Molly got dressed after her brief shower, feeling like a new person. When she glanced in the mirror as she brushed her hair, she found she was smiling without meaning to. She looked down at her body, which had many unladylike marks on it, but Liam somehow still found her attractive. A large bruise on her bicep from a couple days ago yelled at her, so she yanked the thin dark purple robe from the hook on the door and pulled it over her shoulders.
When she emerged from the bathroom that joined her room to Kyle’s, she did not expect to find her bed occupied by Gina and two of her lackeys, Steph and Kitty. Gina was sprawled out on her stomach atop the covers, like she was waiting for salacious girl talk at a slumber party to begin. Molly had never been invited to a slumber party, so she knew the pretense was false.
“Hey, Molly. So, you and Liam, huh? Who knew?” She let out a fake laugh that made Molly wince. She twirled a lock of her hair around her finger, sizing up the threat Molly presented. “So, what’s he like in the sack?”
“I have it on good authority he’s packing eight inches,” Kitty claimed.
Molly grimaced, chagrinned that this was what girl talk was to Gina. She’d had higher hopes that women talked about less scandalous things when they got together. “What? I wouldn’t know anything about that. We only just started talking tonight. What are you doing in my room?”
Gina tossed her high ponytail over her shoulder and laughed coldly. “Well, that’s not what Liam was saying downstairs. Came down grinning like a teenager. He knows exactly how you like it, that’s for sure.”
Shrinking inside herself, Molly’s voice quieted. “He was talking about what we did up here? That was meant to be private.”
Gina grinned like the evil cat she was. “Oh, that’s just precious. You actually think you’re special, that you two have some sort of love connection.” She giggled to her friends, who sniggered back like the serpents they were. “That’s too cute!” She stood off the bed and walked steadily toward Molly, backing her up against the wall. She used the three inches she had on Molly to physically intimidate her. Her hazel eyes flashed with sudden malice, all feigned playfulness gone. “You’ve had your turn on the merry-go-round. Now it’s time to step aside. Let the big girls play for a while.” When Molly moved half a step away from the wall, Gina slammed her back into it. “Stay out of my way, or I’ll mess you up.”
“Don’t touch me,” Molly warned. Don’t hit her. You hate being hit. It’s never right to hit someone.
Gina laughed heartlessly as her friends got off the bed and stood at her sides, boxing Molly in. Kitty and Steph looked like makeuped henchmen with their sneers.
Molly gulped. You’re not a twelve-year-old in high school anymore. You can do this.
Kitty made the first move, pushing Molly into Steph, who caught her and held her still while Gina delivered a vicious slap across the face. Molly’s heart raced as fear and rage bubbled up inside of her. It was not the first time she had been smacked around, but she did not care for the three-on-one odds. The girls had far more cruelty in a single slap than she possessed in her whole body.
When Gina wound up for another blow, Molly decided she did not want the one unmarked part of her body to be abused. She took a chance and put her full weight on her sore ankle, using her good foot to stomp down hard on Steph’s instep. Molly popped her backside out and used the leverage her short body provided to fling Steph over her shoulder down on the floor in the middle of the brawl. It was part of her self-defense class she’d taken years ago, but never had the courage to put into practice.
Molly said nothing. Gina was the one with the trash talk that was currently failing her. Kitty lunged at Molly. “That was the wrong move, you little bitch!” Kitty grabbed her by the throat and squeezed hard, her acrylic nails digging into Molly’s flesh.
Molly managed to extract herself and stumbled back, tripping and falling to the floor. Her screaming ankle was silenced when she came down and hit her head hard on the corner of her dresser.
The room spun, coloring her surroundings in various shades of Gina and her henchmen with their lipsticked sneers. Molly wondered for a moment if having her first kiss had been worth getting beaten up for. She held onto the image of Liam and counted it as one shining moment in a sea of abuse. She wanted to cry out, but once again words failed her as the world went dark.