Pretty Smile | Charlie Conway

(4) apologies

⁕PRETTY SMILE⁕

↧04. APOLOGIES

Weeks had passed since the first day of school and Molly went on with her normal life. Being one of the most popular girls in school, she kept up her reputation: helping students with their homework, going out with her group of friends on weekends, and obviously being one of the smartest girls in the class.

She spent those two weeks, mostly with Tessa; going to softball tryouts and getting on the team, hanging out with Tessa on weekends to mainly shop at the mall, and flaunting over boys in their class.

Yet, those few weeks of school, she didn't spend time admiring the usual boys such as Flynn Patterson or Freddie Carter, but instead Charlie. Charlie was only in Molly's first period class and her lunch period, but she had made some sort of friendship with him.

During the first period, she was put in the same group as him for an in-class project, and they talked the entire time about themselves and somehow, they had a lot in common.

Over the next few weeks, she had grown feelings for the boy, yet she never told a single person, not even her best friend. So, when boys came into the conversation with Tessa, Molly would usually change the subject so her cheeks wouldn't flush when she thought of Charlie, or she would lie and admire another boy in the class that she didn't actually have any feelings for.

Molly didn't have the guts to talk to anyone about Charlie, especially since they were new to the school and not a lot of people liked them for taking the spots of the previous J.V. hockey team. Also, she was warned by her best friend not to be seen with Charlie outside of class since he was on the team and her brother had a hatred for them and being caught with him would mean the end of the world for her.

So, Molly kept it her little secret, well...kind of. Molly wrote about her feelings in her little diary that she always kept at home. No one knew about it, not even Tessa. She would hide it in her closet, in a little shoebox, hidden all the way in the back so no one would find it. Her brothers sometimes would barge into her room to steal a pen or an extra phone charger, so she had to be precautious.

On this particular day, Molly got to school and made it to her first period, sitting down in her seat. Then, she watches Charlie walk in and sit down in front of her. He turns around and smiles at her.

"Hey stranger!" He said to her as she smiled.

"Hey!"

They began to talk about their days so far, even though it was only the first period.

"So, how are you liking school so far?" Molly asked him, resting her elbows on the desk and putting her hands under her chin.

"It's really good! My only problem is that everyone knows that I'm part of the Ducks so sometimes I get the usual glare here and there from people...," He told her as she frowned. She felt bad for this kid, all he wanted to do was fit in and people still had to be bitter. 

"I'm sorry, Charlie, just as a warning, this school is very protective of its people, especially students that have been here for a while...when you guys came, you took the spots of upcoming hockey players and of course, people are still resentful about it."

Charlie nodded with a sad smile.

"You actually took the spot of my brother from being on the team, but he's learned to accept it."

Charlie looked at Molly with a surprised expression, "Molly, oh my god, I am so sorry!"

Molly shook her head at him, trying to reassure him, "No, it's fine, it's really fine. It's not your fault."