A Few Little Scars

by Casey McMillin

  "Is that what you want to do?" he asked. "Be one of those stylists that do hair and makeup for shows? Or do you want to work in a salon?"

  "Both," she said. "I definitely want to work in a salon because I think I'm really gonna love color, and don't want to give that up just to work on sets or whatever—but I had a lot of fun tonight, so I hope I can do both."

  "My dad's got a girl who's done his hair and makeup for forever. She works for several of the bigger stars. I see her backstage at just about every big show. Her name's Ruby. I could probably introduce you if you want."

  Molly considered that for a second. They were just about at the spot where her car was parked and she pressed the button on her keychain to unlock her doors.

  "That's awesome," she said. "I'm sure Jason and Cam have some names they could pass along too." Molly wasn't gonna refuse a leg-up. She was planning on doing whatever it took to succeed and was ready and willing to take names and make connections. She opened the driver's door and threw her bag into the passenger's seat before looking back at Nick.

  "My brother is on track to come home in time for Christmas," she said.

  "Does that mean you'll be moving soon?"

  "Hopefully," she said. "I'm telling you that because I'll probably be calling you for that girl's number when I get here and get in school."

  Nick smiled. "I hope that's not all you'll be calling me for," he said.

  Molly smiled at his joke and reached up to put a quick kiss on his cheek before climbing into her car. "Thanks again," she said, looking up at him.

  Nick hesitated like he was going to say something but then changed his mind. "You're awesome, Molly," he said. He put a hand into her car and she gave it a casual high-five before he closed the door.

  She started the car and drove off, watching in the mirror as he walked back to his apartment building. Molly went straight to Jason's. She didn't know whether or not Hannah and Jason were there yet, but she knew they were staying the night out there and didn't feel like being alone.

  Molly let the memories of the evening's events swirl around in her mind as she tried to make sense of all her emotions. The CMAs, then breaking up with Zeke and sleeping with Nick all in the same night—Molly was glad the drive out to Jason's took a while so she could space out and begin to process everything. She thought perhaps she should be more affected, but felt the oddest sense of numbness. Molly thought about Zeke, and Nick, and how it all went down the whole way to Brentwood, and never once did she regret what she'd done.

  It had been worth it to have Nick for one night.

  She was smiling at that thought as she pulled into Jason's driveway. She blinked at the car she saw parked there. It was a Toyota truck with a camper top and a smattering of bumper stickers. Zeke. Molly felt so disoriented that she didn't even take a second to think about what she was doing. She just parked her car, got out of it, and marched right up to Zeke's truck.

  Chapter 14

  "What are you doing?" she asked as Zeke opened the door of his truck and started to step out.

  He reached out to grab her wrist and pull her into his arms, and Molly hugged him a bit stiffly as she took a step back. It was extremely awkward for her. She still had the smell of Nick on her, which made her feel a lot like she was dreaming.

  "I figured you'd be staying here," he said. He leaned on the side of his truck and crossed his arms. He really was a cute guy, but Molly had just been daydreaming about Nick a few seconds before, and she couldn't, with a clear conscious, entertain thoughts of liking Zeke again just because he was there standing in front of her.

  "How long have you been waiting out here?" she asked. It was almost 1AM, and not the warmest of evenings.

  "Just like twenty minutes or so. It doesn't matter. Is there somewhere we could go to talk and not freeze our asses off?"

  Molly looked at the gigantic house—the one she had a key to in her purse—then she looked back at Zeke. "I guess we could go inside for a minute. But I'm not sure what there is to say really."

  "I don't want to fuckin' break up. That's what there is to say." He smiled, grabbed her, and started walking as he pulled her toward the door. It was cold, and they were both ready to get inside.

