The night had gone completely dark by this point, as I navigated the side roads back to the house so we'd get there quicker. Molly hadn't said a word since settling at my side, but when a familiar landmark appeared, cautioning the last five minutes of the drive, her small voice filled the cabin.
"Do you talk to Haley anymore?" The question caught me by surprise and it took me a moment to process it before I could answer.
"Sometimes."
One street bled into another, the weight of the silence between us radiating from her.
"I heard one of the girls in the bathroom at school talking about her and Mac."
I glanced down at her with a frown.
"What did she say?" Molly stared up at me with a blank look before resting her head back against my shoulder.
"Nothing I'm going to repeat."
My heart sunk to my stomach as we pulled into our drive way. When I turned the key in the ignition, silencing the engine Molly stirred and began to move away from me.
My fingers closed around her upper arm when she reached for the door handle. She looked at me, that blank look still masking her face as I pulled her back towards me.
"Molls-"
"Don't be like dad, Cole." Her words knocked the air from my lungs. I was gutted, gaping at her, raw as if she'd sliced me open. I let her go.
The look I must have been giving her made her avoid my eyes, but not before I could see the glossing of tears there.
"When you were-" She stumbled on her words, looking down at her fingers as they twisted with each other.
"-in jail. Mom cried. All night... She called grandma and she asked her why this was happening... Why she was always failing to do the right thing. When grandma was probably trying to comfort her she just sobbed and kept saying she couldn't handle this again. Never again."
My heart beat like thunder, the whooshing of blood in my ears overwhelming. I felt like I had tunnel vision, black flicking at the corners of my sight. Molly looked up at me with her big hazel green eyes, tears slipping from the corners, and locked me in place.
"When you were with them you were like Dad. Don't be like Dad, Cole." She closed her eyes, "Please."
When I didn't reply she fled from my side, taking the food with her into the house, leaving me doubled over the steering wheel in pain.
YOU ARE READING
Just Bent
Ficção Adolescente"Something so completely beautiful shouldn't hurt you so completely. Sometimes it just does. I met her when my life was falling apart. She was falling apart too, but she picked up my pieces instead. Being good with words helps. Being bad with feelin...
