Out of the Blue (2 page)

“And Justin’s the perfect guy to take to these movies. He’s practically a girl anyway.” Jenny smiled at him.

“Thanks,” he said, frowning. “Listen guys. There’s something I have to check on real quick.”

They turned as one and raised their eyebrows and folded their arms.

“What do you have to check on?” Jenny asked, looking down the hall. “That girl from class?”

“How did you—” He shook his head. “Never mind. Yes. I was hoping she’d come with us tonight.”

“Well did you ask her?”

“Yes,” Justin said, feeling more desperate to leave the conversation. “She said no. We have a lab together though. I’ll meet you all at the theater.” And then, despite hearing several comments about the disappointment he was causing, he turned to walk down the hall, the click clack of their high heels fading angrily into the distance.

E wing was a very brown hall. The beige linoleum of the main hall ended and met orangey brown carpet that matched a little too well with the brown brick. Justin wasn’t sure which office was Bosey’s. He wasn’t the type who visited teachers. The grade he got was the grade he got.

Finally he found the right door. He tried to look through the window, but the blinds were closed. He felt adrenaline start to run and told himself to calm down. He was probably imagining things.
Calm down
.
Molly can handle herself. No she can’t, she doesn’t even think she’s worth handling
.

He grabbed the doorknob, but it was locked. He hated locked doors. Too much happened behind them. He ought to know. And Molly was behind this one, needing him. He grabbed a paperclip from the little tray below the corkboard, and unbent it with determined fingers.

Molly heard someone rattle the doorknob. Please god, let it be another appointment. Something to distract him while she kicked him in the groin and ran.

She tasted the salty sweat from his hand, could smell it. He was still yanking at her sweater, and she was still fighting it. This was so foul. She vowed not to read another shojo manga as long as she lived. She vowed to change, to be kind, to make friends, to not be alone anymore.

The door stopped rattling. The hand stayed over her mouth. Bosey dropped her shirt. “Did you invite someone to come with you?”

She shook her head as much as she could with his hand there.

“Of course not,” he said. “Who would have come?”

She sighed, knowing he was right. She was ready to sob when the door clicked and creaked open. She tried to pull back and look at the door, tried to reach up and pull his arm off her mouth but he had already released her and was standing and moving away. He looked at her with hard eyes that warned her to stay in place, and faced the door. She pulled her sweater down, trembling, and looked back to see who’d come in.

Justin stood there, surveying the scene for a moment, his face splotchy with red, his brows pushed together. He looked from Bosey, to Molly, and his eyebrows raised as if to ask her a question.

“Help.” She ran away from Bosey, to the wall, so he couldn’t punish her for ratting him out.

“It’s not what it looks like.” Bosey shoved his hands in his pockets, and then shrugged. “In fact I’m glad you came by. Miss Harper appears to be having trouble.”

“So it would seem.” Justin looked at her again.

“He’s the trouble,” she said. “He attacked me.”

“I think you could probably guess what happened,” Bosey said, adjusting his sweater. “Sometimes students get the wrong idea. I admit I’ve tried to be kind to Miss Harper, and perhaps misled her in some way, however unintentional.”

“He’s lying!”

“She has very few friends, and I suppose she must have imagined something between us.” He rubbed his brow. “I’d appreciate it if you could escort her back to—”

He didn’t finish his sentence because a fist smashed his face, making his head fly to the side, taking his body with it down to the ground, spittle flying down behind him in an arc from his mouth.

“I know that it’s sometimes the loneliest kids that people choose for sick games,” Justin said, grabbing the man by the front of his shirt and bringing him up, only to slam his fist into his face again. “I know that people take advantage of people they think can’t defend themselves.”

Bosey slumped to the ground and Justin pulled him up by the hair. “And I know that, more than anything, abusers will lie, because people will often trust them over the victim.” He glared at Bosey, who stared back vacantly. “But not me.” He let him fall to the ground then looked up at Molly.

“I’m sorry Molly,” he said. He pulled out his phone and dialed 911. “Yes, I’m calling to report a sexual assault. No, not me.”

He gave the address and details and put the phone in his pocket.

