Maybe It's Magic

Chapter 13

To this day, Molly couldn't think of that afternoon without cringing, without remembering every horrid moment. God, she'd been stupid! Taking a random, accidental erection and making it like it meant something. The remembered humiliation was almost fresh...

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Senior Year...

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What was he even thinking up there?

Molly ran for the fridge and opened it, standing in the cold for a moment -- since she obviously needed it! -- and trying to think how to fix this. She'd basically come on to him up there. At least one of them had the sense to joke it away... if that had even worked. 

Were they okay?

She could hear him coming down, so she grabbed a cold bottle of water and forced half of it down her throat, ignoring the ache between her eyes. She could hear him talking, going on about hydration and electrolytes, but she just kept drinking because that meant she wouldn't have to talk.

He seemed nervous. And of course he was! She'd just thrown herself at him, practically batting her lashes and begging him to roll around on the bed with her. How could she smooth this over, maybe somehow reverse things?

That was when she had the brilliant idea of telling him about Rachel...

Yup. That was a real smart move. It led to another stupid fight, which was put on hold when they opened their letters. It was even completely forgotten when it seemed like their entire lives – or at least the next four years of them – were about to work out perfectly. Then she picked the fight up again when she realized she was hugging a very shirtless Jake and... Damn it, something had to be done about it.

And it wasn't even him she was mad at, it was herself. No matter how she tried to push the feelings away, they kept popping up. And she was taking it out on Jake, which she knew was really unfair. It wasn't his fault!

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"Stupid whack-a-mole feelings," Molly muttered, now blasting the mud down the street since her car was clear. It was very satisfying until she realized she was wasting water and guiltily thought someone should confiscate her Earth Day T-shirt collection as she took three tries to turn off the pressure washer. 

Jake would probably know how to do it. Stupid, handy, perfect Jake!

Molly sank to the curb, missing him as she watched the last of the little mud river go into the storm drain. It was nothing to that summer, of course, that summer apart which had actually been her galaxy-brained idea. 

Too bad she'd hated every second of it.

By the time Jake got with Rachel, she finally gave in to Tommy, who'd been after her since at least eighth grade. He was definitely more invested in their relationship than she was and she was invested in the idea that he was not Jake and she really wanted to prove she could be with the anti-Jake, but it turned out Tommy was the anti-Jake in the worst possible way.

Jake was steady and dependable and Tommy was whiny and always itching for a fight - over every second she spent with Jake, over how she listened to NPR in the car, over how she should at least look at schools near his when she'd been accepted to Ithaca for months by then. She made sure he knew she had no interest in some ridiculous party school in Arizona, NPR was obviously too smart for him, and that Jake... Well, Jake would always come first. She didn't say the last, but it was at the root of several/many fights.

Yeah. It hadn't been the best idea, getting with Tommy, but at least the fighting was enough to keep her distracted from Jake and Rachel, who never fought at all, probably because Jake did whatever she said. Jake always talked about it fondly, like a fun summer thing, possibly because all he could see was that he was having sex and lots of it. But Molly found it hard to watch. Rachel was shallow and vain, always ordering him around and deciding where they went and who with, which was never with her. And, of course, Tommy never understood her friendship with Jake.