Twenty-Three #3
She grabbed her phone before she could think herself out of it and hit Molly’s contact.
Molly’s face appeared a second later. Her hair was tied back messily. She looked tired.
Ashley didn’t wait. ‘They’re extending it.’
Molly frowned. ‘What?’
‘The tour.’
Molly didn’t speak. Her face didn’t even change. There was no surprise at all.
‘They’re taking us to Australia and Japan. They’ve added another four months.’
‘Four more months?’ Molly asked quietly, resignedly.
Ashley rushed on. ‘I didn’t know until five minutes ago. They’d already decided. I—I couldn’t—’
‘Four more months,’ Molly said. But not to Ashley. To herself. Like she was having a private joke. But no one was laughing. ‘You’re extending it?’ she asked. ‘Without even talking to me first?’
‘I didn’t have a choice, Molly!’ The words burst out sharper than she’d intended. ‘They’re talking about an album deal for me down the line. This is everything I’ve worked for! You said we’d put a pin in it!’
‘Down the line? I said I’d put a pin in four months, Ashley, not a bloody lifetime!’
‘But, but… I’m going to get an album!’
Molly leaned closer to the camera, her eyes bright with tears she’d clearly been holding back for weeks. ‘You haven’t been here. You don’t call. You don’t text. You treat me like an inconvenience you have to tick off your to-do list.’
‘Because I’m drowning out here!’ Ashley was on her feet before she realised she’d stood.
She paced the hotel room, phone clutched in one hand, tears blurring her vision.
‘It’s so much! So quick! And I don’t know anyone.
All I have is you. But every time I do call, you sound like you’d rather be anywhere else!
You’re the one who moved on the second I boarded that plane!
You’re the one flirting with runners and looking for an excuse to leave! ’
For a heartbeat, Molly simply stared at her through the screen. Then she laughed. ‘Flirting with runners?’ she repeated. ‘Is that honestly what you think?’ And then her jaw tightened, like she was trying to hold something back. She failed.
‘I’m not flirting with runners, you idiot, I’m trying not to fall apart because I love you!’ Molly’s voice cracked, sharp and loud enough to distort the phone’s tiny speaker.
Molly froze, her hand flying to her mouth as if she could pull the sentence back in, her eyes wide with total, horror-stricken panic.
Ashley stopped mid-pace. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She just stared at Molly, utterly speechless.
Molly’s hand slipped down from her mouth, and her eyes filled with bitter disappointment.
‘My whole life,’ she said, ‘people have walked away from me the second something better came along. I thought you were different, Ashley.’ The camera shook slightly as Molly wiped angrily at her face. ‘But you’re exactly like my mother.’
Ashley felt as though someone had punched her square in the chest.
‘Don’t you dare use your childhood to make me the villain,’ she snapped. ‘If you wanted me to stay, you should’ve had the guts to say it instead of pretending to be the martyr.’
Molly’s expression changed. It was one of disgust. Ashley had never seen it before. It killed her.
But there was worse to come.
Molly looked at her, suddenly dead-eyed. ‘I don’t want you to come back anymore. I don’t want any of this.’
‘Molly—’
‘I’m sick of begging for scraps of your time.’
‘Molly, please—’
The tears were falling freely down Molly’s face now. ‘We aren’t a couple, Ashley.’ She swallowed. ‘We’re just a mistake that lasted five weeks.’
‘Molly—’
‘No.’ Molly looked directly into the camera. ‘We’re done. Go to Japan.’
‘Molly—’
‘Go to fucking Mars for all I care.’
‘Please—’
‘Just don’t call me again.’
The screen froze for a fraction of a second on Molly’s tear-streaked face. Then the call disconnected.
Ashley stared at the black screen, her own reflection staring back at her.
‘No...’
She hit FaceTime again. It rang and rang, with no response, until it rang off.
Ashley hit FaceTime again. Straight to voicemail. Again. Voicemail.
Molly had blocked her.
The phone slipped from her fingers and landed on the carpet with a dull thud. A second later, her legs gave way beneath her.
She collapsed onto the hotel floor, folding in on herself as an animal sob ripped out of her chest.
I’m trying not to fall apart because I love you.
Molly had laid herself completely bare, and Ashley had just stood there like a statue. She hadn’t said it back. Why hadn’t she just said it back? It was the easiest truth in the world. Of course she loved Molly. God, she loved her so much.
So why had she choked?
Now, staring at the lifeless phone on the carpet, Ashley wanted to scream things into it. I love you. Please don’t end this. I want you so much. I’ll come back right now. Fuck the tour!
But it was too late. She’d had her chance and said nothing. There was no coming back from that.
Curled on the hotel carpet, Ashley realised she was getting everything she’d always wanted. And she’d traded the most important person in the world for it.
She had won everything, and it didn’t mean shit.