Eyes Wide Shut

Chapter 9

My phone went off, making that distinct noise notifying me of a text message.

            “Had too mcuh to drimk. Stayng at Joe’s. C U in the morngng.”

            It was barely legible. I kept telling him to turn his auto-correct on for instances like these, but he never listened.

            “Wayne isn’t coming home tonight. He’s been drinking,” I called over to Mollie, who had one towel around her body and using the other one to dry out her hair.

            “Well, I guess we know what that means,” she cheekily joked. 

            I giggled. I knew exactly what it meant- she would just have to sleepover. Anytime the boys were away was an excuse to have a girl’s sleepover. Sometimes we had all the girls over, but on nights like tonight, we just kept it a party for two. And this way we could both just sleep how we liked to – no pants, a big t-shirt and the dogs at our feet.

After we had both showered and had several rounds of coffee and tea, we decided to call it a night. The dogs scattered themselves along the bottom end of the bed as we got settled under the covers. Without hesitation, Mollie snuck her head onto my shoulder. I lifted my arm up and around her so she could nuzzle up to me, nesting her head by my collarbone, just next to my neck. She searched for my hand and once she found it, she gave it a tiny squeeze, almost like it was a message – like a “thank you.” And then we lied there as she played with my fingers.

I could feel her head shift on my shoulder so she was looking at me. I felt a slight press of her lips on my jaw line. I looked down at her as she lowered her head back down.

“What was that for?” I asked as slight smile grew on my face.

“I dunno. Just felt like it.” 

And there it was again. Those thoughts that always crossed my mind whenever I really shouldn’t have been thinking about it. Why was she doing this to me? Playing games with my mind. I didn’t know what this whole thing was. The uncertainty killed me, messed with me – teased me.

“Why are you here, Mollie?” I calmly directed at her.

She rolled onto her side, her head still rest on my shoulder, but now she was staring directly at me.

“What are you talking about?”

“Why are you here?”

 “You’re my best friend, Frank. Why wouldn’t I come over when you call me for help?” She seemed completely puzzled by the question.

She sat herself up a bit into a 45 degree angle, so that her upper body was resting on the single arm that held her upright.

I couldn’t help it from coming out of my mouth. The words no longer remained stuck in my throat. They were being pushed out like word vomit.

“So that’s it then?”

“That’s what?”

She had no idea what I was talking about. She looked at me intently, curious to where I was going with each question.

“You’re just my best friend?”

She hesitated. She had caught on now.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

I swallowed, hoping that would keep the next question from splurging out of my mouth, but it didn’t.

“Then why did you kiss me the other night?”

She slightly cocked her head at the statement, shocked by the confrontation.

“I was drunk, Frankie. What’s going on? Why are all these questions coming up all of a sudden?”

“Forget it,” I let out under my breath, looking away from her.

“No, Frankie. Tell me what’s going on.”

She gained an urgency and sternness to her voice. She glared at me, forcing me to answer her. I snapped my eyes back at her. 

“You tell me, Mollie. We have all these amazing nights together and then you tell me we need to stop whatever we had going on, but then you kiss me the other night? How is that fair?”

She couldn’t muster up anything to say. She just continued to stare at me, speechless.

“You can’t do that to me. Just toy with my emotions like that,” I finished.

“I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t know you felt like that.”

“Yeah, well I do.”

No tears. All I felt was anger. Her eyes even said she was sorry. They began to swell, the water building up, almost like she was about to cry at any second. I immediately felt guilty. I wanted to take it all back.

She laid back down so her back was flat against the bed and took a deep breath. I could tell she was thinking of something to say.

“For the record, I loved every single minute of all those nights.”

She sniffled as she rolled over, turning her back to me.