  Molly dug in her bag to get Hannah's keys, and went to work unlocking the door. Jason had a complicated lock that made her key in a code after using the key. Zeke waited patiently then followed her inside where she turned on a few lights. She wasn't really in the mood to beat around the bush, so she put down her things and crossed to the couch. She patted the seat next to her, indicating that he should go over there. Zeke sat on the edge of the couch and ran a hand through his hair before he turned to face her.

  "I think we should stay together," he said. "You're moving here soon. Come on, it'll be great once you live here."

  Molly took a deep breath. She didn't know where to begin. "Zeke, I don't know how to say this, but tonight, I, uh… There was this guy—"

  He stopped her with a hand in the air. "I don't even want to know, Molly."

  "Well that's sort of the whole point of why I had to—"

  "I don’t want to know about anything," he said, his hands were raised, begging her to say no more. "I'm willing to start over—like we just met."

  Molly was silent for a second as she thought about the possibility of moving forward with Zeke now that she'd had her night with Nick. Hey, if he was willing to forgive her and start fresh, it might be worth considering. She closed her eyes and let out a little laugh at the freaking outrageousness of the situation.

  "What?" he said. "Why not?" He looked at her. "I'm gonna leave you alone. I know you need to get back in the morning." He smiled sweetly at her. She couldn’t imagine this was the same guy who growled and screamed into the microphone when he was onstage.

  "I just want you to think about what I said." He leaned over and grabbed her hand, bringing it to his lips for a quick kiss. "I think we can still be good together."

  She wanted to hate him for coming there and confusing her like that, but he was just too gosh-darn sweet.

  "I do have to get back early," she said.

  She was scared in the house alone, but she knew it'd be better for everyone if Zeke left. He stood, pulling her up with him. He turned and looked at her with a sincere expression. "I think you should maybe think about staying my girlfriend because we have a big show coming up and it's pretty cool to be the lead singer's girlfriend."

  She laughed. "I think you're more right about that than you might think."

  "Oh, I know I'm right about it," he said, teasing her. "I would totally want to be my girlfriend if I were a girl."

  "You're a pretty great guy," she said sweetly.

  That made him lean in for a kiss, which she returned because she thought it was going to be a guarded peck and nothing more. He kissed her on the lips, letting his mouth linger there for several seconds before Molly realized he wasn't going to pull back and did it herself. He stepped in front of her and reached out for her face, pulling her toward him to put a kiss on her lips. He deepened it quickly, slipping his tongue into her mouth before she knew what was happening. Molly was in such a confused, delirious state of mind that for a second, she went along with it. She pulled back the second she realized she was acting like a crazy person.

  "Zeke, I can't do this right now," she said.

  He looked slightly injured, but recovered quickly. "I know. I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry." He squeezed her hand and smiled a little before taking off toward the door. "Call me," he said from over his shoulder.

  Molly collapsed onto the couch as soon as she saw his truck leave the driveway. "What the hell?" she asked out loud.

  She sat there in complete silence. She would have felt better with a living thing in the house and wished Jason had a dog—or at least a fish for her to talk to and tell all her woes. Nothing could confuse a girl's brain like a hot guy, and Molly was dealing with Mr. Hot and Mr. Hotter at the same time. She covered her eyes with her ha
nds thinking about Zeke and Nick and all the things that went along with both of them.

  In reality, there was nothing stopping her from getting back with Zeke and pretending nothing had ever happened with Nick. He seemed to be willing to forgive her, and she wasn't planning on having another encounter with Nick. She just didn't think it was safe to since she could tell she was at risk for developing feelings for him.

  Molly fell asleep on the couch with her clothes on. She had the alarm on her phone set to wake her up at 10AM, which came early. It was Thursday and she told her dad she'd be back in Sparta for the afternoon shift at the store. Hannah and Jason had come in sometime during the night. Molly knew that because there was a bunch of random stuff including several gift bags on the kitchen island that hadn’t been there when she went to bed.

  Molly did her very best not to wake them up, tiptoeing around the kitchen to get a muffin and some juice for the road. She wrote Hannah a note thanking her for everything and telling her she'd be in touch later. She left it on the counter before taking off for Sparta and her hardware store existence.

