Chapter 18

Parties Aren't My Scene

Why do the small things remind me of you?

When a ballad comes on

I imagine you sitting next to the window,

Book open but not reading,

Staring willfully into the crying sky

When I smell cinnamon

I remember the candle sitting on your end table

The warm scent, engulfing the entire house

And I involuntarily take a deep breath

I remember the bad things too

The vein on your neck popping out when you yelled at me

The whites of your fist as you grabbed your head in frustration

The hurtful words that you said

"You're not enough."

But your smile, your voice, the touch of your hands

The notes you left me, the whispers you gave me

Your silhouette in the sun

How your hair laid perfectly above your deep eyes

Your lips, your scent, your being

It eclipses all and with it comes an insane,

Uncontrollable, heart-wrenching, terrifying, painful desire

To see you, to feel you, to hear you

To love you just once more

First thing in the morning, Molly and Finn went to go put the green bell back on its stand in the windmill and ring the bell. Daren did his job beautifully and soon his melody and new winds were carrying themselves across the island. Molly and Finn applauded his performance and with a "Good luck!" Daren bid them farewell, transporting himself to the Harvest Goddess' side. Who showed up next, however, was quite unexpected. It was none other than Gill, who, upon realizing that Molly was there and assuming that she had already returned the bell, seemed affronted.

He asked why she was there to which she replied that she was checking to see what she could mill and saw that there was a stairwell and decided to investigate. He rolled his eyes disbelievingly but didn't press the issue. Finn had then made the comment to Molly about how Gill was being rude and as he did so Gill turned in his direction, confused and had asked Molly if she'd said something. Molly, surprised, just shook her head, trying not to look at Finn and seem suspicious. After that she quickly excused herself, not wanting to be interrogated further, and returned home.

Both Finn and Molly found it highly unusual that Gill could sometimes sense Finn's presence and wondered how he was able to do it. Molly decided that when they next saw the Harvest Goddess she was going to ask because she couldn't deny her curiosity in the matter.

The next few days went by quietly, Molly mainly working on her farm with Kathy coming over a few times to visit and help take care of her animals. On these days they also spent quite a bit of time planning Kathy and Owen's birthday party which was scheduled for that Saturday.

"What if we had a giant fake cake and when Owen and I blow out the candles Selena could pop out and surprise everyone and then start dancing?"

"Uh, are we planning a birthday party or a bachelor party?" Molly asked, snorting in laughter.

"Alright, alright. Then how about Luke instead?" Kathy asked, wagging her eyebrows.

Molly burst out laughing imagining Luke in some cowboy outfit popping out of a cake. Frankly, it'd be hysterical but not exactly what she had in mind for the event.

"Just kidding," Kathy said laughing with Molly. "I don't even like cake."

"You don't?" Molly asked, surprised.

"No, so instead of a cake…maybe something fruity? Like…some kind of bread? Oh, you know what I like a lot? Rum raisin bread. That stuff is great."

"Well, I've never heard of someone asking for bread for their party but alright, it's up to you. What about Owen, what does he like?"

"Yams. He loves Yams. I've never seen someone eat so many yams in my life."

"Well, I can make yam cake, I think I have a recipe for that. And then…maybe I'll bake some cupcakes for the rest of the guests? By the way, how many people have you invited?" asked Molly, starting to write a list.

"Oh, well, I put signs up all over town saying come to the bar from 6-9 pm, so I guess everyone. But at ten it'll be just you, me, Renee, Owen, Julius and Luke. Oh, and probably Bo, I guess. Is that alright?" Kathy asked, thinking about her and Luke's recently shaky friendship. After the whole scene about the Firefly festival things had been kind of weird between the two of them. Molly didn't know how to remedy it. She had already said she was sorry, even though she felt that he was the one that needed to say it more than she did. However, he still hadn't apologized. Molly could understand his feelings – to a point. But, she didn't know how to talk to him so things had stayed awkward.

Molly shrugged saying that there wasn't anything she could do. Luke and Owen were best friends and when she suggested the party idea she had already thought about that matter.

