Thank you, thank you, thank you for your reviews CAPJHMPAgirl, Swag Giraffe, MikariStar, and stormy003! You guys are all super sweet, and I'm glad you like the story so far! Hopefully, this chapter elicits some much needed excitement. Kind of the place where we get some real story going rather than a bunch of prep and fluff. Again, thanks so much!


Chapter Eleven


"God dammit, Molly!"

"Ah! Sorry! I'm sorry!"

Luna blew excessively on her bangs, forcing them to hang in midair for a few seconds. When her huff was over, they didn't fall back into place and stuck out at odd angles, but the girl didn't care for once. She positioned her feet at the kickstand and poised her drumsticks over the cymbal and snare. "Okay… we start again. And remember the lyrics this time!"

"I will! I'm sorry! I promise!" Molly gasped out in one breath, flustered at her friend's growing impatience, but she really didn't have any reason to blame her. Her mind was clearly elsewhere.

Kathy took a deep breath, for once not scolding Luna for reprimanding Molly so roughly. She was on her last straw as well. If they had to play this song one more time, Kathy was sure her fingers would bleed from boredom. Molly needed to get it right just once, and they could quit practice for the night.

The Harvest Festival was tomorrow, and the girls were prepared. They practiced a few covers of songs they thought most of the villagers would know to spice things up, and they planned on playing their original 'Just You' at the end as a surprise. See if it went over well. The notes were memorized, the chords were clear, and the beat was mastered. The only problem was Molly.

The words never came out right. Sometimes, they wouldn't come out at all. Molly's range was all over the place, exceedingly lackluster, and she was downright forgetful. Though Kathy and Luna were starting to feel she was careless, Candace could see that Molly was obviously distracted. She was the only girl in the band to note how her eyes flickered towards the kitchen every few minutes. Whenever Chase appeared, Molly would clam up entirely like a statue or stutter out lyrics like she was under interrogation. Candace was put out like the others, but she was more concerned for her friend's wellbeing at that point.

Molly ran a hand through her hair and glared. Come on! You've got this. They're your own stinking lyrics, you ninny! Focus!

Kathy counted them in, and the music began. They had upped the tempo due to frustration to finish faster, and the girls found it suited the song well. Instead of a folksy bore, the song took on a pop vibe. The sound was exciting compared to the humdrum they were used to hearing from the same old track.

They cleared the first verse, and everyone was breathing a sigh of relief. Molly wasn't totally horrible. Yet. Now it became a waiting game for when she would no doubt lose it.

Molly's confidence rose as the chorus neared. Suddenly, new lyrics were filling her brain, and she shook her head to free herself from them. Focus. Focus!

"It's just you and me
Out on our own now,"

"Here ya go, Ramsey," Chase handed an appetizer to the old man chatting with Hayden at the bar.

"You and me!
Off to the next to
-shit. Shit! Oh, hell…"

The music instantly died. As the only patron in the bar was Ramsey who took out his hearing aid, the screw ups weren't assaulting too many innocent ears. Molly still couldn't help but feel ashamed, shielding her face in her hands.

"Let's be done for the night," Kathy said, pulling the guitar strap over her head.

"Praises!" Luna breathed, roughly tossing her drumsticks into her bag.

"A-are you okay, Molly?" Candace asked, hesitantly switching off the keyboard.

Molly surfaced, looking up at the ceiling and letting out a deep sigh. She didn't look her friends in the eyes when she turned to face them. "Sorry…"

"Do you…" Kathy awkwardly pulled at the curl in her ponytail, staring around at their shoes before looking Molly in the eye. "Do you even wanna do this anymore?"

"Yes! I'm positive! I love singing with you guys," Molly insisted, quickly on the defense.

"Then act like it," Luna said through clenched teeth.

"M-maybe it's just cold feet?" Candace suggested, knowing all too well how that felt. She wrung the cuffs of her sleeves. "It's our first gig tomorrow after all…"

As Molly didn't affirm nor argue this theory, Kathy sighed and placed a hand on her hip. "Okay. Let's just get this over with. I… I'm sure it'll be fun!"

"A blast…" Luna mumbled, being ushered away by her sister. She swatted at her but missed, stumbling off the stage for the door.

Kathy watched them go and found Molly still hadn't bothered to put the mic back on its stand. She went and set her bass guitar on its holder and turned off the various amps, idly looking over the settings. "Don't listen to her… You know Luna. She's just grouchy since she skipped supper."

When Molly didn't react, Kathy frowned. She approached her friend who still didn't seem to see her. She wrenched the microphone from her hand. "Hey! Earth to Molly! You alright in there, doll?"

Molly shook her head, watching as Kathy anchored the mic and switched that off as well. "I'm so sorry… I feel so bad for disappointing you guys like this."

Kathy's hand slowly traced the cord. "So… you quittin' this?"

Again, Molly shook her head in the negative. "No, I… I just feel like…"

"Chase! Grab the broom will ya? Broke another shot glass down here," Hayden's booming voice called.

"I've gotta go," Molly quickly stepped past her friend without another word.

