Chapter three

"Hey do you need a lift?" Spencer asks me.

"No I'm fine, thanks" I reply.

"No I'm taking you home"

"Spencer! I know you're doing the honourable thing... I don't need you to take me home" I snap at him.

"Okay. I'll wait with you then"

"No matter what I say you're not going to leave"

"Nope" I chuckled at that.

We sat in a comfortable silence for 5 minutes until I spotted Ivy's silver Fiat 500. "See you at school"

"Oh god you reek of cheap alcohol" Ivy shouted while opening the window.

"Do you have any perfume?" I ask in a sulk.

"No and Jesus I was just saying. Stop acting like the world's going to end!" I ignored her comment and stared out the window- still in a sulk. Maybe I am getting my period. I'm never really in a bad mood (that's a lie).

Ivy stops the car in front of my house around midnight. I rolled my eyes knowing that my dads were waiting impatiently in the living room- dad pacing around the room and Paps tapping his foot sitting tense on the sofa. Their cup of coffees would be chilled by now by being forgotten about.

I slowly and begrudgingly walked up to the door before breathing in and letting it go as I unlocked the door and stepped into the warm but intimidating filled air.

Standing a few feet in front of me were dad and Paps. Their usually welcoming eyes narrowed at me with fury.

"Please don't" I begged.

"You didn't answer any of our phone calls. We had to call Izzy, Sally and their parents! You got Sally in deep trouble with her dad-" Paps started.

"I KNOW! For gods sake! Can we do this tomorrow?"

"Don't say his name in vain" dad shouted

"Don't ask God to get you out of this mess. You put yourself in this situation" Paps roared.

"I CAN'T DEAL WITH THIS RIGHT NOW! I know I MESSED UP, OKAY?"

Dad placed his bear hand on Paps shoulder to get him to quiet down his opinions. I ran straight to my room, slammed my door shut and began silently screaming which is the worst! My throat burned with the amount of tears and the silent screams. Things got thrown around my room violently by tiny furious hands.

Despite the fact that I didn't feel any better I sucked it up and got dressed into my pyjamas. And after removing my makeup and doing all that crap, I laid down in my comfy bed with my sad 3am music blaring through my earphones.

After an hour of failed sleep I went back on to my phone and clicked through people's Snapchat and Instagram stories on the party. They looked like they had so much fun!

Who calls at this time?

More importantly how did this stranger get my number? 3am a not recognisable number phones you- what would anyone else do? Don't answer it and what am I doing? Answering it.

"Hello?" I whispered quietly.

"Molly Burns?" A strong male's voice asks.

"Yeah... who's this?"

"Your favourite person"

"Err... how is Gregory Peck phoning me from the dead?"

"No! It's your other favourite person"

"Robin Williams? Which is impossible because he's dead. Audrey Hepburn? She's a chick and also dead. Obama?"

"This is going to take a while isn't it?"

"Yes. Seriously who is this?"

"I'm surprised you haven't worked it out that it's me Spencer Montgomery" oh it's him.

"How did you get my number? Stalker Spence?"

"Izzy gave it to me because I pretended that I needed your number for a project after you left the party"

"Okay so why did you want my number?" I asked him.

"I was just wondering if you're free tomorrow?"

"I had plans with Sals but we got in a fight at the party and I lied to my dads that I went to the party- so I'm probably grounded for a week. To answer your question the chance of me getting out of the house is slim"

"So what are you doing?" He casually asked me.

"I was sleeping but you interrupted so I'm patiently waiting for you to end call"

"Right it is... woah it's 5am! Anyway see you at school on Monday. Goodnight Molly" then he ended call.

Instantly after the call ended I fell asleep and got jolted awake by Paps at goodness knows what time.

He didn't say anything as he dropped the washing basket on my bed near my feet. I groaned and rubbed my eyes to block the sunlight from the now pulled back curtains. And when my eyes adjusted I saw that Paps has gone, the clothes spilling out of the vibrant orange basket and my foot wide opened. I let out a growl before reaching for my phone then I began panic searching for it.

"Fuck you paps" I whispered. I didn't waste anymore time and I began folding the clothes and then I realised that they weren't clean and I just touched someone's dirty boxers! That's what you get for living with three dudes! I unintentionally let out a scream. I assumed it was a quick and quiet yelp but nope.

"Shut the fuck up it's 7.30am! I'm a whitewashed African American who lives with annoying white people!" I ignored his comment and threw one of their boxers at him but he zombie-moved out the way. Shit.

