"And we're home," Trent said as he pulled into the driveway.
"How you doing, Molly?" Bea asked.
"Um...I'm not sure," she replied.
Trent killed the engine and turned to look at her. She was laying down in the backseat with her head in Mae's lap, staring up at the roof of the jeep.
"We have tacos and weed inside," Mae said, running her fingers through Molly's hair.
"That sounds great...I kinda want to be drunk."
Bea turned around in her chair. "If you really want it, we can help with that, but I think it would be a bad idea. Alcohol will make you sadder, it's a depressant. The weed should help a lot more."
"...that makes sense," Molly murmured. "Okay. Um. I'm ready to go inside."
"Come on, Molly," Mae said.
They got out and Trent lingered nearby, in case he needed to help. Molly got out, stared at him for a moment, then walked up to him and hugged him tightly, burying her face in his chest. He put his arms around her and rubbed the back of her head.
"I'm scared. And sad," she murmured into his t-shirt.
"I know, Molly," he replied quietly. "But you're safe now."
"Yeah...but I have things to figure out...I don't have a place to live anymore…"
"I know, Molly. But it'll be okay. We aren't going to let you be homeless. You're safe here, Molly, we will take care of you."
"...thank you," she said after a long pause.
"You're welcome. Come on, let's get inside."
He saw that Bea was giving him a curious, speculative look. And so was Mae, too. He was tempted to ask what was on their minds, but he needed to get Molly inside. Gently, he pried her from him, though with only limited success. She still clung to him from the side, and he had to carefully guide her over to the door. It opened up as they approached and Ann stood there, smiling benevolently.
"Hi, Molly," she said, her voice soft and almost motherly.
"Hi, Ann," Molly replied quietly. "...my apartment burned down."
"I'm sorry, Molly. Come on inside and we can hang out."
"Okay."
They managed to get her inside and over to the sofa, which had been folded out and prepared. The coffee table was now littered with Taco Buck and weed paraphernalia. Molly sat and stared at it for a long moment, then slowly picked up the pipe they'd set aside for her.
"Here, lemme help," Mae murmured, sitting beside her and grabbing a lighter.
Molly thanked her quietly and let her help. Trent watched them for a moment. He could see Claire lingering deeper in, near the backdoor. He gathered up Claire, Ann, and Bea with his eyes and then nodded towards the backdoor. They nodded and began heading there. Trent began to follow them but Molly looked at him suddenly, worried.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"I'm going to step out back and get some fresh air for a moment," he replied.
"You aren't leaving? Right?" she pressed.
He hesitated. "No. Do you want me to stay?"
"Yes. Please," she replied immediately. "You and Mae...I need you to stay. Please."
"We won't leave," Mae said.
Trent nodded. "We won't leave, Molly."
But this might be a problem. He headed out back.
"Well, shit," Bea said.
"Did Angus and Gregg come by?" Trent asked.
"Yeah," Ann replied. "We told them about what was going on. They understood."
"How are we going to handle them? Me, Mae, and Bea were supposed to drive out with them," Trent muttered. "And Molly seems to really not want me or Mae to leave."
"If it comes down to it, I could drive out with Bea," Ann said.
"I'd go," Claire said.
"It's appreciated, and probably will be what we end up doing, but I know it will really bother Mae if she can't go out there to see Gregg one last time. It was supposed to be a kind of...I don't know, passing off moment? If she's involved in the actual moving process, it'll help her deal with the emotions better than if she just says goodbye and he's gone," Trent replied.
"That's a good point," Ann murmured.
"Maybe she'll be calmer tomorrow," Claire offered.
"Maybe. I'm thinking that she'll be a bit more...here tomorrow and she'll be more okay with Mae being gone for two days," Trent said.
"Is she, like, okay?" Ann asked. "She seems...I don't know, concussed? Or drugged?"
"It's just shock," Trent replied, then paused and sighed. "Okay, not just shock, but it's shock. She's gone through a traumatic event. People react in a variety of ways, but this is a kind of common response. Her brain sort of hit the ejector seat on her consciousness as an emergency measure in response to the shock of abruptly losing about everything in her life. Right now she's still drifting, riding the parachute down. She'll land tomorrow, I think. For now, we just need to watch out for her, make sure she remembers to eat, drink, sleep, go to the bathroom, make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."
"How do you know so much about this?" Bea asked suddenly.
"Some of it's research for writing, but some of it is...personal experience. Anyway, um...we have things we need to be doing. We need to get her changes of clothes. I think Ann's clothes are close enough in size that she could wear some of them, at least the shirts…" Trent said.
Ann sighed. "Yeah, not the pants, given I'm like half a foot taller than her. Women's clothes are so fucking annoying...but yes, I think we can put something together."
"Once she's more put back together, we can take her clothes shopping," Trent said. "Um, someone needs to go get her toiletries. A toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, stuff of her own."
"I can do that," Claire said.
"Thank you so much," Trent replied. He looked to Bea. "Will you go with her? You've got the spare card. Can you buy some more food and shit for the house? I'll try to figure out what Molly likes and text you."
"I can do that. I'll drive," Bea replied.
"Cool, lemme go get changed," Claire said, and hurried off towards Mae's house.
"I'll go start finding clothes," Ann said, and headed back inside.
Trent looked to Bea, who was staring at him intently again. "What?" he asked. "What's wrong?"
"I'm just thinking...you might have an extra problem on your hands," she replied.
"What problem?"
