me, texas, and the popular boy

chapter 7

Molly's room was pink. Like really pink. That wasn't surprising. I expected it to look like the room of a princess. It looked more like the room of Barbie. It was enormous. Barbie might actually be jealous. She had a California-King bed and a literal chandelier. All her furniture was stark white. The windows on the wall to the right of the door overlooked her backyard and massive pool. There was a french door leading to a balcony that she probably shared with her brother on that same wall that looked to have a deadbolt on it.

"Doesn't that lock on the door make my room look like a literal trap house? I think Porter took his off and I might make him do the same to mine." Molly asked me as she lit the incense on her nightstand before sitting on her bed. Perejil shot me a glance. A whole crack rock couldn't have made her room look like a trap house. "Why are you still standing in the doorway? Close the door and dish?"

Perejil shut the door and we sat on Molly's bed. She had a white fuzzy throw blanket that you couldn't even see from afar as it blended it with the rest of her bedding. Perejil wrapped herself in it before asking, "So why are we here, Skip?"

"Okay, so you know Matt Fletcher?" I started

"Do I ever!" Molly fell back onto her bed, "Someone I would likely not get along with, but dreamy nevertheless!"

"What about him, Skip?" Perejil didn't want to be talking about him for no reason.

"Okay, so you know how he's dating Georgia?"

"Yeah." They both replied.

"They aren't the world's greatest couple," I paused for suspense, "They're really only dating because they're expected to."

"Are you kidding me?" Perejil mimicked Molly and fell back onto the bed.

"It's crazy, right?" I waited for a response when Molly started laughing.

"Uh, yeah, we been knew," Molly said like I was stupid.

"How?"

"Georgia Hayes is an absolute fucking slut," Perejil sat back up, "That's the only reason they broke up, to begin with. They said it was Fletch going to West as if going to schools fifteen minutes apart would make a difference. She slept around on him with one of the other baseball boys --"

"Probably was my brother!" Molly butted in. She then rolled her eyes and glared in the direction of her brother's room, "Literally ruined my whole junior year and got me kicked off the cheer team."

"It was prolly Molly's brother," Perejil continued, "They're captain of the football team and head cheerleader. It's a match made in heaven. They'll probably end up married. That's just how things are. That doesn't make their relationship any less real. It's just Sunfall tings."

I joined my friends by laying back on the bed. We laid like that for a minute. It was one of those moments where it felt like time wasn't moving. I was with my new friends and felt like a part of them. It was silent and we were smiling. I was still thinking about Matt. Molly broke the silence.

She sat up on her elbows, "Why did you think that that was such a big deal?" Molly cocked her head. She had us all sitting up.

"Well," I started, "he acted like him and Georgia didn't have a real relationship when I confronted him about it."

I was considering saying more but wasn't given the opportunity. Molly interrupted, "Wait wait wait. Wait. Pause. Why were you even talking about that? When were you given the literal opportunity to do that? Skip. You are making me go cray-z."

"Well we're partners in English. He doesn't really focus on the project very much."

"As-of-fucking-when does Matthew Fletcher do work in any group project," Perejil furrowed her brow and looked at Molly.

"I said he doesn't really focus on the project."

"I know for a literal fact that every time he has to work with his friends on a project he does nothing. They complain, like, all the time about it. Like he'll straight up leave the group chat. Or not respond to their texts until they stop talking about the project," Molly didn't sound like she had taken a breath, "What does he even say?"

"Well her primarily sends unreciprocated flirty text messages --"

"You're literally lying," Molly was one decibel away from yelling, "Hand me the phone."

I didn't see any problem with her reading the text messages. Perejil moved beside her so they were both sitting criss-cross-applesauce across from me scrolling through the messages between me and Matt over that past week. Perejil stuck to making faces and looking back and forth between me and the screen. Molly was significantly worse at containing herself. There were a lot of gasps and sighs. Her hands continued to move between her face and chest so much that Perejil had to start being the one scrolling. The occasional "No way!" and "Oh my god!" came from her until they eventually reached the first text he sent me.

Perejil looked at me with an open mouth and said, "What. The. Fuck."

"Ohmygod. Oh my god," Molly, on the other hand, started jumping up and down on her bed clutching a pillow and couldn't not yell. She had a huge smile on her face, and spoke a mile a minute, "I cannot believe that, one, you didn't tell us before, and two, that you are literally living my literal dream! I have loved Matthew Fletcher my entire life and I am totally fine with never marrying him and hope he has a great life. But he is literally in LOVE with you and you are doing nothing about it!"

"I really doubt he's in love with me," I smiled and looked down, "He's just a flirt. He's in a whole relationship with Georgia."

"You're fucking delusional," Perejil butted in, "I have never seen this man put this much effort into anything before, much less a girl. They're usually lined up for him."

"He's a flirt," I jumped back to reality, "You said it yourself, Molly."

"He's a flirt but not like that. He's a flirt in a sense where he, like, talks to a lot of girls at parties and does body shots. Not where he spends hours talking to what's basically a brick wall over text. You have to go to the football game Friday night now, he'll actually die when he sees you," Molly's smile had never been wider.

"She already promised him she would anyway, Molly," Perejil was just sitting back, a little surprised.

"This is so perfect. You are actually living my dream. And I could not be happier for you. As long as you name your firstborn child after me." Molly winked

The night went pretty well after that. We ordered thai for delivery and shared a pint of Ben&Jerry's while Molly described the wedding Matt and I would have. We finished the night with a Disney Channel Original movie marathon and eventually, all crashed in Molly's bed somewhere around 2 in the morning.