I got dressed and noticed a throbbing bruise of Luke's hand on my wrist. I look for a bracelet or something to cover it up. Finding my bright red bandana, I wrap it round and cover the purple bruise. Then I continued the chores my dads have set me. They said that when Jamal leaves to go to his friend's house which was round lunch time.

"You lied" dad started with so much disappointment. I know that if I opened my mouth to say anything there'd be a lump in my throat. I never do good with disappointment.

"Why did you lie? We were so worried. We didn't know where you went, what happened..."

"I know... and I'm sorry"

"Sometimes words don't mean anything when you throw it about so much" Paps muttered.

"I am sorry! I can't do anything right! I have thus opinion and I'm a bad friend, I do this and I'm a bad daughter! I am so sorry! I'm sorry"

"Would you be sorry if you didn't get caught?" Interesting question dad. I didn't talk to anyone else for the rest the day but tomorrow is another day. I went to sleep early last night, considering we had to get up early for church and I've got plans on how to make it up to them.

Firstly: bake pancakes.

Secondly: clean the car

Thirdly: do more chores

And lastly: make dinner and desert

I get into my church clothes- a light weight knitted jumper over Ivy's washed grey t-shirt that's  semi tucked into a burgundy skirt with black tights and brown booties. My hair was doing my head in so it's in a messy low bun. And today a black bandana to cover up the less purple bruise now.

"Ooh you did a good job, Mols! I haven't seen the car be so clean before and oh is that the new car smell that I love so much" dad gleefully said in a sing-song voice.

"Spent a good hour cleaning it so you better be grateful" I joked as I hopped into the car.

"We appreciate it darling" he replied as he pecked me on my temple and Paps lovingly and gently squeezed my hand for a second.

When we got to our small church I threw Jamal's phone at his sleeping ass. We don't go to 'normal' churches because a) acting upon homosexuality is a sin. So we found a church accepts lgbtq+ folk.

Dad and Paps went up to talk to Pastor Joey first, Jamal approached his friends and I went up to Grace- the Pastor Joey's daughter. Grace is a year younger than me. She has dwarfism, also short fiery red hair with a fringe, dark chocolate eyes with long lashes.

"I love your outfit" I complimented her on her outfit which was a rainbow t-shirt under a dark blue denim dungarees with her burgundy HOLLY lace-up Doc Martens.

"Thanks! By the way you might get hot, dad put the heating on full" Grace informed me.

"Luckily I got Ivy's shirt underneath"

"Does she know that you have it?" I have a tendency for stealing her clothes; especially when we were younger.

"Yes. And that's a long story that I don't really want to live through again"

"Sorry"

"Oh it's fine! It's nothing bad. I don't want to get into now. We should get back into that Friday sleepover routine again"

"Yeah sure!" She agreed with a gleaming smile. "Oh and dad says that we've got two new members" she said.

"Ooh who are they?" I asked her.

"I'm one of the new two members" I looked behind me to see stalker Spencer.

"Oh hello there stalker Spence" I greeted him with a coy smirk.

"Is that going to be my new permanent name now?" I nodded with an accomplishment grin. Then my dads called me and Jamal over to where they were sitting and Spencer sat at the back next to a beautiful and young woman with long light brown hair with black dress and glasses. I look oddly at the pair. What feeling am I feeling? It's not a nice feeling. Shit. This is how I felt when I found out Harry Styles dates Kendall Jenner. Yes I'm that basic girl who liked Harry.

After the service and some songs that were sang by the choir. We all went outside to hang out a bit after at the church's garden where lunch was served like a BBQ. I avoided the meat as I plan on going to vegetarian.

I stuck by Grace and tried my hardest to avoid Spencer. Fortunately, everyone was getting to know him and the girl he was with, so he didn't get the opportunity to approach us again. Especially me.

"The rich and pretentious new dude is staring at you" Jamal told me when he approached us to rub it in my face that he's eating a sausage with that really annoying crunching noise. When I was younger I had extreme misophonia which is the hatred of noise and now as a teen it has subsided and I have good coping mechanisms and one of them is talking. My misophonia is really bad when I'm in a bad mood.

"He does look pretentious in that baby blue shirt and his beige chinos and oh look at that a brown leather belt. Makes him look even more of a pretentious douche bag" Jamal and I always have such a fun time being judgemental pricks.

"Don't push them away this quickly! We still have time to mess them up in our own way, give it time!" Both Jamal and I snickered at Grace's statement.

"Also Jamal how do you not recognise him? He's the quarter back on your new team"

"New team?" Grace chipped in.

"Yeah Jamal got to replace the injured senior fullback position" I informer Grace. Grace doesn't go to the same school as us.

