Free Out of the Blue by Opal Mellon Page B

in turmoil. Still twisting inside. She couldn’t even say it was completely pleasant. Embarrassing. Intimate. Wrong, but right in a way. She wasn’t a romantic person, but something happened when they had locked for that moment.
    He’d been gentle, like she’d always known he’d be. She’d never thought of it consciously, but in that way where her mind pictured what it would be like to kiss someone. Justin’s mouth and body just seemed to draw her attention. Maybe it was inevitable when a man watched out for you. When you were a girl like her who no one paid attention to.
    “I wonder if the stalker will be back at my place,” she said quietly to Justin as they reached his car.
    “If he is, I’ll stay and help.” He did up his seat belt and waited for her to do hers before pulling out.
    “Thank you.” She looked out the window as they drove. For some reason she dreaded the moment they would pull up. Stalker or not, she would be alone again, in a dark house, no one to talk to or look at. The world seemed less lonely with Justin. Letting him back into her life was letting sunshine back into her life. Only the sun could leave again and getting used to that warmth was just asking to be hurt.
    “Justin,” she said. “If we are going to keep being friends, I need to know why you left.” She folded her hands in her lap. “The real reason.”
    He kept his eyes on the road, but his jaw clenched. But he didn’t say no. Molly thought maybe he wanted to tell her more than he let on.
    “Let’s get you home first,” he said.
    When they pulled up, Molly took off her seat belt and looked over. “Will you come in?”
    “I still don’t know if it’s a good idea.”
    “I don’t want to be alone,” she said. “And I know you won’t do anything. I won’t do anything either.”
    He relaxed slightly, his shoulders rounding down from where they’d been hunched. She didn’t know what to think when he acted vulnerable like this. He liked to be the strong one, but it was time to show him that sometimes she could be the strong one.
    “I can take it Justin. You’ve been good to me. Share your burden with me.”
    “You’re a good friend Molly.” He leaned against her unexpectedly. “I don’t deserve it.”
    She cocked her head. It was all she could do. “Come inside. I promise not to take advantage of you.”
    “In that case …” he said. He laughed, and opened his door.
     
    Justin felt distinctly different this time entering Molly’s house. He’d been invited, and wasn’t barging in. There wasn’t an idiot with his hands on her, and Molly was asking him to tell her his biggest secret.
    As he considered what she wanted, a hideous possibility entered his mind. Could Molly’s stalker be related to his own? Please no. But once the thought was there he couldn’t seem to remove it.
    She had two brown microsuede couches. He picked the smaller one, hoping she’d sit on the other. The room was probably the most boring room he’d ever been in, other than his bedroom. Brown carpet. White walls. Brown couches. A lot of brown. But when he looked closer he could see more to the room, just like Molly herself. Under the boring black TV stand were a bunch of colorful DVDs covered in cartoon characters. Were these the movie versions of the comics she’d been so obsessed with at one point? He crept over to look at the DVDs.
    He pulled a few out and turned them over. All of the characters looked feminine. And was that a girl or a boy? Why did that girl not have breasts? Why did that girl have short hair and a baseball hat?
    “You look confused,” Molly said.
    “Are these guys or girls?”
    “Both. I thought you of all people would understand.” Molly crouched next to him and pulled a DVD from his hands. She pointed to each character. “Boy, girl, boy, boy, boy.”
    Justin squinted at the case. “Why would I understand that?”
    “Just that both men and women can be beautiful. There are different types of