Chapter 38
Molly
“Mol, wake up, come on we gotta go in ten.” Kyle’s hazy voice breaks through my mixed blur of dreams and I strain to open my eyes. The fucker has opened the curtains as wide as they’ll go and the sunlight is pouring in, gracing me with a headache that instantly makes me want to rip my eyeballs out.
“Five more minutes,” I murmur and flip my body over, face buried deep into my warm pillow. Everything in this room smells like home, like my childhood and my best memories…well, my second best memories. I have new memories now, my all time favourite being when Kyle told me he loved me, you know, before I walked out and broke his heart? We won’t dwell on that part of our story though, we are here together now and that’s all that matters. At least I think we’re here together, but the room sounds eerily quiet when I crane my neck around to scan my childhood bedroom, only to see it empty. No Kyle, no woodsy aftershave in the air, no muttered panic as he paces around the room, hands running through his blonde hair. Where the hell did he disappear to in the last five-seconds? Or maybe I imagined him waking me up after all, maybe I was dreaming about him, I usually am.
I sit up, squinting and call out of my open bedroom door, “Ky! Where are you?”
The sound of footsteps hits my ears almost instantly, before Kyle’s familiar smile comes into view. He leans a casual arm against the door frame, looking like he’s auditioning for Baywatch. He’s so effortlessly beautiful, it actually makes my chest hurt when I look at him for too long. He grins when he notices my gaze trailing up his body. “Can I help you Barbie?”
I swallow hard. “Yes, come over here and make me a happy girl.” “I’d love to,” he closes the bedroom door behind him, dropping onto my mattress with a sigh. “But we have to leave in five minutes. I need to be home in time for training today and we promised Callie and Sean that we'd do a movie night with them later.”
“Fuck Callie and Sean.” My own eyes widen and I slap a sarcastic hand to my open mouth with a dramatically slow head shake. “I did not mean that and don’t tell Callie I said it or she will legitimately shave my head, or something equally as awful while I sleep.”
Kyle barks a laugh and takes my hands, hauling me out of bed and onto my unsteady feet. “Get dressed as quick as you can and I'll keep your dirty little secret.”
“Thank you,” I peck his lips, fully intending on it being just that, a peck. But Kyle’s palm flattens against my lower back and he pins me to his hard chest, deepening this kiss to one of mind bending quality. “I love you.” I murmur against his mouth and his lips magnet with mine again. Saying goodbye to my family is always hard, more so today than usual and I have no idea why, but when I squeeze my little sister tight in my arms, I have to gulp hard to hold back my tears. I don’t see my family very often, they’re busy people and my running has pretty much taken over my life since I started at Redwood, which means I don’t make time to go home and see them. I know they struggle, especially my mum, but she’d never admit that for fear of driving me away from my dreams, because of the heavy burden of guilt from not coming home often enough. But now I have another reason to stay at Redwood, he’s about six foot tall, blonde, wild waves on his head and a smile so sweet it makes my teeth hurt. Kyle and I stumble down the driveway as the front door clicks shut behind us, separating me from my family. Kyle takes my hand and I shove my nose into the comfort of his smell, taking a vice like grip on his bicep until the jingle of his keys in my line of vision startles me out of my sadness. “You drive,” he smiles, picking up my palm from where it hangs at my side and dropping his keys into it.
“What? No, I can’t Ky.” I protest, chasing after him as he moves around to the passenger side, still with an easy smile plastered on his face. “It’s too big and—and…big!” My voice has transformed into some sort of shriek now and the heat swamps my cheeks before I can stop it. But Kyle’s panty dropping grin quickly brings them back to their normal colour, before the embarrassment makes me want to crawl under the car and let it squash me into the gravel.
“You take my dick like a good girl and that’s big too,” his face splits into a smirk, before he ducks into the passenger seat, leaving my jaw hanging and thighs increasingly slippery. I hop into the driver’s side and jab a finger through the air, in the direction of Kyle’s annoying, lingering grin. “That’s different, I'm well experienced in that department.”