Kathy looked at her sympathetically but agreed nonetheless.

"Well, it seems as though I'll be baking a lot," Molly sighed, writing down her grocery list.

"I could always ask Chase to – Oh, er, nevermind," Kathy said, laughing a bit awkwardly. Molly just gave her a look and continued adding things to her list. She hadn't talked to Chase since their small argument on the beach and was glad that he wasn't going to be at the party. At least, she figured he wouldn't be. He didn't like Owen and if it was just for Kathy he might've come but what with the room being full of people he disliked, there wasn't a high chance of that.

"Its fine, I can make the bread the day before and we can use your oven to heat it up. The cupcakes I can make the day before too and then frost them right before I come over. I should be fine. Well, I'd better go buy this stuff. Do you want to come with me?" Molly asked, getting her purse.

"Yeah, I'll go visit Renee."

"You guys are really good friends, huh?" Molly asked.

"Yeah, we've known each other for a while. Oh, now, don't be jealous," Kathy teasingly said, nudging Molly's shoulder.

Molly blushed, denying any such feeling. Although she did get jealous sometimes when Kathy would talk about how much she loved Horn Ranch. It was normal for people to have more than one good friend, though. There was no point in getting friend jealous.

After buying her ingredients, Molly came back to the house and enjoyed dinner with Finn before finishing up her farm work for the day and heading to bed. The next few days went by quickly and soon it was Friday and Molly was stuck in her house, the oven going and sweat dripping down her forehead. It was unusually warm for June and of course it had to be the day that she needed to use her oven the most. She had sent Finn to go ask the Goddess about the purple bell without her so she was just by herself, kneading the bread, her arms aching from overuse.

"I didn't know making bread was this difficult," she said to herself, wiping the sweat off with a small towel. "Maybe I've been slacking lately," referring to her arms and proceeding to flex, examining her muscle mass. It was pretty decent thanks to all of the work she did on the farm. She sighed, putting the dough onto the pan and putting it into the oven, setting the timer.

"I think…I'm going to take a break," said Molly, taking off her oven mitts and heading outside, planning to sit in the shade somewhere.

She was sitting down beneath one of her larger trees for a few minutes before she heard a couple of voices carrying down from the mountain path. As they grew closer she recognized them as Owen's and Luke's and decided to keep chilling under her tree thinking they were just going to pass by. But, apparently they had other plans because she saw them head towards her house and knock on the door.

She sighed, not sure if she wanted to have company, especially with Luke since it was still awkward but got up nonetheless and walked over to them, brushing off her pants along the way.

"I'm over here you guys," she yelled, waving her hands. They turned around at the same time, Owen smiling wide and Luke raising a corner of his mouth before looking away. Molly ignored this and turned most of her attention towards Owen, asking him what they were doing there.

"Kathy said you might need some help and sent us over," Owen replied.

"She did? Well that's nice but I can't have you making your own cake…"

"That's not exactly what I was thinking either. What about on the farm? Some watering, weeding?"

"Are you sure that's okay? I mean, I wasn't really expecting anyone to come and help out."

"If it wasn't okay I wouldn't be offering. Come on Mols, just say yes," Owen said, rolling his eyes and looking at Luke, shaking his head.

Molly smiled, amused and shrugged. "If you're sure. I haven't watered yet, so that could be done, but I finished most of the work this morning."

"I see…well I could water by myself. Maybe Luke could help with the baking? It's not his cake, after all."

"Uh," was all Molly could say, not being able to hide her discomfort. She looked at Luke who was staring back at Owen with an angry look on his face. Something told Molly that Luke was not expecting to come to her house and volunteer his baking services. Suddenly feeling bad for making Luke make that face when confronted with the idea of helping her Molly cleared her throat and said, "Sure."

Luke looked back at her surprised while Owen said, "Great!" and started to drag the hose from the house to the fields. Molly motioned Luke into the house and closed the door coming in after him.

She moved around him going into the kitchen and getting out the ingredients for the cupcakes, setting them on the counter. After getting it all out she turned around raising her eyebrows at Luke expectantly.

