molly started it.”
“Doesn’t she always?” Will had pulled out his phone and was frowning at his screen.
Molly took a breath to reply, but both their parents spoke at once. “Don’t start, Will.”
Molly smirked. Just like when they were kids.
“Molly correctly assumed I needed cheering up around Liam’s anniversary. She showed up at my door, blasted a confetti cannon in my face, threw down the tube like a declaration of war and laughed at me.”
“Sounds about right.” Mom chuckled.