  ****

  Weeks passed. Before she knew it, it was the middle of December. Molly was suddenly in the throws of the holidays, which was an extremely busy time for her dad's store. They ran an old school hardware store with all sorts of random household and specialty items—stuff that was hard to find elsewhere. Because of this, people drove from all over to do a little Christmas shopping at Fletcher's. The store was crazy-busy, and the days leading up to Christmas always seemed to fly by.

  Molly hadn't been to Nashville since the CMA's. That was six weeks before, and it had taken nearly that long for her to stop reliving that night with Nick. She'd been in touch with Zeke during the past weeks, but had been really honest with him about wanting to take it slow while she sorted some things out. She told him she wouldn't blame him if he wanted to move on. Zeke said he wanted to focus on the band and was happy with the idea of taking things slow, so Molly sort of accidently fell back into some semblance of a relationship with Zeke.

  He had come to Sparta two times in the last few weeks, both times acting like he was fine with just hanging out as friends. She really didn't know why someone like Zeke would take the time to wait on someone who was being so indecisive, but she knew she should probably be flattered.

  It was December 12th, which also happened to be Molly's birthday. It fell on a Thursday, and like most people in the world, she just went to work like it was any other day. The first surprise happened at 11AM when she got a bouquet of flowers delivered. The place was packed, and all the ladies whooped and hollered at Molly for being lucky enough to get such a beautiful bouquet.

  Molly was delightfully embarrassed as she read the card. It said: "Happy birthday to Molly from your very thoughtful boyfriend." Molly knew he was trying to be cute. She smiled and put the note back into the little envelope, refusing to share it with all the onlookers even though they begged.

  "They're for my birthday," was all she said. Normally, she wasn't the type who'd be shy about that sort of thing, but something inside her wasn't altogether settled with the idea of calling Zeke her boyfriend.

  She tucked the envelope into the back pocket of her jeans and went on with her day—until 1PM when her second surprise got there. It was a box brought to her by some courier service that wasn’t UPS or FedEx or anything else she recognized. It was a well-dressed guy with a box. He made sure her name was Molly Fletcher before handing her the mystery package.

  She excused herself, saying she was going to the back for a break. Her dad was curious, but let her do as she wanted. Molly went into the back office and sat the box on the desk in front of her. She stared at it for a few seconds before opening it. There was a ribbon around it that looked expensive by itself, and she untied it carefully setting the ribbon to the side as she began opening the white paper wrapping.

  The box held a black leather pouch that was bigger than an iPad, but smaller than a laptop. There was a zipper that ran along three edges, and she knew if she'd unzip it, the leather pouch would open up like a book. She did just that. She ran the heavy zipper head along the sides of the pouch, and let it fall open in her hands. She stared down at the contents.

  It didn't make sense.

  There was about—she did some quick estimating and addition—about three or four thousand dollars worth of equipment in there. She had done her research on hair cutting shears and knew what she was staring at. There were four pairs of shears and two razors tucked neatly into the leather pockets on each side of the case.

  Molly took out one of the pairs of shears and tested the weight of it in her hand. The equipment in that case was way too good for her at that point, and she knew it. She was staring at a thousand dollar pair of scissors, and laughed a little at herself for not even knowing how to hold them properly.

  She saw a small piece of paper tucked into one of the pockets, and she returned the shears to their spot so she could see what the paper said. She unfolded it and read the words.

  "Hey Molly, hope this finds you well. This is technically your gift for hanging out with me on my million dollar day. I should have gotten it to you much sooner, but I heard you had a birthday coming up, and wanted to kill two birds. Every artist needs good tools, and they tell me these are the best. Thanks again for helping me celebrate. I remember that night fondly and look forward to repeating it."

  The note was signed with a capital N but nothing else.