"So, you gonna help me out or what?" She asked, hands on her hips. She smiled, amused at the look on his face and motioned for him to come over, patting the counter. Her smile seemed to ease the tension between them because Luke smiled as well, sliding next to her. They went about mixing the ingredients and their conversation was normal as they worked together to pour the batter into the cups. Suddenly it was silly that they had spent a weeks dodging each other just because she went to the festival with Toby.

Luke appeared to have forgotten about it as well since he joked around with her, nudging her shoulder when she teased him and poking her forehead as she almost spilled the sugar container.

"Woah there, do you know how long that would've taken us to clean up?" Luke asked as he took the container from her hands and set it on the other counter by her spice rack.

"Its fine, its fine. It didn't spill!" she said putting the sheets of cupcakes in the fridge for later.

"Sometimes you're a bit too spaced out," said Luke, leaning back against the counter. Molly just rolled her eyes and started putting stuff away. Luke watched her cheerfully cleaning up the kitchen. He sighed deeply, wondering if they could be like this every day in the future. Cooking together in the same house, Molly working on the farm and him working on his carpentry, waking up together, going to bed together and sharing the same table for every meal…

"Luke?" Molly said, waving her hands in front of his face.

"Huh? O-oh sorry, I was spacing out," he said, laughing nervously, his face getting red. Molly just gave him a strange look but didn't mind it.

"And you say I space out too much. Well that's all that I really needed help with today. I already have the bread in and I'm not frosting the cupcakes until tomorrow so…"

"You sure? You don't need help with the animals or anything? No leaky faucet, no broken hinge?"

"No and why are you so eager to help? Are you bored or something?" Molly asked laughing a little. He seemed so desperate for something to do.

"That's not it…" How could he tell her he just missed spending time with her? He regretted getting so jealous the other day but couldn't bring himself to apologize. They were his feelings after all, why should he have to apologize? "Actually I-," Luke started to say, but was interrupted as Owen walked through the door, announcing that he was finished watering the crops.

"Thanks Owen! That helps a lot!"

"No problem. You are baking everything for my birthday party so it's the least I could do."

"This is true," she said, teasing. "Oh, Luke were you about to say something?"

Molly and Owen both looked at him but he shook his head saying that it wasn't important.

"Alright, well if everything is set here I guess we'll head back. Comin' Luke?" Owen was looking back at Luke with the door open.

"Uh, yeah. Then, we'll see you tomorrow Molly," he said, waving and walking out the door letting Owen shut it behind him.

Once they were to the mountain path Owen glanced over and asked if something was wrong. Luke denied it but Owen just grinned back.

"Don't tell me I was interrupting something."

"Well, it's a good thing that you did. I think I almost said something I would've regretted."

Owen stared at his friend, contemplating. "You have it rough, don't you?"

Luke grimaced. He really wished Molly was a lot easier to get close to, at least in the way he wanted to. Never before had he felt this way about a girl so he didn't know how to go about making someone like him. Especially not with such a complicated girl like Molly. If he was honest with himself, he was just stumbling along.

"Maybe an opportunity will present itself at the party tomorrow," Owen said, nodding to himself.

"What d'you mean?" Luke asked, suddenly suspicious. He knew that look.

"You'll see!"

Luke had a bad feeling and continued to try to tell Owen that he didn't want his help but he got the feeling that none of it got through to him.

The rest of the day passed by quickly and soon it was time for Molly to herd her animals and get ready for bed. Finn came back around 6:00 pm with little information about the purple bell. Apparently, it was in a high place near town but she couldn't sense anything more than that. Edge was the sprite in charge of it and according to Finn he was a bit of a crybaby and warned her to be prepared for an exhausting effort when they found him. Molly wasn't sure what he meant by that but kept note of it anyways.

"Well, it's not like we'll be able to start searching for it until after tomorrow, so let's just not think about that right now," said Molly, sighing as she set the bread in its container as well as the cupcakes.

"Are you tired?"

"Rather than tired, I'd say anxious. For tomorrow."

