Turn Back Time - The Ghost and Molly McGee Story

Chapter 6

The moment the two locked eyes, Scratch knew he was in big trouble. He cursed quietly to himself, but not loud enough for Molly to hear, because he knew how much trouble he'd get in if Sharon found out he swore in front of her kid.

Molly continued to stare at her friend with shock. She could see the guilt written all over his face. "Scratch? Why are you holding my box of sadness?"

Scratch bitterly regretted opening that box, or even thinking to look through it. He winced as the shameful feeling got even worse. "Molly, I--"

She darted over to him, ripping the box out of his hands. She started looking through the stuff inside to make sure everything was accounted for. She could tell the stuff inside had clearly been touched by him, because there was ectoplasm all over a few of the objects. "I told you not to look through this..."

"Moll, please, I just--"

She turned to face him as she slammed the lid back onto the box, her face red. "I told you specifically not to open this box!" She snapped, shaking the blue box to prove a point. "This is for my eyes only!"

She was more upset than Scratch thought she would be. Tears had already flooded her eyes.  "I- I- I can explain explain everything!" He defended.

Even more tears ran down her face. "I trusted you not to look through this, yet you did it anyways!"

"Molly..."

"Why were you even looking through this in the first place? Wait a moment..." She gasped, her eyes going wide. "You want to make me sad, don't you?!"

"WHAT?!" He shouted. He gave up on reasoning with her in a gentle tone of voice. "No, I swear, I would never do that!"

She raised an eyebrow.

He took a deep breath. "Okay, yes, but it's not like I had a choice! If you just hear me out--"

"What do you mean you 'didn't have a choice'? You chose to open the box, you chose to look through my stuff, this is all your fault!"

"You don't understand, my bosses, they- they said--"

"The Ghost Council? They made you do this? Ha!" She laughed. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! Your bosses don't even know me that well, let alone the fact that I have this!"

"Molly--"

She opened her drawer and shoved the box in, kicking the draw shut. "So you have been ignoring me for a reason!"

"Ignoring you?" Scratch echoed. "What do you mean?"

"Do you think I'm stupid or something? All weekend you've been avoiding me! You left for the Ghost World the moment you woke up this morning! Do you really think I haven't been catching on to your behavior?"

"Molls..."

"I know why you're doing this, Scratch!"

His eyes went wide. "You do?"

"Yeah!" She exclaimed. "You don't wanna be my friend anymore!"

That was a response he wasn't expecting. Somehow it felt even worse than the response he thought she was going to give. "What?! Molly, no, I- I swear that's not it!"

"Well, what else could it be? You haven't wanted to hang out with me for days now, then you opened this box to see what could make me upset to use it to your advantage! You hate me!"

"I don't hate you! Molly, you're the first person I've ever met to even care about me, do you think I'd want to throw all that away?"

"What do you mean? You keep telling me that you have tons of friends in the Ghost World, don't they care about you?"

Scratch knew he couldn't tell her the truth about his status in the Ghost World, but hiding it was hard, especially when the person he was hiding it from was someone like her. He had no friends in the Ghost World, no friends except Geoff, the one ghost that liked him. Everyone else hated him and wanted nothing more but to send him to the Flow of Failed Phantoms. If she knew the truth, her respect for him would probably crumble in an instant. He hesitated for a few seconds, not knowing what to say, before finally replying to her comment. "But your love is the only love that matters."

"What do you mean? You don't care for me!" She yelled. "I know you don't! You're just a selfish little jerk who doesn't care for anyone!"

"Molly, just listen--"

"No! I refuse to listen to a jerkface like you!"

Scratch hated her stubbornness sometimes. If she would just calm down and hear him out, everything would be fine. "Please, I can explain everything!"

"What is there to explain? Huh? That's right, nothing!"

"Molly..."

She took a deep breath as her anger slowly retreated and was replaced with sadness. "You know, Scratch, I thought you were better than this." She said quietly. "I thought I could change you. Even though you were kinda mean to me at first, I still loved you, no matter what. And I thought I could bring you onto the nicer side. But I was wrong to think I could help you."

"You have!" He argued. "You don't know how grateful I am that I met you, you've helped turn me into a better person and--"

"But you still looked through my personal stuff!" She screamed. "That doesn't make you better!"

"Molly, you don't understand. If you could just hear me out--"

"NO!" She screamed. "I thought I finally made a forever friend when I met you, but I guess not! You're a terrible, terrible person and that'll never change! Just leave! This is all your fault!"

Scratch was speechless. Tears started welling in his eyes. He felt angry. This was his fault? Was he the person screaming and calling names? And was it his choice to do this in the first place? No. So how was this his fault?

"Oh, yeah?" He yelled back. "Well, that's great that you hate me, because everyone hates me anyways! I knew it'd only be a matter of time before you hated me, too, just like everybody else!" He phased through the window and flew out of the house, leaving Molly alone.

She opened the window, poking her head outside. "Yeah, well you better leave!" She screamed. "And never come back!" She slammed the window, then slid back down to the ground, curling up into a fetal position as she began to sob even louder.