“Come on baby, take us for a spin.” He pouts playfully, jutting out a bottom lip that I'd love to bite into right about now. I consider it for a moment, thinking about how driving this monster may help to distract me from the ache in my chest that my family have left. Also, that this cocky version of my usually shy and mellow boyfriend needs to learn his lesson. So I press the button that ignites the car’s power, the whole thing rubbling to life around us. “Ok fine, but be warned,” I grin menacingly at him, flashing him my teeth and taking the wheel in my hands. “My foot gets a little excited sometimes, so prepare to be blown away…literally.” I rev the engine a little and Kyle’s bright eyes widen, his throat bobbing with them. I push the car forwards, with an effortless tap of my foot on the accelerator and by the time we reach the main road, both of our faces are almost blown off by the force of movement in the car. I’m definitely driving over the speed limit, the pinging from the satnav alerts me to that, but I have zero desire to slow down. This man is going to learn his lesson today, goading me into doing something, is not the best idea he’s ever had. And I can’t lie, it kind of feels like I'm driving further and further away from the cloud of sadness that was hovering over me after I left my family. When we finally pull into my dorm room car park, Kyle looks more flustered than I’ve ever seen him. His hair is somehow more wild than it was when we left, even though the windows have been up the whole journey and his eyes are popping out of his head.
“Jesus Christ Mol, that was hands down the worst hour of my life. I’ve never feared death before, but you,” he blows out a hard breath, hand landing on his chest dramatically. “You scare the shit out of me.” I pop a shoulder, flashing a cheesy grin at him. “Good to know, next time you won’t push me to do something I don’t want to do.”
Kyle’s lips purse, a tactic to prevent his knowing smile from creeping up his cheeks. “Noted.” He says, squeezing my thigh briefly, before getting out of the car.
I wish I could say I had a productive afternoon when Kyle left me at the dorm, but I don’t lie. The first thing I did was climb back under my duvet and nap until lunchtime, around 1pm, I finally crawled out of my warm pit and got in the shower.
When I eventually pad down the hallway towards the kitchen — in search of whatever food I can lay my hands on — I hear a muttered curse and the clanging of metal falling from the counter to the laminate floor. I’d know that voice anywhere and I couldn’t happier in this moment to hear it. I'm not a big fan of being home alone, but you get used to it when you're roommates with two other athletes, who travel often for competitions. Callie and Anais are both gymnasts, which means they’re always gone at the same time, so I get used to having the dorm to myself. A year ago, I would have been straight on the phone to whoever I was hooking up with at the time, practically begging them to come over and keep me busy for the night. But my life has done a total 180 in the last year and I couldn’t be more fucking ecstatic about it.
Anais is wrestling with her smoothie machine when I creep into the kitchen, fully intending to sneak up and scare the shit out of her. I haven’t seen my red headed roommate for so long, I almost forgot what she looked like. She’s been spending a lot of time at her parents’ farm lately and I’ve been so swamped with my own problems, that I’ve been slacking in the friendship department. To be totally honest I feel shit about it, I know I haven’t been a good friend recently. But now things with Kyle are smoothed out and we’re on a good track, I want to be the friend I used to be. I was always the one Callie and Anais would come to when they needed cheering up, the one they’d call first if they were in trouble or couldn’t get home after a night out. I want to be that person again, as well as the best girlfriend ever, which I already know I am.
I’m within half a metre of Anais now, so close I can smell the coconut shampoo she shares with Callie. She mutters another curse as she crams a hunk of mango into the blender and I snatch my chance while she’s distracted. I take one more step, practically breathing down her neck, before I grab her waist and she leaps into the air, mango flying with her. I burst into laughter when her head spins around, panicked eyes bulging out of her head and a palm whipping towards my shoulder.
She swats at me playfully. “You fucking imbecile,” She hisses, before her eyes turn slightly glassy and she yanks me into her embrace, holding me so tightly I can barely draw in a breath.
“I missed you too,” I croak, my lungs contracting the tighter she holds me, but I have absolutely no desire to let go of her either.
When Anais finally breaks the hug, she beams at me, hands on my biceps. “So, I hear you’re in love now?” I stick two fingers down my throat and gag, which makes Anais giggle. “You’re so in love, you and Callie are like two love sick puppies now and I'm left here on the shelf.”
I wrap an arm around her shoulders and tip my head to her cheek. “We’d never leave you for those two hockey buffoons, but I am sorry for being a shitty friend these past few months. Tell me what’s been going on with you.”
She lifts her shoulders in a tired shrug and squashes some more mango into her blender. “Not much, my grandad went into a nursing home two weeks ago, so that’s been kind of hard,” she shrugs again and I can see the weight of it in her deep frown. “But apart from that, I'm ok Mol, don’t worry about me.”
“I do though…worry about you I mean.” I sigh, dropping a peck to her cheek as I head to the fridge. “You know I'm always here right? If you need me,”
Anais nods, a smile gracing her face. “Yeah Mol, I know and I love you for it.”
I dip my head once in a brief nod and bury my nose in the fridge, my stomach growing angrily, but my heart singing with happiness.