"You're always anxious for things like this Molly," Finn observed.

"Yes, well, that's because something always happens that causes me anxiety, so now I've just come to expect it."

"You probably shouldn't get so worked up about things…," Finn said, plopping down on the bed.

Molly just made a groaning noise and also laid down on the bed.

"You don't always have to be this nervous. Even if something does happen, you can handle it. You're pretty good at staying calm in those kinds of situations," said Finn, trying to encourage her.

"Maybe at the time but…the aftermath is what gets to me," Molly said trailing off.

"Oh, Molly," Finn said simply. Molly felt embarrassed that she was making such a big deal out of it. She knew it was silly to always be worrying about these kinds of things but it was her personality, she couldn't help it. After reflecting a bit more on her bad habits she went to bed, nervously moving around in her sleep. That night she dreamed of Luke yelling at her saying that she led him on, followed by Toby saying that he was disappointed in her and then finally both Chase and Gill telling her that she was a public nuisance and would have to leave the island.

Naturally, she was not in the happiest mood when she woke up but that didn't deter her from getting her work done as usual. And so, taking care of the necessities, soon it was time to frost the cupcakes and leave for the bar where she was supposed to be an hour early to help with the preparations.

She had a bit of difficulty carrying all of the food to the bar but once there Kathy quickly relieved her of her load and they got to work putting up decorations and just finishing before Owen, Luke and Bo came in at 5:30.

"Yeah, let's start this party. Where's the cake, Molly?" Owen said, looking behind her as if she was hiding it in her back pocket or something.

"On the table, where it's supposed to be. Kathy said yams were your favorite so I baked a yam cake for you," Molly said, smiling over at Kathy who was looking away, her cheeks red.

Owen smiled widely at Kathy. Kathy just shrugged her shoulders but still smiled back. Molly and Luke made eye contact at this point and they both rolled their eyes at the both of them.

"And the alcohol?"

"Behind the bar, like it always is, Owen," Kathy said, throwing her hands in the air as if she was frustrated but Molly could see her trying to hide a smile. Owen followed her and opened a bottle before anyone could protest and continued to down it.

"Owen…we haven't even started yet," Molly said shaking her head.

"Exactly. This way I'll have a head start. Oh come on Molly, don't give me that look."

Molly frowned but couldn't say anything – it was his birthday party after all.

Soon after, Renee and Julius came walking in and just after 6:00 groups of people started coming in intermittently. By 7:00 the room was filled with people and everyone was having a good time drinking and conversing. This was the first time that Molly had seen so many of the townsfolk in one place without it being a festival and thought it was pretty amazing that everyone would actually come for something as simple as a birthday party. It was yet again another reminder that the island was less of a community and more of a family.

Molly smiled happily, going to get a drink and seeing Owen, once again, popping open a beer can.

"Which one are you on?" she asked, grabbing a cup from above.

"Hey, it's only my seventh. I'm still fine."

"Your red face says otherwise," Molly said, debating whether to have some orange juice or a mixed berry soda that was next to it.

"Hey, I'm tame compared to Kathy," he said, nodding over to where Kathy was dancing on top of a table with a group of people cheering her on from below. Molly sighed. For working in a bar Kathy was actually pretty weak with her alcohol, so after a few drinks she pretty much turned unreasonable.

"You're going to drink that?" he asked, staring at her as she poured the berry drink into her glass.

"Yeah, so what?"

"Uh, no nothing. It looks good, go for it," Owen said, smiling as he sipped his beer.

Molly shrugged and drank her soda.

"It's about time for the cake and presents, so let's head to the center, alright?" She said, grabbing his arm and dragging him towards Kathy and persuading her to come down off of the table. Molly sat both of them down in chairs and lit the cake and bread for each of them. After singing "Happy Birthday" they each made a wish, blowing out their candles and if Molly wasn't imagining things swore she saw them glance at each other before doing so.

After everyone got their share of dessert, Owen and Kathy started to open their presents. Owen got mostly exercise equipment and alcohol while Kathy received tools to care for her horse and new shoes. As they opened their presents, Molly took a seat in the back with Luke, drinking the soda.

