Chapter 6: Shame

"So why do you think Lucas hasn't asked me out yet?" Peyton asked Brooke at school the next day.

"Uh, I don't know," Brooke said nervously.

"I mean, he had been flirting with me for about a month or so, and I thought he was about to ask me, but he still hasn't."

"Huh, well boys can be wimps sometimes," Brooke said.

"But there's no reason for him to hesitate, I mean I've definitely made it clear to him that I'm interested, and he's done the same, so I just don't get it."

"Yeah, me neither Peyt. Maybe he's gay too, it seems to be all the rage."

"All the rage?' Peyton laughed. "Who do you know besides Haley and Molly who are gay Brooke?" Peyton asked.

"Well… Umm, two people can be a rage, I guess… I don't know what I'm saying."

"No one does Brooke. At least there's another party this weekend," Peyton stated, "I need to get drunk, and who knows, maybe Lucas will grow a pair by then."

"Yeah, hopefully," Brooke said.

Haley shows up at Molly's house Friday night, excited to meet her family, but nervous about how her parents are going to react.

"Hey baby, come on in," Molly said as she let her in the house. "My mom made spaghetti, I hope you like garlic though, because it's pretty much her main ingredient," she said as they walked into the kitchen.

"I heard that Moll," her mom said, "and I always use just enough, never too much."

"Mom, sometimes it's all I can taste in your food, and you basically have permanent garlic breath, so I'd say you're using just a bit too much," Molly remarked.

"Well you're still alive so quit complaining. And you must be Haley," she said as she turned in her direction, "I'm Suzanne."

"Nice to meet you, and thank you for having me over," Haley said politely.

"Of course. I've heard a lot about you from Molly, thought it'd be nice to meet the new friend."

"Where's dad?" Molly interjected.

"On the phone with a client, he'll be down in a minute," her mom responded. "Can you tell Nicole it's dinner time?"

"Yeah, we'll go get her," Molly said as she led Haley out of the room.

"She seems nice," Haley said on their way up the stairs.

"She is. A bit eccentric though, but it keeps things interesting. Remind me to tell you the story of when she sold the pants she was wearing to a customer at the clothing store she works at," Molly said.

"Seriously? Now that's a dedicated employee," Haley said.

"Yeah," Molly said, "She drove home with no pants on…"

When they reached the hallway upstairs Molly knocked on Nicole's door telling her it was time for dinner.

"Ok, I'll be down in a minute," she responded.

Ten minutes later they were all seated at the table passing the food around, engaging in casual conversation. Around the time everyone was finishing up their meal Molly decided it was time, so she said "Mom, dad, there's something I want to tell you guys." Everyone looked at her waiting for her to go on. "Umm, well, I don't really know how to do this," she paused.

"You can tell us anything, honey," Suzanne said.

"Yeah, come on, out with it," her dad said sternly.

"Well, ok then. I'm gay," Molly said, "and Haley's my girlfriend."

Molly's mom smiled and was about to say something nice when her dad interrupted.

"Excuse me? What did you say?"

"I'm gay, dad," she repeated quietly.

"No," he said. "That's unacceptable. My daughter will not partake in that sinful lifestyle. You're confused. You are not gay," he declared.

"Dad, I know who I am. I'm not attracted to boys, that's just the way it is, and I hope that you can accept me for who I am," she stated.

He was silent for a minute, seething, then said "get out," with no emotion in his voice. "Get out of my house. Both of you," he spat at Molly and Haley. No one moved.

"Mark," Suzanne said, "what are you doing?"

"I don't want her here if she's a homosexual. They are disgusting, sinful, sick people, and I will not have a daughter who is gay. If you insist on living that way, you will not live here anymore."

Molly burst into tears, Haley grabbed her and hugged her. Suzanne started crying too and was trying to reason with him through her tears. "She is our daughter!" she roared.

"Not anymore," he said, emotionless again.

Nicole spoke up after this comment, "Then neither am I. I don't want to be your daughter anymore if you're this narrow minded and heartless. Molly is one of the best people I know, and who she's attracted to has nothing to do with it, and doesn't matter. If you can't see that then you're just another ignorant "Christian."

"Get out of my house," he said slowly and calmly at Molly and Haley.

They stood up, Molly still crying, and ran out the front door.

Suzanne was hysterical, yelling at Mark, crying. He wasn't fazed. Nicole stood there horrified.

"Grab your stuff Nicole," Suzanne said to her, "We're going to a hotel."

Nicole ran upstairs, packed a bag for herself and one for Molly. When she got back downstairs her mom was ready with a bag as well.

"I hope you realize what you've done," Suzanne said to Mark as she and Nicole left the house.

"Honey, what's wrong?" Haley's mom asked as Haley and Molly walked into the house, "Why are you back so soon? What happened?" She asked when she saw that Molly was crying.

"Dinner didn't go well," Haley stated as she was trying to comfort Molly.

"My dad… He… He kicked me out," Molly managed to get out between sobs.

"Oh dear God," Lydia said as she hugged them both, "I'm so sorry girls. You're staying here Molly, we have the space, as long as you need."

"Thanks Mom," Haley said.

After about 10 minutes of the girls talking with Haley's mom Molly had calmed down considerably. Lydia was trying to convince Molly that things would be alright when Molly's cell phone rang.

"It's my sister," she announced, "Hello?"

"Molly, Mom and I left the house, that was not ok. We're going to stay at a hotel tonight. I packed you a bag of your stuff, where are you?"

"I'm at Haley's, her mom is going to let me stay here." After giving Nicole directions to Haley's house, Molly hung up and waited for them to get there.

"Molly, honey," Suzanne said as she pulled her daughter into a hug. "I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve that, you've done nothing wrong. I love you so much."

