Happy Halloween, lovelies! Ya girl has been struggling both with this chapter and her Animal Crossing island so she's really going through the most right now. Hope you enjoy the chapter! ~Shaymie

Angela

"You're so fucking handsome."

Angela's voice is quiet, nearly reverent as she runs her hand over Luke's toned body. He trembled under her touch. Sex was nice, but she'd also grown to appreciate quiet moments like this. They were deep in the Fugue Forest, Dale having sent them there to gather more lumber. Work was quickly forgotten. She tried to rein in her thirst so Dale wouldn't fire her for being an absolutely hopeless mess, but then Luke just had to take his shirt off while he was working and the flexing of his muscles was too enticing... How could she not fuck him?

"I love the way you turn to putty in my hands." Angela hummed and traced one of the hickeys she had sucked into his skin. She's glad that they're so deep in the forest and had all the privacy in the world. They didn't have to hold anything back. She could coax all the noises she wanted out of Luke, and there were certainly a lot of them. She certainly didn't expect him to be the whiny, noisy, submissive type. Loud, sure, but she had expected him to be the one to take charge. He certainly had the strength to toss her around like a sack of potatoes if he wanted to. The thought of it had her nearly drooling.

"Holy shit, Ange, you know what it does to me when you talk like that."

"Yeah, I can feel it." She planted a kiss on his chest and moved up his body with a teasing smile. He had called her insatiable, but it only took a few more words to get him up and ready for another round. She didn't think guys could bounce back so quickly. Her lips brushed against his neck as she leaned in to whisper in his ear. "I want to absolutely fucking ruin you one of these days."

"R-Ruin...?"

"You had to have known what you signed up for when you asked me out. I think I warned you plenty." She smirked and twirled a bit of his hair around her finger. Ever since they said their first I love yous, she's felt a lot more confident. She's less worried about scaring him off. If her father were here, he'd probably call this a whirlwind romance, claiming that it was too soon for them to be sleeping together. He always used to lecture her and Mikhail about being careful having sex, saying that he was too young to be a grandfather.

Bunch of fucking good that did.

She doesn't like to think about it, about the baby that Mikhail forced her to get rid of. It hurt that he didn't even want to give it a chance, didn't even blink before telling her to get an abortion. He made all sorts of excuses for not wanting to keep the baby. They were too young. They didn't know how to take care of a baby. It wasn't even planned. He wasn't home enough. He wasn't ready for kids. She wouldn't be a good mother.

It's clear from him getting together with pretty little Lillian Flowers that he just didn't want to have a baby with her. He'd been all too eager to pack his things up from their apartment and run off to be with a girl ten years his junior. Lillian was barely legal and he was willing to raise a child with her? Marry her? There was a spiteful part of Angela that hoped he also cheated on Lillian. With how many cities he visited on tour, there's no way the teenager was his only fling.

"Ange?" Luke gently kissed her forehead, bringing her back to the present. She blinked and looked up to meet his eyes, smiling at the warmth in them. "Are you okay? Were you thinking about that Chelsea chick again?"

"I, uh... Yeah," she stammered out, frowning at the reminder of Chelsea's imminent arrival. It's easier to blame her distraction on Chelsea than unpack yet another bit of Mikhail baggage. She hadn't told anyone about the abortion, not even Muffy and Reina. She knew they'd tell her that he wasn't good for her and that she should leave him and she was still stupidly in love with him. God, she was so stupid back then.

But that's in the past and she should be focusing on the present, even though she'd partially decided to hook up with Luke in the forest to forget about that right now. Molly's stressed. It's clear as day. When she's stressed, she throws all her attention into baking. When she's not working on the farm or hanging out with her friends, she's in the kitchen. She refuses to talk about Chelsea and Mark and gets snippy towards anyone who tries asking her about them. There'd been a strange mix of fear and pride on Chase's face when she snapped at him. He once said that she was too nice.

"They were best friends, but she was just... so bad for Molly. She was awful and petty and jealous and Molly didn't see any of it. Refused to see it." Angela sighed. Chelsea was rude to everyone, even Molly. The girl was nothing bad news. It's no wonder everyone hated her. Angela was five years older than Molly and her friends, but thanks to Bridget and Ash, she heard about all the drama that went on, all the fights Chelsea would pick with anyone she thought was prettier than her. Better than her, even.

They really should have seen her betrayal coming, but they didn't think she'd do something so unapologetically cruel. Even if it did just start out as a prank, she had to have noticed how bad Molly was getting. There were days when she couldn't even get out of bed, she felt so sick. And after the accident, when Molly was in the hospital—hell, even when she was just in that coma for a week— Chelsea didn't visit once, just sent some chocolates.

Chocolate. One of the things Molly said Chelsea told her to avoid like the plague or she'd "get fat" again. It's like she was trying to fucking taunt her, dump a shit ton of salt in the wound.

There's no chance in hell Chelsea's visit is just a coincidence. She has just the right amount of pettiness and daddy's money to blow to want to come down here just to torment Molly some more. She's probably upset she didn't get to pick on Molly after she got out of the hospital since she started avoiding her and blocked her number. Molly's an adult. She doesn't need her big sister's protection anymore, she can take care of herself. But Angela's still going to do everything in her power to make sure that Chelsea doesn't hurt a single hair on Molly's head. She'll be damned if her sister's hard work in recovering gets flushed down the drain because of some spiteful bitch.

"Are you sure you don't want to come to the bar tonight?"