"It's turning out pretty good, isn't it?" Luke remarked, sipping his (only) can of beer.

Molly nodded. "I'm glad they're enjoying it. I felt pretty bad about missing Kathy's birthday while I was in the clinic. Hopefully this makes up for it."

Luke reassured her that Kathy didn't mind and told her that she was a good friend for setting this all up.

"Now, if only those two would get together, right?" he sighed. Molly agreed, looking at Kathy and Owen smiling back and forth at one another. Why was it so obvious to everyone else but them? Liking someone seemed so complicated.

"Once everyone leaves I think we can do something about that…," Molly said mischievously, downing the rest of her drink and going to get another one. Luke smiled and shook his head watching her go.

Soon after Molly finished her second glass the Mayor came over to announce his departure, as well as a few of the other residents and she cheerfully waved goodbye to them, almost dropping her glass in the process.

"Oops-!"

"You alright there?"

She looked up to see none other than Chase staring at her, one eyebrow raised from the other side of the counter. Molly rubbed her eyes, not quite believing he was there.

"This is weird, are you really Chase?" she asked, reaching out and patting his shoulder as if he was an illusion or something.

"Er, yes and why are you doing that?" he asked, slightly bemused by her behavior and carefully lifting her hand away from his shoulder.

"Why are you here?" Molly asked, completely disregarding his question. Chase shrugged.

"I thought I'd stop by for a few to give Kathy my present and see her before leaving…"

"That's oddly kind of you. So, why haven't you left yet?" Molly asked, crossing her arms, her happy mood suddenly dulling into annoyance.

Chase bit his lip, aware that her sudden mood change was his fault. He had thought about their argument a lot and came to the decision that he should try and remedy it because he really hated being avoided and, even more than that, didn't like the idea of her thinking so poorly of him.

"Isn't it, though? Funny thing, I do actually care about my friends. I just have a hard time showing it sometimes. As for why I haven't left…well I saw you over here stumbling around like you're drunk and thought I'd better check out the situation. What did you have in there anyways?" Chase asked, dipping his finger in the bottom of her cup and tasting it. "Uhhh…this is alcohol, Molly."

"Huh? No it's not, its berry soda. I mean, it's a bit strong but…berries can be bitter, y'know," Molly replied, wagging her finger at him.

Chase sighed. He had to admit, he was amused by her behavior and was a bit curious to see how she'd behave tipsy, but…

"Well, you've never had alcohol before so I guess you wouldn't know what it'd taste like anyhow…" Chase said, taking her cup, washing it and re-filling it with water.

"Here, drink this," he said, shoving the water in her hand. Molly pursed her lips but still accepted it, quite thirsty.

"Did you have anything to eat recently?" he asked her, coming in behind the counter and searching the fridge.

"I had a cupcake," she said, hiccupping into her glass and getting water down her chin.

Chase couldn't help but laugh as she jumped backwards, surprised and spilled even more of her water onto the floor.

"Okay, yeah, someone definitely had one too many drinks. Here-," he said, taking a washcloth to her chin and then proceeding to wipe up the floor. Molly frowned, saying that it wasn't necessary and wiped her already dry chin on her sleeve. Chase merely shook his head and heated up some leftover pasta from the other day for her to eat.

"I know it's not the freshest but it's still good. You need some food in your stomach. Just eat it and don't complain," Chase said, cutting her off as she looked like she was about to refuse it. Molly crossed her arms and sat down on a stool.

"Why're you doing this?" she asked, staring at him.

Chase took a while, messing with his pasta before he turned around, handing her the plate and answering her.

"Because I want to."

Molly accepted the plate, confused. She looked up at him, expecting him to say something else but then Owen came over, threw an arm around Chase and basically dragged him over to where they were playing an intense game of spoons.

