It started with a text.
Adam [7:42 PM]:
"We need to talk. You've been different."
Molly stared at it for five straight minutes.
Because yeah, she had been different.
Less available. More distant.
And after the last party, after the way she'd frozen up every time he touched her, Adam was no longer playing clueless.
She met him at his car in the school lot the next morning. Alone. Quiet.
Adam leaned against the hood, arms crossed. "You going to tell me what's going on?"
Molly blinked. "What do you mean?"
"You think I'm blind?" His voice wasn't angry - it was something worse: hurt. "You've been a ghost."
Molly exhaled. "Things are just stressful."
"Bullshit." He stepped closer. "You flinch when I kiss you. You barely look at me. And when you do - "
He stopped himself.
"What?" Molly asked, chest tight.
"You look like you're somewhere else. With someone else."
The air between them thickened.
"I stopped it," she said quickly, automatically.
Adam's jaw flexed. "Then why do you still look at Jessica like she's your gravity?"
Silence.
Like a thunderclap between them.
Molly didn't answer.
Couldn't.
Adam's voice dropped, shaking. "Is there something going on?"
"I don't know," she whispered.
His laugh was hollow. "That's not a 'no.'"
Jessica was in the library during free period, books spread around her like a war zone.
She didn't even hear the footsteps until Ben dropped into the chair across from her.
Ben. Molly's best friend since freshman year. Varsity basketball. Always smiling. Always watching.
He didn't look like he was here to flirt.
"You like her, don't you?" he asked.
Jessica raised a brow. "You'll have to be more specific."
"Molly."
Jessica's fingers froze on the page.
Ben leaned in. "You think she hasn't told us things? Little things? Late night calls. Weird moods. Vanishing after practice with no explanation."
Jessica played it cool. "Maybe she just doesn't want to date a jock."
Ben smirked. "Or maybe she's already falling for someone she can't have."
Jessica held his gaze. "Is this some kind of warning?"
"It's a promise," he said. "She's not built for your kind of chaos."
Jessica leaned forward. "You don't know anything about me."
"I know you're fire," Ben said. "And Molly's been playing with matches."
After school, Molly stared at herself in her bathroom mirror.
Mascara perfect. Lip gloss cherry red. Skin flawless.
And she hated what she saw.
Because no matter how good she looked Jessica still lived under her skin like a splinter.
She pulled out her phone. Opened Instagram.
There was a new post from Jessica.
Nothing wild - just a mirror pic in her bookstore apron, reading glasses on, oversized sleeves falling off one shoulder.
But the caption?
"Messy hair. Full shelf. Try me."
The comments were flooded - mostly fire emojis and heart eyes.
But the top comment?
From Molly.
"Bet you're as distracting as you look."
Posted. Instantly.
And then - regret. Panic. Desire. All tangled together like barbed wire.
Because she wanted her.
God, she wanted her.
And if she didn't stop… everything was going to come crashing down.