"Jamal?! That's amazing! So proud of you!" Jamal leaned down to give her a quick hug.

"See? Mols, Grace didn't do the gangsta voice"

"What? What gangsta voice"

"Jamal said I did a impersonation of a gangsta by saying 'proud of ya bruv"

"Are you sure that you were impersonating because I thought impersonators were meant to be good at it?" Jamal hyped up Grace's insults at me.

"Okay I'd like to see you try" I told them both.

"No thanks. Unlike you... I don't want to embarrass myself" at Grace's comment I did have to laugh a little at that.

"Oh no" I whispered out loud as I watched my parents conversing with Spencer and the girl he was with. They're all laughing loudly. Grace got called over by her dad and Jamal friends have left. So we both decide to go over toward Paps and dad.

"Here's our light, glory and joyful kids; Jamal and Molly!" Dad's strong voice boomed loudly gaining a bit of more attention than needed.

"Hi Jamal and Molly. I'm Cleo and this is Spencer" the girl named Cleo soft voice greeted. It's one of those really relaxing asmr voice. Don't worry she wasn't whispering but if she did ever have an asmr youtube channel or already has one, I'd definitely watch it.

Jamal was the first one to shake Cleo's hand then Spencer's and I followed pursuit. I was hesitant to shake Spencer's hand because he got a bit too cocky especially in that smirks of his.

Considering that Spencer and Cleo (Spencer's aunt) are new members and my parents are well respected within the church and Pastor Joey usually has a big feast to welcome but he's planning something, so my 2 dads took it upon themselves to plan it.

Once we got home I began on my homework. You know the casual Sunday's. Now it's the dreaded Monday. I haven't talked to anyone from school since Friday.

I decide to wear casual clothes with messy hair and no makeup; leggings and the same grey jumper I wore yesterday. I swear I wear so much grey.

When I waltzed into class both Iz and Sals eyes shot up to me. I took my seat next to Iz away from Sally- I'm not ready to talk to her and I'm not going to apologise. She should apologise because she sounded like one of those girls that say 'not all men are like that', 'what were you wearing' and all that victim blaming crap. It was extremely awkward.

My first class was history. Izzy had geography and Sally had RE. I sat next to one of Spencer's friend named Mark Gormley. He's olive skinned tone with dark brown buzz cut and hazel brown eyes. He's more physically muscular than Spencer and has a strong jawline that always seems tense. Mark is a backup player for the senior team because he has a prosthetic leg that is broken at the moment, so it's getting fixed and he's just using his crutches. He's friendly with Jamal so he told Jamal that he lost his because of cancer 4 1/2 years ago.

"Shoot can I copy your homework real quick?" Without waiting for my answer he opened my book and began copying my homework.

"You do know that you won't be able to copy off of me in the exam?" I question him.

"I know that. I'm actually going to revise" he replied to me.

"Do you mean 'Molly I have already started revising because my repeat on the maths and history exam are both in 2 weeks'?"

"The repeats are the 15th and 17th of November. It's only the 23rd of October today" someone obviously doesn't read the date on his phone.

"No it's the 1st of November today. Look" I whipped my phone out to show him that it said 'Monday 1st November 2020'.

"I've got 2 weeks" he said comfortably.

"You've also got a big match the Friday before the exams and you know that coach Kennett will probably get you guys to train everyday for hours"

"You're forgetting that I'm benched"

"Oh yeah I'm sorry. But knowing you, you'd probably go to practices"

"You're sounding like a creep"

"You're friends with my brother"

"Who?"

"Jamal"

"JAMAL! Is your brother. I love Jam"

"You call him Jam?"

"Yeah it's an inside joke. You wouldn't appreciate it because it's guy funny"

"You're the only dude I can accept being a sexist prick because I know that you got called a simp for supporting your girlfriend and girls in general"

The player's are spectated in 2 groups: Spencer's side and Luke's side. Luke's side is filled with the insecure boys and Spencer's sides don't project their negativity out in the world. They still hang out with each other, probably for a good rep.

"You got an A in your history and a C+ in your maths right?" He asked me. I sighed knowing that he'll ask me but again he's one of the boys I can stand and I'm not talking to my friends. So why not?

"Yeah I'll help you pass your exams but remember you asked me and I'm passionate so if you lack, you'll regret it"

After my fourth class it was lunch time. Once I got my pasta dish I stood frozen shocked and hurt to see a girl in my usual seat. We always sit at the same table and usually sit in the same seats. There are four seats at the round table and there's, was, 3 of us. I studied the dark black skinned girl with the shaved hair, beautiful makeup and big round glasses. She had denim shorts on with a middle finger painted on each back pocket with a yellow tank top with black tights under the shorts and black boots.

