by Opal Mellon
It was perfect. It was sort of perfect. It was also confusing, and a little bittersweet, seeing him here like this. Molly looked over the skyline, noticing in the reflection a dejected looking blond way back in the room watching her and Nicole. What kind of karmic joke was this, showing up to find him here?
By Justin’s face in the distance in the reflection in the glass, he definitely recognized her. She kept her eyes on the skyline and saw him pace out of the corner of her eye. He turned as if called by the girls nearby, said something with a shake of his head, and made as if he was going to walk towards them.
That’s it, she thought. Walk away.
“I guess it really is beautiful,” Nicole said. “I remember now thinking that when I first came in. After that I was too involved in the drama with Sean to notice.”
“I love the blue theme,” Molly said. “I was expecting Vegas, not New York. It’s classy.”
“I’m glad you love it,” Nicole said. She rested back with folded arms against the couch closest to the windows. The whole wall was just window, really, and at least twenty feet across. “You seem a little off.” Nicole looked at her with raised eyebrows.
“I am,” she said. “It’s just different than I imagined.”
Nicole nodded slightly. “Just don’t forget why we’re here. Maybe we should meet some of the other guys?”
“Sure,” Molly said, still facing the window.
“Unless you’d like to stay around Justin? He’s probably one of the best here,” she said. “Definitely one of the favorites.”
“Who are the other favorites?”
“Well there’s Chuck. And Logan looks like he’s here tonight. Okay, Chuck it is.” Nicole grabbed Molly through the arm, ignored the fact that she was slightly leaning back on her heels to avoid leaving the window, and dragged her straight over to where Chuck was playing with some girl’s hair while her best friend laughed.
“Hi Chuck.”
“Well hi beautiful.” Chuck turned, dropping the hair and smoothing it with one hand and reaching to hug Nicole with the other. “And who is this gorgeous creature?”
Molly liked him immediately. He had warm brown hair, thick and parted like a Ken doll, and a very normal face that leaned to handsome, if very ordinary. Straight nose, straight jaw. And well dressed. He’d do.
“I’m Molly. You’re Chuck?” she said, extending a hand that he took warmly in both of his.
“At your service,” he said.
“Do you do everyone’s hair?”
“Only if they ask.” He guided her to the couch.
“He’s just very good,” the girl said. She had short blond hair and a face sort of like Kate Hudson. Very non-descript and kind. Molly liked her as well.
“I can see that,” Molly said, taking a seat in an empty chair next to the small group. “It looks fantastic.”
Chuck beamed at her and came to sit on the ground by the couch.
“And what brings you to Club Blue?”
She grinned. She wanted to say the same to him. What was a gay man doing here? Actually, this was a perfect place for a gay man to be, she realized. She loved being with gay men. She’d grown up in the bay, the few boys she had liked being around in high school had been gay.
“Nicole brought me,” she said. “I have a special occasion coming up and I’m looking for a date.”
“Oh,” he said. “Of course. Just so you know, I’d be happy to.” He wiggled an eyebrow. “By the way Nicole, what did you say to Justin? He looks absolutely constipated.”
Nicole laughed. “I think he’s upset because Molly wasn’t very interested in his company.”
They looked over at Justin, who had sat back down with another group of girls, and was now impatiently brushing away their hands as they tried to mess with his hair.
Molly gave it ten minutes before Justin came over to try and badger her some more into revealing she knew him. Gosh she was grateful for her poker face. Justin couldn’t stand being ignored. This was a better revenge than she’d even hoped for. She turned and looked their way and Molly ducked away so he wouldn’t catch her watching. She kept her eyes on Chuck as he played with Nicole’s hair, exclaiming over the curls, until she heard a loud, irritated voice interrupt them.
“Chuck, you are wanted at table nine,” Justin said, looking down at them.
“What?” Chuck said. “I’m busy.”
“The girls on the couch over there. They want you to do their hair.”