"I love you too mom," Molly responded. After a minute of hugging and consoling, Molly said "Oh, uh, this is Haley's mom, Lydia."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Suzanne, and this is my daughter Nicole. Sorry to intrude but I had to see her, and we brought an overnight bag," she stated.

"Of course, no problem," Lydia said, "Please come in, stay for a bit."

"Thank you," Suzanne said as they all walked to the living room and took a seat.

"So how long are you going to stay at a hotel?" Molly asked.

"A few days at least. I'm going to give your father a little while to let it soak in and realize what he did, then I'll go talk to him," Suzanne said. Molly nodded.

"Thanks for standing up for me mom, I really appreciate it," Molly said.

"Of course honey, I'd do anything for you, you're my daughter and I love you."

"I'm his daughter too," she said quietly.

"I know honey, I'm sorry."

"Would you like some coffee, or tea?" Lydia asked a few moments of silence.

"Tea would be great, I'll help you," Suzanne said as Lydia headed for the kitchen and she followed.

"Thank you so much for letting Molly stay here, I would take her to the hotel too, but I think the girls need to be together right now," Suzanne said.

"I agree, and don't worry about it, I can't imagine what she's going through right now, and you too," Lydia paused, "It's just too bad."

"Yeah. He's not a horrible man, but I hate him right now. I've been thinking about leaving him for a while, and if he doesn't realize that he just treated his daughter horribly and apologize, I'll probably do it soon," Suzanne said.

"It's very admirable of you to stick up for your daughter like this, a lot of women often just go along with what their husbands say in a situation like this because it would disrupt their lives to stand up against him. If there's anything I can do for you or Molly please let me know, in fact, why don't you and Nicole stay here tonight too. It's getting late and we have the room," Lydia offered.

"Are you sure? That would be a great help, just for the night, but I don't want to put you out."

"Not at all. You can stay in the guest room, Nicole can take my oldest daughter's room, and there's room for Molly in Haley's room, if you think that's appropriate."

"That's fine, thank you so much, really," Suzanne said sincerely.

Everyone got situated in their specified rooms and then reconvened in the living room for ice cream sundaes. Quinn walked in around this time and was caught up on the situation. They all enjoyed each others company and then retired to their rooms for the night.

The next morning Haley took Molly to the beach to try to take her mind off things and lift her spirits. It being the middle of winter the beach was pretty deserted. They walked along the edge of the water, talking, holding hands, and just enjoying the atmosphere and being with each other.

After a few minutes of silence Molly said "The only thing that's making this bearable, losing my father, is having you by my side. I'm so glad you came up to me at that party," Molly finished as she smiled at Haley.

"You want to know the real reason why I went to talk to you that night?"

"Of course, what is it?"

"Well, Brooke and Peyton were helping me avoid Nathan, because he kept asking me out even though I kept saying no, and part of their plan was to get him interested in someone else, and they picked you. So I offered to go talk to you to see if you were interested in him."

"Oh really?" Molly said, amused.

"Yeah, so I did, while secretly hoping you weren't, and well, be both know what happened from there," Haley said.

"Yes we do," Molly agreed. "So what you're telling me is that I have Brooke and Peyton to thank?"

"Kind of. They're the reason I approached you that night, but I had had a crush on you for the past year and had been wanting to talk to you anyway, but I was a bit shy."

"Aw, that's cute," Molly said with a smile, "Well I'm glad you did, no matter what the motives."

The fiasco at the Finn house was, unfortunately, not the only drama to hit Tree Hill that night. Peyton, Lucas, Brooke, and Nathan had all attended a party at Bevin's house. Everyone was having a good time at the beginning of the night, drinking, dancing, playing games. Lucas again was drinking pretty heavily, as he still wasn't sure whether he wanted to be with Peyton or Brooke, but Brooke had set her sights on him, and she knows how to get what she wants. But she was pretty drunk too by the time she cornered Lucas in an upstairs hallway. They started making out and quickly moved it into a nearby bedroom.

"Brooke!" Peyton called out as she walked through Bevin's house searching for her friend. "I want to go home, where are you?" she yelled as she wandered around. After exhausting the ground floor with no luck Peyton climbed the stairs to continue her search up there. When she opened the first door on her right she Brooke half naked on top of a guy, typical, Peyton thought to herself.

"Brooke, there you are, let's go," she said.

"Peyton," Brooke said as Lucas sat up.

"Lucas?" Peyton asked with devastation on her face.

After a few seconds of no one moving or saying anything, Peyton mumbled that she'd find her own way home and left the room.

She went running down the stairs, trying not to cry when she saw Nathan standing by the door.

"Brooke's a whore, give me a ride home," she said as she grabbed Nathan and dragged him outside.

"What? Ok, slow down Peyt, are you ok?" he asked.

"No, take me home."

"Ok," he said as he unlocked his car and they climbed in.

"So what happened?" Nathan asked after a few minutes of silence.

"I walked in on Brooke and Lucas hooking up. She knew I liked him, she even gave me advice about him, and then she goes and hooks up with him anyway."

"That sucks, I'm sorry Peyt."

"Yeah, me too. Haley even told me that Lucas had talked to her about me, she said he was in to me too, I just don't get it," she said as she brushed some tears away.

"Haley? Was she at the party? I didn't see her," Nathan said.

"No, she wasn't there, she went to her girlfriend's house for dinner," Peyton said without thinking.

"What? Girlfriend?" Nathan asked, seriously confused.

"Ah shit, I didn't mean to say that," she paused, "well I guess it's too late now, yeah, she and Molly Finn are girlfriends," Peyton said.

"Are you serious?" Nathan asked.

"Yes, she's a lesbian Nathan, that's why she's been rejecting and avoiding you, so leave her alone," she added sternly.

"No way, I don't believe it," Nathan mumbled to himself, stunned.