Kathy made the obvious connection, reached out to stop her, but her hand hesitated long enough to allow Molly to escape the bar in a rush. The blonde sighed and leaned into the mic stand, forcing it to totter dangerously to the side. "Aw, honey… I hope ya figure this out soon. For all our sakes, too. Gonna be a laughing stock tomorrow…"

"You talking to yourself again, darling?" Hayden shouted across the room, a teasing smile on his face.

"I am not!" Kathy childishly hollered back.

"Then why don't you make yourself useful and find the dust pan, eh?" He suggested as Chase silently swept up the shards on the floor beside him.

Kathy pursed her lips, hopping off the stage. "Yeah, yeah, coming right up…"


Molly felt guilty. Sure, for angering her friends, not being able to sing for anything, and making them stay up past midnight trying anyways. All of that was a heavy load, but there was something much worse on her mind.

She had strung him along. All this time.

"All of this time…" she whispered, staring up at her ceiling from her bed. She was sprawled out, ready for sleep but unable to harness it. Sort of like her whacky vocals. Everything was so out of reach and so insignificant at the same time.

She was so selfish. When she was all alone and crumbling like old cookies, all she could think was how grateful she was that it didn't have to be her anymore once he came along. That it could all be in the past if she kept following his footsteps. She praised him, idolized him even. She cared about him like crazy. The only thing left to do was to post his picture up on the wall beside her Mikhail poster, and everything in her little world would be complete.

Never in all her life did she ever think he could possibly be interested in her. Her. She was the mental case he had picked up like a house in need of renovation, an old heirloom at a garage sale. She needed dusting and clearing out and all sorts of costly repairs. Why would he care? Care so much?

Molly groaned and folded her arms over her face. She wanted to talk to Chase so badly about all of this. He was the go-to person in her life. He wasn't just a back-up if Kathy was working or busy crushing on the jewel miner up the hill. Molly trusted Chase with everything. He was always just as close as her best friends. He was one! But how could she go to him when he was the problem?!

"Don't say that – I'm the problem," she chided herself. "I'm the one who ignored him all these years… Didn't open my eyes. Was I scared? Repulsed? I don't know! I don't know what I want! Aahhh!"

She tugged her pillow over and smushed it against her face. Molly hollered into it and whined and kicked her feet and then stopped in a huff. She sat up and tossed her pillow aside. With all of the pictures of Mikhail smiling down at her, she looked back up at them and nodded.

"I've gotta talk to him…" she muttered, tugging on her boots. She noted the time on her clock and winced. It was just after two. He would be home from the bar, but it was unlikely if he was still awake. It used to be one of her favorite times of day to see him. He'd be happy to be off his shift, so she'd bring over ice cream or a game and just hang out with him until she had to wake up for her own farm chores. Of course, she hadn't been over to his house at all since she started avoiding him. It made her miss all of that. Miss her friend.

Molly shut the door behind her and shivered at the cool air. Her feet clunked on ahead of her, the shoelaces flying all over as she neglected to tie them, and her hands were stuffed in her jacket pockets. "I've just gotta see him. No more running and hiding like a little weakling! He'll be able to tell you how much of an idiot you are… and… and it was all just a joke. Yeah! A joke! And everything can go back to the way it was before, only he'll have those sad eyes, and your gut will be wrenching with tortuous guilt."

She looked up, watching as the path brought her quick feet closer and closer to Flute Fields. She stomped across the bridge and stopped. The water wheel consistently splashed the river's water; the great wooden structure was the only sound in the dead of night. Leaves carried over from Fugue danced around her feet and twirled in the air.

"Yeah…" Molly took a deep breath, already losing her legs. "Sounds about right…"

Before she could completely lose her nerve, she ran the rest of the way to his door. Panting for a few seconds and feeling creepy about it, Molly controlled her breathing well enough to knock. The second her fist made contact, she felt like it was the worst idea in the world. She wanted to see him, but what made her think he wanted to see her?! She was being selfish again! Leave! Leave while you still can!

Molly turned on her heel just as the door swung open. She forced herself to turn back around again. Too late. "Uh… um… hello?"

To put it mildly, Chase was exhausted. It had felt like one of the longest shifts of his life, and he had only just kicked his shoes off. All he wanted to do was collapse on the nearest fluffy surface and go comatose for a good twelve hours or so. But then someone decided to knock on his door. And no one knocked on his door at this time of night.

Molly was staring at the bags under his eyes in apprehension, and his glare only deepened. He rubbed his face with one hand, putting all of his weight on the door frame with the other. "What do ya want?"

Molly collected her words as Chase yawned. "I – uh – was just in the neighborhood, I guess…"

"Molly, it's two in the morning. Yeah?" Chase went to look at his watch, but he wasn't wearing one. He shrugged, and his arm flopped. "What is it?"

Now she was getting irritated. How come he wasn't so flustered? So nervous? How dare he be so strong about all of this while she suffered! This was all his fault in the first place! She jabbed her finger at his chest, suddenly lashing out at him out of nowhere. "Hey, buster, I walked all this way, and I didn't do it to get grouched at! I just wanted to talk to you, and you're all high and mighty and get down off of your pedestal and sheesh!"