“Pooh,” Chuck said, standing and brushing off his Chinos. “Fine.” He flounced away.
Justin let out his breath. “I guess you ladies will have to make do with me.”
“Is there anyone else I haven’t met?” Molly said, following Chuck with her eyes and not looking up at him.
“No one that isn’t busy.” He folded his arms.
Nicole looked from one to the other.
“Nicole,” she said, turning to her friend. “I’ve made up my mind. Can you go see if Chuck is available for the reunion?”
Justin’s head rose up sharply.
“Sure!” Nicole patted Molly’s shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”
Justin took Nicole’s seat when she left. “What do you think you are doing?” He narrowed his gaze on her, uncomfortably close.
“Picking my date? That’s why we came here. I didn’t realize I had to choose you.”
“No, Molly, I mean why are you pretending you don’t remember me?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about. You are making me uncomfortable.” She turned around but he got off the couch and came around the other side.
“Seriously? Chuck? You pick the gay guy?”
She glared at him. “What are you, a bigot?”
He sighed and sat back on his haunches. She looked him over. Same Justin. Hair a bit longer, maybe a bit highlighted, but just as soft and shiny and unfair. Face still breathtakingly beautiful, body still trying to overcompensate for it. In a suit he still somehow looked more casual than Chuck did in his Chinos and polo. It was silvery blue and Justin probably knew it set off his skin nicely.
Yes, he’d done well for himself, at least on the surface. Unluckily for him, Molly knew that his surface had very little to do with anything.
“My bad,” Justin said, standing. “Enjoy your date.”
Nicole cut him off, having come up unexpectedly from behind. “Sorry Molly, Chuck is booked that day. So is Jason. That only leaves—” She looked at Justin apologetically. “Can you?”
“Well, well,” Justin said. “Looks like you might be stuck with me after all.” He grinned at her.
If he expected her to be ruffled, he’d have to be disappointed. She smiled back at him demurely.
“What day?” Justin said, looking once again irritated.
“The 20th,” Nicole said. “Please say you can do it Justin.”
“Hmm,” he said. “No can do. Busy that night.”
“Oh Justin, can’t you free it up?”
“Well I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t even know if she’d really like me to come.” He raised an eyebrow.
She knew he wanted her to beg, but once again, he’d be disappointed. “I’d like you to come,” she said, with a small lift of her shoulders. “I’d appreciate it very much.”
But she said it with the same tone you’d say ‘yes I would like cheese on my salad’ at the Olive Garden.
Justin appeared nonplussed.
“Although I guess Logan could probably do it.” Molly shrugged.
“Fine,” he snapped, grabbing the date book out of Nicole’s hands and penciling his name in it. “I’ll do it. I’ll tell Hope I’m on that night.” He put the date book in his breast pocket to take it back to the bar and update the main calendar.
“Sheesh,” the girls heard him mutter over his shoulder.
“Is he always so grumpy?” Molly asked. He paused for a split second, shoulders tensed, when he heard it. But he kept walking.
“No
,” Nicole said, picking up her purse and watching him with tension in her face. “Normally he’s a perfect doll. I’m sure he’ll be back to his usual self by the reunion,” she said. She headed for the door and Molly followed.
Back to normal? Not if I can help it, Molly thought.
~~~
They were an odd little group, heading into the reunion. Molly and Nicole tried not to roll their eyes at the over the top decor in the hotel lobby: too many streamers in the school colors, red and green, and ducked under them to enter. On TV, high school reunions looked like glamorous affairs where the attendants strolled to each other on red carpet to the punch bowl, beaming with self-satisfaction and witty comebacks. Molly wished she’d stocked some before they left.
