Hey again, lovelies! We get some nice ~backstory~ in this chapter. I don't have much to say because I'm sorta sleep-deprived and a bit unhinged. But I will just say that the flashback in this chapter is a continuation of Molly's nightmare at the beginning of chapter six. Hope you lovelies enjoy! ~Shaymie

Molly

"Gah, why do you two have to be so white?"

Luke groaned as Angela wiped off the concealer she'd tried applying to his neck but couldn't get to blend with his tanned skin. Molly placed a plate of pancakes, bacon, and eggs in front of him and scurried off with flaming cheeks. She had the misfortune of coming home in the middle of the two of them having sex and while she didn't see anything apart from the clothes scattered around the living room (thank god they closed the bedroom door behind them), she doesn't think she'll ever be able to purge the sounds she heard from her mind. She's not sure she'll ever be able to look Luke in the face again. They were so into it that they didn't even notice the sound of the front door shutting again as she left to go hang out with Chase at the bar.

"Hey, I'm not as pasty as Molly anymore. No offense, Molls." Angela closed off the make-up and took a seat in Luke's lap, running a finger over the hickeys littering his neck. She had a matching set on her collarbone and chest, Molly noticed when they were getting dressed for the day. Luke had excused himself to get some fresh clothes from home, but decided to come back for breakfast. "Besides, these are too pretty to cover up, don't you think?"

"Do all city girls... bite in bed like that?"

"Only the fun ones." Angela smirked. "Don't act like you didn't like it. Maybe next time I'll bite you somewhere el—"

"Ahh, my poor virgin ears!" Molly shook her head as she focused on cooking the rest of breakfast since it was obvious Angela wasn't going to be any more help. She flipped her final pancake onto a plate and turned to her sister and her boyfriend. Angela was smiling dopily at Luke as she brushed some hair from his face, her cheeks flushed. There might as well have been hearts in her eyes. Molly smiled. She hasn't seen Angela look like that since... well, since her relationship with Mikhail was in the honeymoon phase, when she thought he was the coolest guy on the planet. Before he'd left to go on his first tour and she realized how lonely the relationship would be.

It should have been a big red flag the moment Mikhail dropped by to pick Angela up for a party and called her formalwear disgusting. Molly tried to tell Angela that maybe Mikhail wasn't such a nice guy after all, but Angela was young and in love and Molly was "just a stupid virgin who didn't know anything about love" and it was fine because he promised to take Angela shopping afterwards so they could be better coordinated next time. She apologized for the comment after the party.

Molly can't really blame her sister for ignoring the signs because she'd done the exact same thing with Chelsea, saying that she wasn't mean and that's just the way she is and it was just teasing. At first she'd "teased" Molly's other friends until they refused to come around when the two of them were together. Then when she ran out of targets, she turned on Molly, who took it all in stride. Her other friends hated Chelsea, talked about her behind her back, even. Molly knew that two wrongs didn't make a right, but she didn't want to lose any of her friends so she just kept her mouth shut as they talked bad about Chelsea. She was surprised they even let her hang around, but she supposed it was Chelsea they didn't like. Molly hadn't done anything to them personally.

The rest of breakfast was filled with Angela's quiet flirting with Luke in-between bites of pancake. She stayed on his lap the whole time, whispering things that Molly was glad she couldn't quite make out. If she had a phone, she'd probably be listening to music right now. But she had to settle for sitting at the opposite end of the table and blocking out Angela's low voice, trying to not notice the way Luke was awkwardly shifting in his seat, his cheeks heated. Molly had a feeling they were going to end up in the bedroom again before work. It was when she was done with breakfast and putting her plate up that she had a sudden thought.

Hopefully Angela tones it down at work and doesn't traumatize poor Bo...

"Angie and Lukey sittin' in a tree, f-u-c-k-i-n- ouch!" Bridget yelped as Angela chucked a pillow at her head with her free hand, the other being held by Linh as she painted her nails. It was sort of impressive considering she didn't use her dominant hand. "Fucking rude, Angela! What the hell?"

"That's for barging in without knocking, you rude bitch." Molly rolled her eyes as the two stared at each other for a few moments before bursting into laughter. Bridget and Angela have always gotten along really well. Bridget used to have a crush on Angela and hung around her all the time whenever she came over. They spent so much time together that Bridget had even started picking up some of her mannerisms.

"Hey, at least I didn't see you naked. I only saw your tits. Which are looking nice, by the way."

"Anyway," Angela pointedly ignores the compliment with a roll of her eyes, already used to Bridget's poor excuses for flirting, "what did you guys want to talk about? You said it was important, right?"

