"Molly, you will not believe what happened last game! Where were you for that?" Karly asked.
Molly laughed. "Karly, I already told you! I was out of town with my folks. I had to go to my aunt's baby shower!"
"Well whatever. So Eleanor was talking to number sixteen on the football team. Y'know sixteen! Doug, I think his name is? He's dating Stacy. But like, Eleanor asked him to come home with her because her parents weren't home and he said no! And like, I know Stacy's nice and whatever," Karly continued talking and Molly tuned out, smiling and waving at her "friends" as they passed.
Molly felt good. She was with Karly and she was going to eat lunch with her boyfriend, Biff. The sun was shining and the leaves were falling and changing colors.
"Molly! Are you listening?! I said have fun." Karly said, shaking Molly's arm.
"Awe, thank you!" Molly replied.
They hugged and fake-kissed each other's cheeks. Karly blew a kiss and strutted off to go sit with the rest of the cheerleaders. Molly went along to sit with her boyfriend. She'd been waiting to see him all day. She wanted to tell him about the strange dream she'd had the night before.
A strange lady in a long, white Greek-style dress with wavy black hair topped with a golden crown beckoned for her to come closer. The place was so bright that the woman's crown blinded her and she could not see her face. "My young darling," She said, a loud, silky voice booming through the room. "You are a reincarnation of one of the elder ones. You must find the others. We have arranged that you are near, in the same place. Once you have found all twelve, you will ascend into the heavens."
She'd woken in a cold sweat, but was excited. She figured it was just a dream, but what if she was a reincarnation of an old god? She sat on the bench beside her boyfriend and sat her lunch box in her lap.
"Babe, can I-" Molly began. The memory of her dream stayed in her head even as she was interrupted, almost spilling out of her.
Biff looked her in the eyes. He was frowning, but his eyes were nearly laughing. "Molly, I can't do this anymore."
"Can't do what?" "Us."
Molly's poor green eyes prickled with tears, but she pushed them back down with all her might. Voice shaking, she asked, "W-why?"
"I'm just not in love with you anymore." Biff admitted, as if he had ever loved anything in his love other than his parents' money and football.
Molly understood though. She wouldn't force him to be with her. That would be cruel. She nodded and got up from the bench they'd been sitting together. "T-thank you for your honesty." She said quickly, and ran off to find her friend, Karly.
Her tears fell down her cheeks like boulders running down a hill. She found Karly gossiping with the rest of their cheerleading team. Karly saw her approaching and walked her away to avoid her humiliation. "Molly, what's wrong?" Karly asked.
She tried to talk through her sobs. "H-h-he broke up with me!" She managed quietly enough so that only she and Karly could hear. Karly sucked a breath through her teeth awkwardly. "Poor you…" She said. "Well I have to go take care of something. I'm gonna go beat him up. I don't wear stilettos for no reason."
Karly hurried off to where Molly had been sitting with Biff and Molly returned to sit with the cheer team. "What happened? Your mascara is running!" One girl asked and the others herded around her, removing her first face of makeup with makeup wipes. "Molly, you look so pretty without makeup! Why do you even wear it?" Another girl, Stacy, asked.
"I just think it's cute," Molly said, wiping the dampness from her cheeks. She took a deep breath and looked at the squad, who were still waiting for an explanation.
"Okay, so this morning I texted Biff so I could tell about this dream I had last night and he said we'd meet at the stone bench at lunch because he wanted to tell me something too." She began and one of the cheerleaders winced.
"He broke up with you, didn't he?" She asked.
Molly's green eyes widened with surprise. "How did you know?!"
"There's only two things that can happen when guys say that he has something to tell you and we're too young to be engaged." The girl explained.
"Yeah…" The cheer squad agreed.
Eleanor coughed to bring attention to herself. "Are you telling me you didn't know Biff was cheating on you?" "El!" Another cheerleader reprimanded.
Molly felt her life spiraling into a pit of darkness. "He was c-cheating on me?" She asked, almost completely silent. Now that she thought about it, it did make sense. Sometimes he'd ignore her for days and show up at her house, neck decorated with hickeys badly covered in makeup that wasn't even his shade. She sighed. "It makes sense, but who? Who did he cheat on me with?"