Her date was the only thing that seemed similar to the reunion theme in a chick flick or manga. He was beautiful, more than half the girls in the room (her included no doubt), tall, and well dressed. He was the consummate jealousy-inducing date. She looked even more like a little brown paper bag next to him. Maybe she should have found a nerdy guy. Then they might have had more to talk about. But she would have let Nicole down in her plan to show off to the people who used to be rude. Molly had grown up enough to realize that the other girls had done the same most likely. She’d stopped feeling resentful about it, even if she was still feeling some of the residual negative effects of their treatment. She felt that being forced to spend time with Justin was giving them more power to make her miserable than she needed to be doing at this point in her life. Probably.
They stopped just inside the door. Sean looked great in a black suit, Justin in a light olive one that set off his skin well. Nicole was wearing a beautiful pink dress and had shanghaied Molly into another blue one, this one more of a light gray blue. To match her eyes, she had said. She had taken Molly shopping for shoes too, and Molly felt regrettably clumsy in them. She felt that if she had a Cinderella moment where she had to run from the ball, she’d probably face-plant and leave her blood on the floor along with her shoe.
The boys were talking and Nicole was pretending to listen to them while scanning the ballroom for prospective victims, so Molly did the same.
The first thing Molly thought, while looking at the blur of faces, was that she hadn’t remembered all of these people being so small before. They felt her size now. In high school, leering into her face, gathered in groups to sneer, they had seemed impossibly big. Now they just looked like her, mostly average people. Considering that everyone was in their best clothing on their best behavior, they were a remarkably average group. Molly guessed that this was just a part of growing up, that everyone was a lot more like each other than you thought, and that most people weren’t villains, or heroes, but just doing their best.
Even Justin, confidently resting against the wall with crossed legs and folded arms. He was an adult dealing with an adult life five years later. Not just that guy who’d broken her heart in college. Not just an escort. Like Nicole wasn’t just a black girl, like Sean wasn’t just a huge guy. These girls now probably had families, kids. Kids that probably teased other kids at school. Molly shrugged, drawing Nicole’s attention.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “Remember, we’re all here with you.”
Molly looked at her, puzzled. Had she seemed worried? If anything, she was mildly worried that the world was turning out to be a much more boring place than it was when she was younger and than it was in books. So what if she wanted to disappear back to a place where things were clear-cut, where adventure was manufactured for entertainment, with no risks or pain?
She felt a gentle nudge on her elbow, and looked up to see Justin had quietly sidled up and was standing close, folded arms just barely touching hers.
“So what do you want to do now that you’re here?” he asked. “It’s your gig, after all.”
She looked up at him for a long moment, then back out to the room. Run away, she thought. That’s all she really wanted to do. This place was a waste.
“What are you thinking?” Justin said. “I never could read you.”
She nodded. Her newly straightened hair was still retaining the home perm Nicole had applied, but she’d still tied it back in a tight ponytail that made her neck hurt a bit when she moved her head too much. “I’m just thinking I’d rather leave.”
“Why don’t you then?” he said.
She looked back over her shoulder, and Justin followed her eyes over to where Nicole stood with Sean, with her still surveying the crowd for her first opportunity to strike, and him surveying her cleavage.
“Ah,” Justin said, dropping his eyes back to the ground. “I see.”
She pursed her lips and nodded slightly again.
Justin looked sidelong at her for a moment. “Well, is there anything I can do to make it more enjoyable?” He moved his weight from one foot to the other. “That’s my job you know.”
She finally smiled at him, and it was like light spilling into a dark room; it made him feel several degrees warmer. “I know.”
“Well then. Punch maybe?”
“Sure.” He started ahead, and she followed, not knowing how one behaved on a date, not knowing how close to him she should stand, or how she would be looking at him to be convincing that she was actually dating him.
Justin looked back at her, extended an elbow for her to take his arm, but she shook her head slightly and he dropped it.
Justin reached the table and picked up a glass. Molly stood a bit back, hoping to avoid being noticed by any of the women at the table. She just wanted to get through this with as little trauma as possible. Then Justin jumped and dropped his cup in the punch bowl, and Molly realized someone had just pinched his rear. Someone in Gucci shoes and a pencil skirt. Someone with red hair who looked suspiciously like Cynthia, the ringleader in middle school, and the meanest chick in high school.