Well, that question was a mood changer. The air suddenly felt colder.

"I was kind of hoping you'd wait a bit longer before asking about that," Bridget mumbled under her breath. She tugged at a short lock of hair and looked between the sisters nervously. "You two know that we love you, right? And we wouldn't do anything to hurt you?"

"We didn't mean to keep this a secret or anything, we just couldn't find the right time to tell you. And then Laney sent Ash one of Chelsea's posts and—"

"Chelsea? What the fuck does she have to do with anything?" Angela spat out, her eyes darting over to Molly anxiously. Molly bit her lip at the mention of her former best friend. She's still trying to sort through her feelings about her, but it's hard to do that when she had seen so much of their friendship through rose-colored glasses. Had they ever even really been friends? Did Chelsea only stick around because their mothers had been best friends and her aunt expected the two of them to do the same?

She can't even remember a single time Chelsea had said anything nice to her.

"...Well, she started dating Mark right after you guys left." Angela's eyebrow twitched as she grumbled about them being a match made in hell. Molly sighed. That's what they were so worried about telling her? "And we found out yesterday that her dad bought her a cruise trip to make up for forgetting her birthday and apparently Castanet's the next stop 'cause of the Summer Festival."

Oh. That's what they were scared to tell her.

And there was that look again. They were looking at her like she was made of glass, like she would just shatter if anyone so much as breathed on her. She's sensitive but she's not fragile. She gets that they care about her, but they always take it too far. It was getting annoying. She tolerated it when she was in the hospital because yeah, she was pretty pathetic back then. She even kept her mouth shut during her recovery period, when Kasey and Angela were constantly hovering over her. Even Ash had been guilty of it sometimes.

This was just going to ramp up their overprotectiveness. They already worried enough about her relapsing or falling back into depression.

"I think I need some air." Molly stood up from the bed and straightened out her skirt before heading out the door. Thankfully they let her go without any fuss. She sighed heavily as she made her way out of the inn, passing Chase and Maya who were cleaning up after their weekly cooking lesson with Yolanda. Well, Chase was cleaning up. Maya was getting chewed out by her grandmother.

Molly went to the beach, which was luckily empty. She slipped off her shoes and set them in the sand a safe distance away from the tide. She noticed her hands were trembling and took a deep breath to steady herself. Maybe she should have gone home and grabbed the weighted stuffed animal Kasey had sent for her birthday. She didn't know how he knew she needed it, but it helped calm her down when she was feeling anxious like this. What was the point of taking anxiety medication if it didn't help her? She's not sure if she needs a different dosage or a different medicine altogether.

She walked out to the water, stopping when she was ankle-deep. Something about the ocean helped calm her down even though pretty soon it was going to drop off her worst nightmare. She's not sure if she's ready to face Chelsea yet. Potentially Mark if he came with her. She didn't stay in the room long enough to ask if he had joined her on her little vacation. Wouldn't that just rub more salt in the wound? Her ex boyfriend and her ex best friend together to torment her. Even if she stayed inside the whole time they were in town and avoided them like the plague, she'd still be aware that they're here.

They'd just remind her of her past mistakes, the way she starved herself to the point where she couldn't even see straight. The way she'd just blindly trusted Mark even when he kept pushing for something she wasn't ready for. Her father always told her she was too nice, that if she wasn't careful she'd end up getting hurt. She should have listened but she's always been stubborn and bullheaded. Might be the one part of her personality that's actually hers and not just a carbon copy of her mother.

Oh great, way to bring her up, Molly. Not like you have enough on your plate.

"I promise whatever's bothering you isn't worth throwing yourself in the ocean over."

Molly turned her head just in time to catch Maya elbowing Chase for his crude comment. She smiled at them and walked out of the water, innerly cringing at the way the sand stuck to her wet feet. Maya met her halfway with wide eyes.

"Are you okay, Molly? You looked upset..."

"I told her you probably wanted to be alone but she didn't listen," Chase huffed, blowing a bit of hair from his face. She noticed that his hairpins were out of place and not really doing their job.

"I'm fine, I just... got some bad news." She tried to brush off the sand to the best of her ability before putting her sandals back on. If she was being honest with herself, she really didn't want to be alone. She just wanted to get away from her friends and sister. She twirled a bit of hair around her finger as she looked between Chase and Maya. They were probably her closest friends on the island, even though she's been neglecting the both of them while her friends have been visiting. "I, um... Can I talk to you guys about something serious?"

"Serious like what? You're not sick, are you?" Molly shook her head as Maya gripped her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes. What was she expecting to see, some visible proof of illness? Spots in her eyes or something?