She watched him as he walked away, her head in a mess trying to process his actions. Looking around, she noticed that only the younger residents were left. Almost everyone was at the party from their age group excluding Toby and Gill. She wasn't surprised about Gill, he didn't seem like the party type and she already knew that Toby had to help his uncle work on their boat. She took another sip of her water, suddenly tired. She could use Toby now to keep her company, knowing that he wouldn't mind sitting quietly and talking while everyone else played cards.

Just then the door opened and she turned around, wondering if Toby really would come but saw that it was the group of tourist guys from the other night at the bar. She got up, frowning, wondering why they came in even though there was a 'closed for the night' sign on the door.

She hurried to the door to head them off before anyone else could notice. Stepping in front of them, she asked what they were there for.

"Oh, hey, Molly, we meet again. I didn't mean to interrupt anything, we just had a couple of questions and thought where else better to ask than a bar? We saw the closed sign out front but still heard people and decided to pop in and check things out, y'know?" said the guy, Justin, she believed was his name.

Molly noticed that some of the guys were swaying a bit on their feet, like they had been drinking for quite a while now.

"See, we wanna have a bonfire over on the beach but we ran outta beer. But the bar decided to close tonight, of all nights. Don't you think it's a bit unfair to have random hours when there are people who are on the island trying to vacation? Seriously, totally not good practice."

Molly was taken aback by his comment but decided to brush it off. The sooner she ended the conversation the sooner she could get back to the party and these guys out of here.

"Oh, I'm sorry but you can't have bonfires on the beach, it's a rule for tourists here. There's a sign down by the beach that says that, in case you didn't see it," Molly said calmly. The two guys behind the one she was talking to were starting to fidget and she was getting a bit suspicious.

Justin turned around, exchanging a look with his friends and crossed his arms.

"Well that's funny cause there's a group of some guys down there right now lighting up some driftwood," he replied, looking confused.

At this Molly was puzzled. If there were tourists breaking the rules surely Gill or the Mayor would have caught wind of it already. But, thinking that there was the chance that they were busy with something else, decided to go outside to check in their stead.

Walking around the group she went outside and took the few steps towards the beach to allow her to view it in its entirety. Seeing no sign of a fire, or even people, she turned around, intending to ask that Justin guy what he was talking about but stopped when she saw the three men blocking the door to go back inside.

Molly took an instinctive step backwards and stood up straight, trying to remain neutral. "Well, as you can see, no one is having a bonfire on the beach. As for where you can buy beer, I'm afraid to say that the bar is the only place you can do that. Plus, for the record, you can only have alcohol in the bar, you can't buy it by the can or bottle for takeaway. That's just how it is around here, sorry guys. Now, if you'll excuse me I'd like to return to my friend's party…"

Molly stepped forward, thinking she would just squeeze past but the group stepped closer together. Molly stopped, giving them a wary look and glanced to her left and to her right, wondering where she could escape to and report these guys. Toby's place didn't have any lights on, nor did Shelley's. The next closest place she could see was the town hall, but could she make it?

The man in front, noticing that she was making a plan to run for it, stepped towards her and, faster than she could dodge, grabbed her by the wrist.

"Aw, come on, Molly, was it? You understand our situation, right? On vacation…wanting to have a good time and have some drinks and socialize…we did pay a bit of money to come all the way out here. What's the point if we don't have fun? You said your friend's party, right? I'm sure if it was you, you could go grab us some beers, hey?"

Molly glared at him, trying to seem unfazed. "I've already told you that I can't do anything about that. And by the looks of it, you seem to have already drank a bit tonight. I wonder where you could've gotten alcohol from, unless you snuck it onto the island? Now, would you please let me go?"

Molly tried to wrench her wrist free but his grip stayed firm.

"Why don't you wanna help us out? Besides, you look like you've drank a bit tonight too with those red cheeks of yours," he said, the other guys snickering.

Molly swallowed, wondering if she should yell for help or try to force her way out of the man's grip as they started surrounding her. She backed up even further, preparing to yell, hoping that someone in the bar would hear her when a voice from her right made her whip around.

"What do you think you're doing?"

She recognized the voice and as he walked under the streetlamp, his pale blonde hair lit up like a torch.

Gill had arrived.