Chase backed into his house away from her, straightening his posture and staring her down. "Okay, you're not making any sense! Why are you here?!"

Molly stopped. She couldn't deny his tone hurt despite her own she was using. It made it sound like… like she was unwelcome in his house. This home away from home. It was odd and heart-wrenching. How much of her life had she so carelessly destroyed? Molly held a hand to her head as tears formed in the corners of her eyes. "I-I don't know…! I just really wanted to talk, and my feet kind of took me here, and… and I really miss you. I'm sorry for whatever I did – I really am, okay? Can we be friends again? Please?"

"If that'll make your life easier," Chase rolled his eyes as she sniffled. He couldn't believe she was still denying the problem. Why didn't she just say it outright? He could handle a rejection if only he got one. All of this run around was driving him crazy. Apparently, it wasn't doing Molly any favors either. But he gave up. He waved his hand, as if he could push away these thoughts for a better, day lit hour. "Fine! Fine… What do you wanna talk about?"

Her heart broke, seeing the change come over him so quickly. How fast he bottled everything up and put on a brave face for her. She didn't want to be the reason he had to do that. She never wanted that. She owed him so much, and yet she gave so little. All he ever did was give. And put up with her. Was that what she became? Tolerable?

Molly leaned against the door until it closed, clicking into place. She sighed, unsure of how to go about this now. So she had won. He was willing to talk. But what was there to say? "I… I can't sing."

Chase's eyes were closed as he sat on the arm of his sofa, crossing his arms and trying to stay awake despite obviously nodding off. "Don't be stupid."

"I'm serious!" She argued.

More gruff than usual, he just grumbled at her again. "Right, whatever. You can't sing. Why's that?"

I don't know, maybe it's because I've suddenly been bombarded with all of the same feelings you've had for me over the years in the span of a couple of weeks. Maybe that's why I look so crazy!

Molly bit her lip, realizing what she was thinking too late to try to subdue her rapidly flushing face. "I d-don't know! That's why I came to you!"

"Molly, I know nothing about music," Chase roughly rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.

"But that's not true!" Molly said. "I mean, you're pretty handy with the flute, and your guitar picking skills aren't half bad…"

"Half bad?" He suddenly looked up at her with an annoyed expression.

"Better than I could do!" She shrugged with a light laugh.

Chase just shook his head.

Molly frowned. She twisted her fingers together in knots. "So… I don't know… You've… You've always been able to help me before."

He looked at her suspiciously, more awake this time. It didn't take him more than a second to understand what she was alluding to, and his face softened. "That was years ago…"

"But I would've never gotten over it if—"

To her surprise, Chase interrupted her. Now he was the one raising his voice. "Get over it? Don't you remember anything?! I told you that you wouldn't get over it. You'd never get over it. You'd just… forget to think about it all of the time…"

Molly knew that was true. She shuffled her feet. "I mean… I… I couldn't. I can't move on. Not without you around. That's… that's what I wanted to say. Thank you. For everything."

There was a thick quiet between them. Any other person might have thought her gratitude bizarre if they hadn't known of the strange connection Chase shared with her. A similar history. Even so, he felt disappointed that was it. That was her big reveal.

"Well, I'm going to get out of your hair now. You know better than anybody I do more harm than good!" She chuckled to attempt to bring light to the dark confession but failed miserably as her face fell. She reached for the knob behind her, but her hand missed as she watched Chase stand.

"Still doesn't answer why you can't sing," he said. Chase knew from the start that Molly wasn't any kind of master of subtlety. Still, that was within his comfort zone, so he blamed his excessive failures to garner any kind of reaction or realization out of her due to the fact that she was simply not interested. For a while, he had been content to live that way. Never really trying. Never pushing the buttons Molly couldn't ignore. But maybe he was just tired enough.

Molly took in a sharp gasp of breath as Chase got closer and closer and closer until he could comfortably lean his hand on the door above her. She swallowed a nervous 'eep!' rising in her vocal chords as his gaze levelled with hers.

"It's not rocket science," he was saying, but Molly was staring down at the fresh stains on his apron after his long night. Annoyed she wasn't paying attention, he forced her to make eye contact by bringing up her chin. "Just do it. Sing."

It wasn't quite the reaction he was expecting.

Then again, that was never the case with Molly, so he shouldn't have been so surprised. A small yell of astonishment escaped his lips as she grabbed his collar with both hands like she would lift him, but she kissed him instead. He was so paralyzed, it was over as fast as it began, and Molly was staring at his face in comical horror.

As he was still focusing on his bearings, Molly finally found the door knob and gave it a hard twist. She catapulted herself outside without a farewell, escaping the scene like a shoplifter.

"Hell!" Chase was still leaning on the door when she opened it, pitching him forward face first. He caught himself on the door frame, but it was enough of a stumble to give Molly ample time to disappear. He stared down the dark path at the shadows, hearing her boots thumping away into the distance.