“Who did that?” Justin said, turning around to face the women. Cynthia was, as usual, flanked by two girls in order to make herself more invincible.
“Why?” Cynthia’s friend Rachel, a plain brunette with a face like tanned leather and crow eyes, asked. “Didn’t you like it?”
“Who would you want to have done it?” Cynthia said, moving forward.
Justin raised an eyebrow at them, backed into the table as far as he could. “Ladies, I’m here with a date.”
Cynthia pushed out her lower lip. “Oh? Where?”
Justin motioned over her shoulder to Molly.
Cynthia folded her arms, and started to turn. Molly’s slap resounded across her face like isolated applause.
Her hair whipped back as her face flew to the side, and her manicured hand came up to cup her cheek. Her cronies gasped but didn’t make any move towards Molly. Cynthia pulled her hair out of her face and finished turning towards her assailant. Her face, now turning red on one side, went white.
“Molly? Molly, is that you?”
“Apologize first,” Molly said.
“As if I’d apologize to you.”
“To him,” Molly said, pointing to Justin, who was staring open mouthed, an empty cup crushed in one of his hands, the other still pointing limply.
Cynthia narrowed her eyes at Molly, then slowly turned to Justin again. He flinched and inched away from the table, like he was avoiding a snake. Cynthia put one hand against the table and leaned on it.
“What’s she paying you?” she said. “I’ll double it.”
Molly dusted off her hands, perfectly calm, as if she’d dispatched of some garbage. Justin didn’t know why Molly had slapped someone for him. Tried to make someone apologize, to him. Didn’t she hate him? Not remember him? He was the one who was supposed to be making this the perfect date for her. Instead, she was rescuing him like some knight, and it made him a bit nauseous, and a bit flattered in a weird way. Maybe it was just payback for saving her from Bosey. Did she remember that? He did. It still made him feel like throwing up or putting his fist through a wall or something glass.
Luckily N
icole arrived before he had time to mistake something dumb to say for something smart to say.
“What’s going on here?” She put an arm around Molly, and turned to the girls. She looked at Justin with a cocked head. He put up his hands and shook his head, nodding to Molly.
The girls turned to Molly and Nicole again. Nicole’s mouth dropped a little then snapped back up. Her dark eyes grew darker as her lids came down a fraction.
“Cynthia,” she said.
“Nicole, was it?” Cynthia said. “Still defending the loser?”
Nicole walked towards her, her hand up then stopped. “I’d slap you but I see that’s already been taken care of.” She turned to Molly. “What did she do?”
Molly just looked away to the side, letting out a small puff of air.
“Anyway Cynthia, what do you do?” Justin said, coming back into the conversation.
“Pardon?” Cynthia turned to him, and Nicole looked at Molly and shrugged, missing the wink Justin had sent her way.
“Well you said you’d pay me more than Molly could, and she’s an engineer. So what do you do?”
Cynthia flushed. “That was a joke.”
“Like grabbing my butt?” He said. “’Cause that was sexual assault.”
“That wasn’t—”
“She’s not paying me,” he said. “And honestly, I prefer to be with someone who doesn’t have to grope other people’s dates because she doesn’t have one.”
“Yeah, Cynthia,” Nicole cut in. “Where is your date?”
The other girls with her were suddenly interested in their nails and the floor. Cynthia just glared. “I don’t have to bring a date to these things because I was never a loser. I don’t have anything to prove, unlike you.”
“Or you couldn’t get a date because you have a terrible personality,” Molly said, quietly, from the corner of the group.
“Shut up fatty.”
“Don’t call her that.” Nicole stepped forward between Justin and Cynthia.
Cynthia clenched her hands into small fists, and then turned to walk away. Rachel sent them a glare and followed, and Ally, the quietest of the group, sent them a helpless shrug, as if to apologize, and skulked off behind them.