The girls looked around at each other. Were they ready to betray one of their own? Unanimously, they agreed. Stacy spoke up. "This is piss you off, but just listen," She put a hand on Molly's shoulder. "He and Karly have been doing things for months. You can't tell her we told you though. She'd make our lives hell."
Molly sat in thought for a moment. Karly wouldn't, would she? She caught herself questioning. Normally, she wouldn't even begin to think she would do such a thing, but now she was thinking. Karly found joy in talking about other girls who got cheated on, so why wouldn't she? She felt anger bubbling in her stomach, or was it anger? Molly turned away from her friends and lost her so-called "anger". Her "anger" had been fear and the spinning world around her.
"Molly!" Stacy shouted with concern and picked up a napkin for her to wipe her face with. "Are you okay?"
She shook her head. "I'll go find a janitor and then I'm going to call my mom."
Stacy nodded. "Okay. Do you want us to do anything or like, help you with anything?"
"No, it's okay. Just go back to lunch." She said and began a staggering walk down the hallway to the principal's office. Principal Jensen met her at the door and offered his arm to lean on. "Ms. Anderson are you okay? You look pale." He asked.
"Mr. Jensen, we need a janitor in the hallway where the vending machines are with the picnic tables." She said rather weakly. He nodded and helped her into his office. "Take a seat. Did you throw up in the hallway?"
Molly nodded miserably. "Would you like to call your mom? I know she works nearby." He asked. "Yes please, thank you, Mr. Jensen." She said and Mr. Jensen left Molly in his office to talk with her mother. It took two rings and Ms. Anderson picked up her cell phone.
"This is Ms. Anderson," She said and Molly sniffled.
"Mommy, can you pick me up? I got sick in the hallway." Molly told her mother.
Ms. Anderson sighed. "Something more happened, I can tell by your voice."
"I'll tell you when you pick me up. I don't want to talk about it here." Molly whispered into the phone. "Will you be here soon?"
"Yes, Dear, I'll see you in a minute. Get yourself cleaned up. I love you."
"Love you, Mom."
Ms. Anderson ended the call and Molly went to the bathroom to change her shirt and wash her face. She entered a stall and pulled off her shirt. She looked down at herself and took a shaky breath. "Why?" She asked out loud to no one and anyone. She asked again to the bathroom, the stalls, the mirrors, the nasty shirt in her hands.
She hugged herself and pulled on the top of her cheerleading uniform and left the stall to look at herself in the mirror. She judged her own outfit: a light blue tanktop of cool material with "Silver Valley" written in silvery-white block letters on her chest and jean skirt that almost reached her knees. It didn't look too bad, but she was only going home. Considering Mrs. Anderson's work schedule, Molly figured she'd be fixing dinner after she did her own laundry that'd been waiting in her laundry basket for days.
She plucked a paper towel from the dispenser and wet it and rubbed her face with it. She wished she had mouthwash or a toothbrush. She stared at herself and sighed. Why did this have to happen to her? If she hadn't wanted to tell Biff about her dream, would this have happened? She shook the thoughts away. "Why am I thinking like Erwin Schrödinger? I'm a cheerleader, not a philosopher." She told herself out loud.
Molly went back to the principal's office to see her mom sitting across from Principal Jensen.
"I'm sorry about this, Karter." Ms. Anderson apologized.
Mr. Jensen chuckled. "It's fine, Natalie."
They smiled at each other awkwardly and Molly cleared her throat dryly. "Oh, hi, Dear." Ms. Anderson greeted her daughter. "Are you ready to go?"
Molly nodded. Ms. Anderson stood and put an arm around her daughter. "Mr. Jensen was right! You do look pale. Are you okay?"
Once outside the school, Molly started crying again. "Mommy, you remember Biff?"
Ms. Anderson nodded. "Yeah, the boyfriend. He plays football."
"He broke up with me and he was cheating on me with Karly." She sniffled.
Ms. Anderson grabbed her daughter's shoulders. "Molly Elizabeth Anderson, did you make me pick you up from school just because your boyfriend broke up with you?"