Angela's brows furrowed at her sister, noting the messy countertops. She knew Molly would clean up eventually, but normally it's not eventually. Normally Molly cleaned the kitchen as she baked, claiming that a messy kitchen made her skin crawl. Right now she's a mess, her curls thrown up in a messy bun and her face splattered with flour. Her normally graceful, calculated movements were jerky and uncontrolled.

She's shaking.

"I'm sure, Angie. Go have fun with Luke and Owen." Molly blew a bit of hair from her face as she smashed the cookie cutter into the dough on the counter, tossing the star-shaped chunk of dough onto the cookie pan carelessly. She closed her eyes and exhaled deeply. It's clear that she's just barely keeping it together. Maybe she was even waiting for Angela to leave before she let it all out. It felt wrong to just... leave her like this, but she's so stubborn. She'd probably just brush her off.

There's no getting through to Molly when she's in one of these moods. She just internalizes everything, not wanting to be a burden to anyone. She doesn't want to make anyone worry, but it's more worrying when she tries to keep everything bottled up. Angela's not sure if it would do more harm than good trying to get Molly out of the house tonight. It would probably just frustrate her and she'd lash out and curl in on herself even more.

"You know I love you, right?" she asked quietly, biting her lip. She wanted to apologize for her past mistakes. If she hadn't been so selfishly absorbed in her own stupid problems—hadn't been such a stupid slut greedy for validation and spent more time at home—maybe she could have stopped Molly before she got too bad. Maybe she would have seen the signs a lot sooner. She didn't notice anything was wrong until it was too late and by then, Molly was too far gone. A shell of her former self who kept insisting that she was fine when everyone could see her falling apart bit by bit.

"I know, Angie. I love you too." Molly looked up from her dough abuse to give Angela a small smile. Even that little thing seemed forced. The fakeness of it made Angela want to cancel her plans and stay in to keep an eye on her sister, but that wouldn't do any good either. Molly would probably just kick her out and lock the door behind her. "You really don't have to worry about me, you know. I'm—"

"Please don't say you're fine, Molly. We both know that's a big fucking lie." Angela sighed and shook her head, frowning at the hurt expression on her sister's face. Getting mad at her for how poorly she's handling things won't help anything. She should leave before she says something out of line. "I'm going now, Molls. Try not to bake yourself into exhaustion, okay?"

She reluctantly left, already making plans to leave the bar early tonight. Molly was a pressure cooker about to pop. She's normally better at hiding things, but this must have thrown her for a loop. She spent so long avoiding Chelsea and Mark in the city and now she's going to be forced to face them. This town is small, there's no possible way to avoid them unless she spent the entirety of their visit holed up inside. And Angela knew there was a part of Molly that wanted to know why they did the things they did and wouldn't take answers from anyone but them.

Chelsea was fueled by sheer spite.

Mark was fueled by teenage stupidity (and maybe a bit of teenage horniness, but the stupid kid should have known that no meant no).

It was clear for Angela to see, but Molly must want to hear them say it to her face. She wanted closure no matter how painful it was. Knowing Chelsea, it was sure to be painful. The girl was a stone-cold bitch. She didn't hold anything back. Even when she was pretending to be Molly's friend, she'd spit out nasty, petty comments about her. Molly would laugh most of them off, but there were some times when some pain would flash in her eyes. And even still, she'd insist that it was fine, that that's just how Chelsea jokes around—

"God, Mark, can you be any fucking slower?"

"Excuse me, princess, who the hell do you think is doing all the heavy lifting? Maybe if you got off your bony ass and helped me—"

Angela stopped dead in her tracks at the sound of those familiar voices. She'd gotten lost in her thoughts and walked right past the bar to the docks and... Chelsea and Mark are here. This isn't just some imminent threat or a bad dream, this was real. The ship they'd arrived on wasn't nearly as big as she expected. It couldn't even really be called a cruise ship. Can it still be considered a catfish if you lie about your travel arrangements? Seems like Chelsea's not living in the lap of luxury like she'd have her followers believe.

Looks like Daddy Jacobs had to cut some corners for his princess' birthday gift.

"Nice to see you again, Angie. Where's dear little Molly Rose? Everyone's been so worried about her, you know." God, Angela just wanted to wipe that stupid smug look off her face. That fake, syrupy sweet tone was just so fucking infuriating. What the hell is she getting out of this? She's done her damage, why can't she just leave them alone? What's the point of spending so much money coming here and wasting part of her summer?

"Chelsea—"

"I'd love to stay and chat, but we have to check into the inn. It's been a long day." The fake smile dropped from her face as she turned back to Mark, who was still struggling with the luggage. "Hurry up, Mark. I'm tired."

They really were a match made in hell, weren't they? Angela's eyes narrowed as the two of them pointedly ignored her, pretending to be focused on bringing their things to the inn. She noticed a small round suitcase (A carry-on? A make-up bag?) teetering on top of one of the wheeled ones and smirked. Two could play the petty game. She held back a smirk and "accidentally" bumped into it as she walked past, sending it rolling straight into the ocean. Chelsea's face went beet-red as she stared after it. Angela gasped dramatically, her eyes widened in false alarm.

"Whoops. I'm so sorry about that, Chels. Hope it wasn't anything important." A couple snickers managed to escape. Chelsea looked like a dying fish, the way she was gaping at the water with her mouth open like that. It would never make up for the hurt the girl had put Molly through, but she's glad she managed to get back at her in some way. Maybe she'd even talk to Maya about that food sabotage plan.

"Y-You did that on purpose!"

"Sure did, bitch. Welcome to Harmonica Town."