  Molly read it a few times, unable to grasp that Nick would have done something like that after she heard nothing at all from him for the past six weeks. She didn't really have time to think about the logistics of her non-existent relationship with Nick. She was too busy being totally pumped about the tools! It was by a mile the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her and she didn't really care if they'd come out of left field, or where they came from. They were hers.

  She stared down at the beautiful collection of shears thinking how peculiar it was that they ended up in her hands. The handwritten note grabbed her attention, and she opened it and read it again, laughing when she read the part about wanting to repeat the night at his apartment.

  She was smiling like a love-struck teenager at the case and its contents when her dad opened the office door. Molly was so startled that she almost tossed the package from her hands. Maybe it was because they were so expensive, but in that instant, she felt like she should hide the gift from her dad.

  "Dad, hey, what are you doing back here? Do you need me up front? I thought you knew I was taking a break." She set the package she was holding on the desk, trying her best to keep her dad's attention focused on her face.

  "What'd you get?" he asked. She could tell by his focused expression that she wouldn't be able to brush him off without telling him some version of the truth.

  "It's scissors," she said nonchalantly.

  He stared down at the leather pouch.

  "Who sent em?"

  "Hannah and some friends from Nashville." Molly cursed herself inwardly for being such a terrible liar. Why couldn't she have just lied outright and said Hannah? But no, she had to go and confuse it by adding a hint of the truth.

  "Why scissors?" her dad asked, and she was relieved that the question of who sent it was apparently off the table. She wasn't hurt that her dad had no idea why anyone would be giving her scissors. She was completely obsessed with hair and becoming the best at it, but she knew her dad was oblivious to her goals—and even if he wasn't, he would never encourage any plans that didn't have to do with the hardware store.

  "They're for cutting hair, Dad," she said.

  He looked down at her and then the package like he might say more, but just grunted a little as he turned for the door. It was a grunt that Molly understood to be a sound of approval—one that maybe said he was glad her friends had thought of her on her birthday.

  Chapter 15

  Molly got her third surprise that evening when she got home from work. She ex
pected a quiet evening since she was planning on going out with a few friends for her birthday that coming weekend. Hannah was even driving to Sparta to hang out and celebrate with her and a few of their other friends.

  It was Molly's twenty-first birthday, and they probably should have all planned to go to Nashville to party with Hannah instead of vice-versa, but plans were already made to stay in Sparta. Anyway, that was still a few days away. For the evening of her actual birthday, she was staying at home at her parent's house. Yes, she still lived with her mom and dad—in the same pink room she grew up in. She didn't see any reason to spend tons of money on moving out when she was saving to move to Nashville. Her father paid her well, and she'd been saving up since she was seventeen.

  Molly's parents were quiet. Her mom, Tori, made handmade brooms and baskets, which they sold at her dad's store. She did it as a hobby at first, but now worked at it steadily and sold as many as she could make. Molly tried her hand at broom making and basket weaving, and thought they were both okay, but never got into it like her mom. Because of that, her creations weren't quite up to the standards of the ones her mom turned out, and were never sold at the store. Molly had made at least fifty of them over the years, but they always gave hers away to friends or family as gifts. Hannah actually had one of Molly's slightly crooked brooms propped against the fridge in her Belmont apartment; Molly had just seen it the last time she was there.

  Her mom was weaving through the straw bottom of a broom and her dad was watching some sports show that had football highlights flashing on the screen when the doorbell rang. Molly was staring down at her phone, watching a YouTube video from a recent hair show in Miami.

  "Answer that, Molly," her dad said.

  She glanced up at him when he spoke. It wasn't unheard of for him to tell her to get the door. The odd part of the whole statement was the huge grin that was plastered on his face. The thing was gigantic.

  She stared at her dad for a second before looking at her mom. "What's wrong with him?" she asked. Tori wore that same smile, and suddenly Molly felt like there might be a singing clown on the other side of that door. "What's going on?" she asked, crossing to the middle of the living room.