“Molly, it’s okay, it’s over now,” he said.

“I can’t believe you did that to him,” she said. “I’m so sorry. You’re going to be in trouble, and it’s my fault.”

Justin raised an eyebrow. “It’s his fault, not yours.” He reached for Molly’s laptop to put it in her case, but she squeaked and he stopped. “And I won’t be in trouble. As long as you back me up that he attacked you.”

She nodded. “Well, you were right.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m not glad to be.”

“At least now he won’t get any other girls.”

A small smile worked its way up to his eyes. “You know, you’re right.” He helped her over to the door and helped her put her backpack on. “Would you like to wait out in the hall?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“I’ll stay here and keep an eye on him.” he said, looking at the mostly unconscious man. She shook her head.

“What then?”

“Couldn’t you wait outside with me but watch the door so he doesn’t leave?” She said. “I don’t want to be alone.”

“Sure.”

She rubbed her arms but couldn’t seem to warm up.

“Come here.” Justin pulled her in and wrapped his arms around her. “It’s alright, Molly.”

She leaned in, wondering at the warmth of his arms and chest. Maybe having friends wasn’t so bad after all.

Chapter 1

Five Years Later

A
t lunchtime in Silicon Valley, Molly made her daily exodus in search of nourishment. She walked around the cubicles, endless boxes with people inside doing exactly what she did now: working with computers instead of people. Writing code, running tests, looking over designs.

She passed the last group of cubicles and made it to the break room and her main destination: the free granola bars and cookie packs on the counter. She grabbed a bag of Oreos, a granola bar, and a water out of the fridge and headed back to her desk. Mission accomplished. When she sat down, she looked at the little picture pinned to the felt above her computer. Her graduation. One person had been missing. One blond haired, beautiful person.

It’d been four years since graduation and a lot had changed. She had many pictures pinned to her cubicle, but none of any guy, which made one of the emails sitting in her inbox particularly troubling.

“Greetings Class of 2002! You’re Invited to Our Ten Year reunion!”

Why would anyone go to a high school reunion? Why would anyone go back to high school ever? It could only end badly on all sides. For the popular kids, the one’s who’d reached their peak in high school, it would be an embarrassing set down; for the nerds who showed up, no matter how successful or attractive they’d become, it still looked lame that they had to go back and prove it to others. If you really got over high school, didn’t you just forget about it? She wanted to. She ached to check the little box next to the email and press delete. She would have, too, if not for the writing above the email.

“Don’t make me go alone!”

-Nicole

It wasn’t her fault Nicole wanted to go to the reunion. Nicole was married; of course she’d want to go and show off her dude. Molly on the other hand hadn’t had a date in … ever?

She bit off the top of the granola bar, wishing it was Nicole’s head. If there was one person who could pull any favor out of her, it was Nicole. She didn’t know why Nicole had insisted on talking to her, on being her friend, even when she’d been cold and even mean to her at first. With Nicole around, no one had called her fat, or ugly, or bozo.

She pulled out her phone and dialed Nicole’s number.

“Molly!”

“Don’t make me do it Nicky. I just can’t.”

Silence for a moment. “Why not? It’ll be good for you to go back. It’ll give you perspective.”

Molly shook her head. She liked the perspective here, looking down from her desk on the 10
^th
floor at the people walking below. The green trees and grass, clean sidewalks, fresh air. No one to bother her.

“I don’t have a date. It’ll just be more embarrassment.”

“Can you meet me for lunch? We can at least talk about it. I’m near your work anyway, on my smartphone right now. Just come down and I’ll pull up in front.”

Molly knew when she was beaten. “Fine. Don’t text and drive. I’ll be right down.”

It was a quiet ride to the restaurant, filled with the awkwardness of friends who knew most things about each other, but hadn’t seen each other in long enough that they didn’t know what to ask about specifically.

“How are things going with Sean?” Molly asked as they headed into the restaurant.

“Good,” Nicole said. The hostess led them to sit at a small booth too near the dirty fish tank for Nicole’s liking. Molly seemed happy though so she left it alone.

