Weight of the World

26

A knock sounded on Molly's door. "Come in," she said.

The door opened to reveal Stiles. "There's a party tonight for Heather and I was wondering if you wanted to come."

"Seriously? You're inviting me to a party for another girl?"

"Uh, yes?"

She huffed and narrowed her eyes.

He gave her a small smile and asked, "So are you coming? Please?"

She let out a long, slow sigh. "How do I look?"

"Amazing."

---

They got to the party and Molly offered a tiny wave to Heather, to be polite, and made her way to the punch bowl. She poured some punch into a cup.

A clearly buzzed guy walked up to her and said, "Aren't you a pretty sight."

"No," Molly said bluntly.

"Come on, sweetheart." He pulled her close, a hand inching towards her butt.

She kicked him back and pulled out her pocketknife. "Next time you touch me, I stab."

"Bitch."

"Thank you. Don't bother me or another girl again."

She walked away and bumped into Scott who asked, "Are you okay?"

Molly nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Where's Stiles? I want to leave."

"No clue. What happened?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle. I'm going to call my brothers."

"Molly, wait." He grabbed her wrist.

She punched Scott's jaw and her eyes widened. "Oh, God. I'm sorry!"

"Molly, what happened?"

"Just idiot teenage boys. I'm waiting outside."

Molly left the house, bumping into Stiles.

Stiles pulled her up. "What happened?"

The blonde shook her head. "Nothing much. Where's your friend?"

"Um, I don't know. We were making out and I went to the bathroom upstairs and when I returned to the basement, she was gone."

"Huh. Well we'll figure it out."

"Are you okay, Molly?"

"You know, people really need to stop asking me that. I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

---

The next day at school, they met up with Derek in an empty classroom. Molly pointed to Lydia and Allison's wrists. "Derek, look."

He shook his head. "I don't see anything."

"Look again," Scott said.

Derek frowned at Scott. "How is a bruise gonna tell me where Boyd and Erica are?"

Molly scoffed lightly. "If you looked, you'd see it's exactly the same on both sides."

"It's nothing."

Lydia pursed her lips. "Pareidolia. Seeing patterns that aren't there. It's a subset of apophenia."

Scott's eyes narrowed at the werewolf. "They're trying to help."

Derek pointed to the two girls. "This one, who used me to resurrect my psychotic uncle. Thank you. And this one, who shot about 30 arrows into me and my pack."