"It's about what I was doing before I came here... What made me have to quit dancing."

She motioned for them to join her on the beach and sat down, pulling her knees up to her chest. Maya and Chase sat on either side of her and waited patiently for her to start.

"I started dancing when I was a kid. I saw old videos of my mom dancing and thought it looked fun and I wanted to be closer to her. I never got to meet her, so all I had were crappy videos and pictures my dad took and stories from my siblings. And I loved dancing. I got to be like my mom and my best friend, Chelsea, also did it so we got to spend a lot of time together. I thought everything was perfect.

"But then I guess... I guess Chelsea started getting jealous somewhere down the line and I didn't see it. I was a bit of a prodigy so everyone gave me a bunch of attention. I told them not to but they didn't listen. I was in magazines and everything. And then I got a big lead role in a performance along with Ash and I guess that was the last straw for Chelsea. She... started getting in my head. Saying I was fat and that I was going to be too heavy for Ash to lift and I'd ruin the performance. She told me to start a 'diet,' but it was just... the beginnings of an eating disorder. I'll spare you the details, but it got really bad. I always felt awful but Chelsea told me that was normal and I just... believed her."

Stupid. She had been so stupid. And she had so many outs. Kasey and Angela constantly asked if she was okay. They told her she didn't have to perform if she didn't feel well, that she could take some time off. But she didn't want to ruin Ash's big moment, so she sucked it up. Kept going even though she always felt sick and dizzy. Looking back on it, she's not sure how she managed to make it through rehearsals.

And then came the night of her big performance...

Molly closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she walked out onto the stage where Ash was waiting. She was exhausted and sick and nauseous. But it was fine. She just had to get through this performance and she could go back to eating normally again. Unless... unless this only led to her getting bigger and bigger. She couldn't risk gaining weight again. Not after all the hard work she put in to get where she is.

Maybe this was her life from now on, and she was fine with that. A small price to pay to make her mother proud from beyond the grave. She's doing all the things Amber Parker never got to do. If she impressed the talent scouts Chelsea's aunt let slip were here watching, she could live her mother's dream. The thought was enough to settle her stomach. This was what she's been working so hard for. She knew what she was doing, had the routine down by heart.

Focus. This was the one performance she absolutely couldn't mess up.

The first half was easy enough. Muscle memory carried her through it and her exhaustion was briefly forgotten. She even managed to give Ash a real smile and not a stage one. She was actually feeling... good. Sorta confident, even. She thought she'd actually be able to get through this and be able to take a long nap. But then the dizziness came back and she could just feel her movement becoming sluggish. Her head started feeling fuzzy. Even her vision kept blurring, and no amount of frantic blinking would fix it.

Then it was time for the lift and...

"I blacked out. When I woke up in the hospital, a week had passed." Maya gasped. Molly sighed and leaned forward, resting her head on her knees. "I hit my head on the way down. Ash obviously wasn't expecting me to pass out like that and he... couldn't catch me. He still blames himself for it. The doctors told me I couldn't perform anymore. Something went wrong when I hit my head and now I have epilepsy."

She wasn't sure if she'd still be able to dance even if she didn't have epilepsy now. Every time she tries to dance, she just freezes up. She doesn't know why it happens but she hates it. She was fine with not being able to perform on stage anymore. If anything, it felt like a huge weight was lifted from her shoulders. But she can't even dance for fun anymore? Years of hard work are just going down the drain like it was nothing?

"That Chelsea girl sounds like a real fucking cunt." While Maya had been incredibly reactive during the story, letting out the occasional gasp or leaning forward in anticipation, Chase listened in silence, the tense set of his jaw the only sign of emotion on his face. Molly desperately wished she had his emotional control. She would probably be terrible at poker. "Please tell me you at least punched her or something before you moved here."

"I kinda avoided her... Which doesn't even matter anymore since she's coming here on vacation with her new boyfriend, who's my ex. That's, um... the bad news I got."

"She's dating your ex, too?!" Maya shrieked, shooting up to her feet. She huffed and stomped her foot. "Now that just means war! I'll... I'll spit in their food the whole time they're here!"

"If you really want to make their stay here hell, why not ask Yolanda if you can take over cooking their meals? Might as well weaponize your terrible cooking." The teasing smirk on Chase's face didn't fade even as Maya's cheeks puffed out in frustration and she pushed him over into the sand. Molly giggled. It's nice to have friends that would go to bat for her. She knew that Linh, Bridget, and Ash would do the same, but they'd also have to eventually go back to the city with Chelsea and Mark and she didn't want there to be trouble.

Maybe I'll be able to get through this without a scratch...