I scan the cafeteria to see who else I can sit with. There was a free seat at Cassie's (Mark's girlfriend) table. Cassie and I are friendly enough to not have any awkward silence. Also I am friendly with her friends. Before I could approach their table Izzy stops me in my tracks.

"Why aren't you sitting with us?" She asks me.

"You remember me?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I point to the girl who's sitting in my spot and Iz's eyes follow pursuit. "Oh come on! She sat down and you weren't there and I didn't want to be that girl says 'you can't sit there!"

"Fine" I say begrudgingly not wanting to sit there but I know if I didn't, Izzy would think I've got a problem with her, when in reality I don't. So, I sit opposite the new girl.

"I'm Summer" she greets with a toothy grin. I send her small smile back. "Molly"

"Mols are you free tomorrow so I can carry on painting you?" How can Sally act like everything is so normal between us? It's not! Let's stop pretending.

"No" I reply quickly.

"Wednesday?"

"Again. No"

"Why?"

"Are you serious right now?"

"Can we talk outside?" She asks me. I nod to agree and quickly finish my food then we found a bench to sit on.

"Why are you acting like this?" She asks me. Has her mind gone blank?

"I wouldn't be acting like this if you had my back"

"We're still on that"

"Yes we are"

"You have to look at it from my perspective; if I said something, Luke wouldn't like me!"

"HE DOESN'T LIKE YOU!"

"YOU. You always do this MOLLY! When something good happens to me you can't be supportive"

"Me? Not supportive? Who was the person let you live with her when you were living with your abusive dad? Oh that's right me"

"Stop" she whispered.

"Who was the person who told Luke off because he was fat-shaming you? Oh that's right me again. So don't you DARE say ever again that I'm not there for you because I always am!" And with that I was off.

Next I had science, so I made my way over to that class. While I was on my way I bumped into no other than Spencer Montgomery.

"Cleo and I were thinking of bringing red wine to the din- are you okay?"

"I'm fine"

"And that's code for I'm not. So what's up?"

Both Spencer and I sat against the wall in comfortable silence until he asked me what was the matter again. "I don't want to talk about it"

"Okay" he answered then he got his phone out and his earphones and plugged them in and handed one to me.

"Music distracts me from my problems" he tells me again handing one of the buds to me. Slotting it in my ear, I waited for the music to play.

"This is one of my favourite songs" he said as a guitar began to play.

"Is this a worship song?" I ask him.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Even though I go to church doesn't mean I believe"

"You seem very closed off from a potential bond you can have with Christ"

"You sound like my dads!"

"Have you ever tried? I've never felt a love like God's"

"Tried didn't like it. Can we talk about bunnies or something?" I ask.

"Fine-" I accidentally cut him off. "What's this song anyway? It's good"

"Another In The Fire - live by Hillsong UNITED"

"Sounds like doom" Spencer awkwardly snickered. Our conversation didn't last long after that because the bell rang indicating it was now science class. Woo!

Miss Bee caught my eye with a knowing grin. I send her a confused look in return. Her gaze hen drifts to Spencer then me, then Spencer, then me again. I sigh at her suggestion.

"Have you got any plans before the church dinner?" He questioned me.

"Not yet" I reply.

"You've got good fashion sense so I was wondering if you'd like to go shopping with me?"

"I don't want to but you need all the help you can get" I lied. He's actually got a good style.

It was the end of school and now it was track. I walk into the changing room and make my way toward Izzy and began getting dressed into my kit. Before track actually began I went to the bathroom first. After I did my business I fixed my hair to make it tighter so it wouldn't slip out of the tie. Before I was about to leave I heard gagging and liquid hit the water from the closed cubicle. I gently knock on the door once I reached it.

"Hey are you okay?" I quietly and gently questioned the person.

"Yes" I heard Sally's voice croak our. Instantly I got panicked.

"Sally. Listen to me open the door now" I firmly ordered her to. The door creaked open to reveal a paper Sally collapsed on the floor.

Without a doubt I sat on the floor next door, after locking the cubicle door. "What are you doing to yourself?" I ask her.

She opened her mouth to verbally reply but she couldn't. She just broke down in tears and flopped in my open arms. My heart ached for her, not just because I'm her best friend, it's because as much as we fall out- she couldn't do anything to make me hate her and I love her with all of my heart. I held her close, cooed her and brushed her hair out of hair red face filled with streaming tears. Tears began to slip from my glassy eyes.