Remember This✔

Chapter Thirty-Four

Molly washes her hands in the school bathroom as she prepares herself for her next class. It's her second day back and she's already made five more friends than her entire first two months at the school. She's been wanting to come back to school all week, mentally she was ready and excited but she knew it was going to be hard to see him. That was the only thing she wasn't ready for. She's been trying not to think about him, to place her emotions to the back of her mind in an unhealthy and traumatizing way which hasn't made her feel any better.

She saw Alan twice over the week, and the first time they just talked. She opened up about everything that happened, about going out with Lauren and seeing Charlie unexpectedly. She explained how free she felt, how happy it made her, until she started to sober up and the tiredness wore her down. Alan said that she shouldn't rely on alcohol to make her feel that way and that she needed to find another source to help her. She's still figuring that one out.

The second time Alan visited her he brought Shiloh along. Molly couldn't contain her joy at being reunited with the dog and they took him for a long walk around the park. That was when Alan told her that she seemed different, that she looked different. He didn't tell her directly to stay away from Lauren but Molly began to suspect that was the hidden meaning behind everything he said. He told her that Lauren was a complicated person and could be a bad influence but Molly just shrugged it off. He doesn't know her like Molly does, even though Lauren has a traumatic past she just wants to make a difference in people's lives. Molly gets that.

She spent a lot of her time with Daisy and Henley. Taking them for hotdogs and watching them play in the park. And at night, she tried her best to get to know Pam and Daniel more. She listened to their stories of how they met and how they defied Daniel's parents to stay together because they hated her at first. They showed her old photographs of their prom night and they laughed as they relived the evening that Pam called 'a disaster from start to finish.' But when it came to their wedding photos, Molly saw the change in Pam's eyes. She could tell it was the best day of their lives, a magical day that still makes them emotional. Molly remembered her parents describing their wedding day and her mother had the same look as Pam did. It made Molly obsessed with her wedding day. She wanted it to be as perfect as her parents', she wanted the beautiful dress and the dozens of flowers draped around the church benches. She wanted her sister and Riley to be waiting for her as Molly's father walked her down the aisle clutching onto her arm to stop her from fainting. And her mother would be sat up front with a handkerchief pressed against her eyes. She hadn't visited that dream in a long time.

But one day when she does get married it will be Daisy as her bridesmaid and Daniel's arm clutching her own. She didn't know how to feel about that and she banished the thought before Pam and Daniel noticed.

Molly looks at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair is pulled back by the top today just like Lauren taught her. And she wears coloured eyeshadow with eyeliner on her face along with a thin, off-shoulder sweater and dark jeans. Her new look has been noticed by most of the boys in her classes and the attention she is receiving is new to her. Even Sandy Evans, the most popular girl in school, spoke to her this morning. Her beauty is not exaggerated and Molly was tongue tied throughout the entire exchange of words. She was really lovely but she's the type of person that Molly would normally avoid. Now she's beginning to wonder why. There are a lot of nice people in her classes, Molly has just always overlooked them, but yesterday she found herself joining a table of her fellow classmates and actually enjoying their company.

She turns to grab some towels to dry her hands and she hears the door open. Camilla walks towards her and then turns to stare at herself in the mirror.

"It's a good game that you're playing," she says as she pats her cheek. "But it won't work."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Molly says.