She looked at Molly. She’d lost weight in the last few years, and maybe now was approaching too far in the thin direction. Her eyes had slight dark circles under them, but other than that, she had to be jealous of Molly. Her features had started out girlish, but time and maturity sharpened them into a delicate, striking kind of beauty. Molly’s big blue eyes were a delicate shade of blue gray, and her light freckles only drew attention to a thin, beautifully upturned nose and high cheekbones. Nicole wished badly that Molly would go to the reunion, if only to see the pretty girls’ shock and the boys’ admiration for how she had changed. Maybe they would regret how they had acted. Maybe they already did.

Molly dressed differently too. Still not sexy, but in clothing that was actually the right size. Nicole hadn’t seen her much during college because she’d gone to a school in Utah, but something happened there because Molly came back a different person. She’d never been able to pull out of Molly what the catalyst was for her change.

“You look good Molly, you really do.”

Molly shrugged. “I can’t remember which shrimp dish comes with the nasty eyes and legs still on. Bleh.”

“Molly, I’m sure there are a lot of men who’d love to take you out.”

Molly intertwined her fingers and rested her chin on them. Nicole felt unnerved by her steady, intense gaze. Nicole was never sure what exactly went on back there. Molly was her opposite. While people could often guess exactly what was on her mind, she didn’t think anyone could guess what was on Molly’s.

“Is he treating you well?” Molly asked quietly.

Nicole blinked. Then smiled. “Of course. It’s not that marriage doesn’t have ups and downs. But being with your best friend all the time really makes you work at it. I’ve known him all my life, so I basically knew what I was getting into.”

Molly smiled. Not so much a full smile as a little quirk at the very corners of her mouth and a little wrinkling around the eyes. “I’m glad. You deserve it.”

“Thank you,” Nicole said, feeling a little warm at the praise. “Listen Molly, I have an idea for a date for you. If you can be open minded.”

The waitress came at that moment, so they ordered and handed back the menus.

“There’s a club I’m a member of.” Nicole swallowed, her mouth dry. “It’s actually how I met up with Sean again.”

Molly’s eyebrows lowered a fraction.

“This is going to sound terrible.” Nicole took a drink from her water then set it down on the table with a little too much force, causing it to slosh a bit of water on the table. She picked up her napkin to wipe it off.

“Sorry,” she said. “I don’t know any other way to say this, but you can, uh, hire a date there.” She trailed off quieter at the end as Molly’s eyes widened.

“Hire a date?” Molly said, seeming to chew it over in her mind as she said it. “You mean like pay one?”

“Sort of,” Nicole said, smoothing her napkin over her lap just so that she had somewhere else to look other than Molly’s face. “Actually, you would know more what it is from your comics. The owner got her idea from a business partner in Japan. It’s basically a host club, I think. Is that what they are called?”

Molly’s eyes widened and she sat up and dropped her hands flat on the table. “Seriously? Then is there a ton of alcohol there?”

“No,” Nicole said. “Why, is that how it is in Japan?”

Molly nodded, her bun bobbing behind her. “That’s basically the whole point. To sell the alcohol. Lots of the hosts have health problems because of it.”

“Yeah, okay a little different. The men are there for conversation, and just to be gorgeous. But also so that you can get to know them so that if you want to hire a date you know who you fit with.”

“That’s different too.”

“I don’t know much about the Japanese clubs. The owner just said that was the closest comparison.”

“Hmm,” Molly said. She looked out the window. “It’s tempting. It’s a little wistful, you know? Because it would solve the reunion problem and let me live out one of my fantasies. One of the good ones, anyway.”

Nicole wondered what that meant.

“So you want me to go there, pick one and take him to the reunion?” Molly asked, her face still neutral.

“Uh,” Nicole said. “It was just a thought. I just would really love if you went with me. So I can show off my man.”

“Of course,” Molly said, with a little sigh. “I’ll do it,” she said. “Let’s go Tuesday.”

“Wow,” Nicole said, as much to the creepy shrimp dish being delivered to Molly as to the announcement that she would go along with her plan. “That’s soon. Great. I’ll tell Sean.”