"No, no! I actually did throw up. You can ask the entire cheer squad. My dirty shirt is still in my bag." Molly said quickly.
"You're not pregnant, are you?" Ms. Anderson asked quietly as they continued walking.
Molly shook her head furiously. "Mommy, I'm a virgin and I'm on the pill." She said.
They sat in Ms. Anderson's car. "How do you know he was cheating on you?"
Molly explained she'd seen and everything she'd been told and her mom nodded along. It did sound exactly like what had happened with Mr. Anderson. Mr. Anderson would "business trips" and when they called, he'd always be busy and was always late to be home, along with the awfully covered hickeys and the visible scratches on his back. Ms. Anderson turned the heat on and pulled out of the school parking lot.
"Honey, do you want to get something to eat? You have to eat something since you didn't eat lunch and you threw up." Natalie asked.
Molly nodded. "Can we get Figueroa's?" Figueroa's was a local restaurant that sold the best Spanish cuisine in Silver Valley. Ms. Anderson nodded. She knew Molly would want gazpacho so she didn't even bother asking. Molly leaned against the passenger door, staring out the window into town. The car smelled like the disinfectant from the doctor's office where Ms. Anderson worked. Molly had grown accustomed to the smell. The house smelled like it, the car smelled like it, and so did Natalie Anderson. It reminded her of home.
Ms. Anderson stopped at Figueroa's and got out. "Lock the doors until I get back." She told Molly.
Once Ms. Anderson closed her door, Molly pressed the lock button and felt safer at the sound of the click. She fished her cell phone from her backpack. She had messages from the girls on the cheer team, a message from Karly, an Mstagram direct message from Jorge from the football team, and a message from Biff.
The messages from the cheer squad were basically "I hope you feel better soon!" and "He doesn't deserve you!".
Karly had sent, "Molls, I have to tell you that Biff and I have been sleeping together and dating behind your back. Now we can date publicly. I'm quitting the cheer squad. I can't be seen around you. Thanks for everything. Bye, bitch."
Molly didn't have the heart to respond so she just blocked her. It seemed best friends did in fact not last forever. Next she checked Jorge's message. She expected a sweet message or something calling her a derogatory term, but it was a meme. It was a picture of the meme man walking with a loaf of bread that said, "yes, my dog is pure bread". She chuckled and liked the message. She sent back, "Nice meme!". She knew he wouldn't answer because he was in Spanish.
Finally, she checked the message from Biff.
"If you ever finally want to sleep with me, I'm here ;)".
"I'm going to puke again." She told herself and decided to send only a middle finger emoji and proceeded to block his number. Ms. Anderson knocked on the car window and Molly quickly unlocked the car doors. Ms. Anderson sat down and put a paper bag of food in Molly's lap. "Are you alright, Dear?"
Molly showed her mother the message from Karly and Ms. Anderson frowned. "I thought she was such a nice girl. I can't believe she would say something and do something like that. I hope she's on the pill or using protection."
"She'll be lucky if she doesn't get an STD. That's why I never slept with him." Molly said and Ms. Anderson gave her a look.
Molly frowned. "Mommy, he is disease-ridden! He told me himself! He has herpes and chlamydia." She defended.
"Yikes, honey. That's awful. Is he being treated?" Natalie asked and Molly nodded.
"His parents are treating him, but no one knows. They don't want people to know and drag their name through the mud like this is the 1800s or something." Molly said.
Natalie chuckled. "Well let's go home and eat. What do you want for dinner?"
"I can make dinner, mommy. Do you want chicken or pork?"
Natalie smiled. "Thank you, Dear. Chicken is fine."
Molly nodded. Ms. Anderson turned on the radio and they rode in silence. She wondered if Molly would mope around for a while or if she'd pep up in a few days. Molly knew she'd pep up in a few days because she was going back to school in her best dress and she'd never talk to Biff or Karly ever again.
She smiled. "Hey mommy, guess what?"
"What, Honey?"
"Karly quit cheering, so I don't have to see her!"
Ms. Anderson smiled and nodded. When Molly turned away to smile out the window, Ms. Anderson frowned. Karly seemed to be the only friend Molly had ever brought home. She hoped Molly had more friends to lean on, for her own sake.