"Molly called you. Specifically you. Not Mae. Not anyone else. You. And she demanded you stay around her. I don't know how Mae will take that. Maybe it's nothing, but I just wanted you to be aware of it, I don't think you've realized it."
"Oh...I guess not," he muttered. "Why?"
"Why did she call you?" Bea asked. He nodded. "Because you're the kindest, most responsible person she knows. She trusts you. I think she might trust you more than anyone else in her life right now."
"Why?" he repeated.
"Think about it, babe. Ninety nine percent of men who come into her life are trying to fuck her. And you get so that you can pick up on that after awhile, as a woman. And she'd have it worse, given how fucking hot she is, and the fact that she's a lesbian. I imagine most guys think 'I want to be the one who convinces her to try dick', which makes them come on stronger. You are a unique factor. She basically told you this to your face. You are a man she could trust with her life, and has. You are a man she is not afraid to be alone with, she's not afraid to sleep next to, to get naked in front of, to be vulnerable in front of, to be drunk and stoned around, because she really trusts that you would never take advantage of her. It's not exactly a given that most women won't take advantage of her, but she can let her guard down more around women. But besides that, you have proven to her to be extremely capable and responsible, especially, I imagine, as compared to the usual people she hangs out with."
"You think so?" he asked uncertainly.
"Trent, I know so."
"I'm not even that responsible or capable."
"You really are, babe. You saved a fucking house from the bank. You saved Mae from a psychopath. You saved this town from...a threat," she murmured, looking around nervously. She cleared her throat. "And I know what you'll say, about not doing it alone, and that's true. But God, even just think of the house. Everyone else was basically ready to pack it in, but you said 'no, fuck that, we're fixing this,' and then you actually did it. That's insane, Trent. The fact that you just up and drove six fucking hours to pick her up? Really big deal. It might not be technically complicated or a massive resource investment in the grand scheme of things, but how many people would do that? I mean really would do that for her? Probably almost no one in her life besides us. She needs you right now, babe, because you and Mae are the driftwood she's clinging to in the stormy seas."
"Huh," he murmured, sitting down on one of the deck chairs. "That's...a good point, I guess." He groaned and rubbed his eyes. "This fucking sucks."
"I know. But we can handle it," Bea said, sitting down in the other chair and taking his hand. "It's times like this that we prepare for. And it's also times like this that we really begin to see the strength of our social circle. We aren't just friends and we aren't just dating. We've been through hell and back. We really fucking firmly have each others' backs, and that acts like a force multiplier."
"That's true," he murmured. He took her hand suddenly. "I love you. So much. I don't know what the fuck I'd do without you. Without Mae and Ann."
"You know I feel the same way," she replied, smiling at him. They looked over as they heard Mae's parent's backdoor open and shut. Claire came back into their yard a moment later.
"I'm ready," she said.
"Time to go," Bea replied, both of them standing.
"I'll see to Molly," Trent said. "Um, when do Angus and Gregg leave tomorrow?" he asked.
"Around noon," Bea replied.
"Okay. I guess we gotta figure this out before then. Um, does Candy know about this?"
"Yeah, I told her what's up," Claire replied.
"Okay, cool. Shit, I don't even know where we're supposed to meet with Colleen...fuck."
"We'll figure it out, babe," Bea said. "Come on. Go be with them."
He nodded and they headed back inside. He found Mae and Molly curled up on the sofa together, smoking and occasionally eating from a huge thing of nachos. Molly looked over at him as he walked into the living room.
"Are you leaving?" she asked.
"No," Trent replied, taking off his shoes. "I am here for the night. Right here on this couch," he said, going over and sitting down beside them. "With you, Molly."
"Thank you," Molly said, taking his hand and squeezing it.
"We're gonna hit the Ham Panther, get some groceries," Bea said.
"Oh, um...could you get a twelve pack of Blue Dew? I had it when I was here last and it was really good…" Molly said.
"Yeah, sure," Bea replied, pulling out her phone and firing it up. "Is there anything else you can think of?"
Trent felt a small measure of relief. He'd been wondering about how to gently pry this stuff out of Molly, because she seemed to have a real problem with people spending money on her. Only...that didn't track, he realized abruptly. No, she had a real problem with them spending money on her. But that seemed to have been deactivated for the time being.
"Uh...yeah. Pizza rolls? And some Eggos? And hot Cheetos. Like a huge bag, or just a lot of them. That'd be awesome."
"We'll get it. If you can think of anything else, tell Trent or Mae and they'll text me while we're out," Bea said.
"Okay...thanks."
"You're welcome, Molly."
Bea and Claire left, and Trent found himself alone with Mae and Molly. He tried to get a sense of if Mae was upset, but she didn't seem to be. Really, she just seemed focused on Molly and worried, but he didn't sense any lingering tension. Well, hopefully that stayed true. He grabbed one of the tacos and put some sauce on it.
"What are we watching?" he asked.
"I wanted to watch Adventure Time," Molly replied.
"We can do that. Lemme just get my laptop and plug it into the TV," Trent said.
He ate half the taco, then went upstairs and grabbed his laptop. Coming back down, he did just that and got Adventure Time going. As he settled back down, Molly grabbed his jeans and tugged on them, trying to pull him closer to her. He obliged and got right up against her, then, after a moment, slipped an arm around her. She immediately laid against him. He glanced at Mae, who met his eyes with a small smile, and then she settled in more closely on Molly's other side. He saw Molly take Mae's hand and lace their fingers together.
He felt himself relax finally. Whatever was going to happen, whatever had happened, right now...he'd done the right thing. They had Molly and they were helping her and it was working. That was enough for him in this moment.