In Your Room (11 page)

She printed it out and looked at the instructions. He was sending her up a mountain. On a bike. There was no way she could do it. It had taken her a week to feel comfortable doing the same flat, easy route back and forth to the store every day. She wasn’t ready for anything more challenging.

She got up and put on her bathrobe and went down for breakfast. Maybe Charlie was right about one thing, though—maybe she did need a day off. Maybe it was time that she at least made an effort with her mom and Ron instead of trying to avoid them.

She heard their voices downstairs and then the front door open.

“Mom! Wait!” Molly called out. “I’ll come with you!”

But she heard the door close again before she could get all the words out.

She ran downstairs and peeked through the peephole, where she saw her mom walking down the front path, carrying a picnic basket, a cooler, and some beach towels. She had forgotten they were going to some lake for the day and wouldn’t be back until dinnertime. They had invited her to join them but, like always, she had turned them down, claiming she had to work.

She could have followed them out and gotten them to wait for her, but she just stood there watching. Laura tripped over a pebble, dropping everything, when suddenly Ron entered the distorted round picture of the peephole to catch her amid the scattered blueberries, apples, and turkey sandwiches that seemed to spill out in slow motion. Laura let out a

She went back up to her room and plopped back down on the bed. A few minutes later she heard the distinctive sound of an incoming instant message. Since she wasn’t expecting to hear from Charlie until later, it was likely Celeste. They had been in touch, but Molly felt a growing distance between them and had decided against telling her anything about Charlie. Celeste clearly didn’t feel the need to share everything with Molly either, like the fact that she’d invited him—a so-called “dork”—to a party.

It turned out the IM wasn’t from Celeste. It was from Rina. Finally! Molly had e-mailed her a week ago but hadn’t heard anything back until now. Molly laughed. Did e-mail travel slower internationally?

DoctoRina:
please tell me you’re there and that you didn’t just leave your laptop open…

Mollypop:
reeeen!! i’m here, i’m here. you have no idea how happy i am to hear from you. where are you???

DoctoRina:
in delhi. we just got here this afternoon. we were visiting my great-great-aunt or something in this small town and had no internet access…ugh…anyway, here i am. i just got your e-mail. so…tell me more about charlie!

Mollypop:
well, he’s expecting me to go mountain biking today up this trail he told me about, but there’s no way i’m gonna do it.

DoctoRina:
why not?? that sounds like so much fun.

Mollypop:
i know you’re in the adventurous spirit, being in india and all, but don’t forget who you’re talking to.

DoctoRina:
you even said yourself in your e-mail how great it’s been riding his bike.

Mollypop:
tell me more about you. how was the wedding?

DoctoRina:
amazing. my cousin was so incredibly beautiful. i still have the henna all over my hands and feet. my mom said she’s going to teach me how to do it, so you’ll be my first victim when we get back.

Mollypop:
i’m so glad you’re having such a great time. take lots of pictures for me.

DoctoRina:
i will. oh—they have the most amazing fabric stores here. i’ve already picked out a special treat for you.

Mollypop:
you’re so sweet, reen. you always think of me.

DoctoRina:
oops. i think i hear my dad coming down the hall. it’s four in the morning and he’ll kill me if he sees i’m still up. gotta go…love you!!!!

Molly was so happy to hear from Rina. She was a reminder that she wasn’t so alone, that there were people out there who understood her, even if they were thousands of miles away.

She got up and threw off her robe. Rina would be mortified if she stayed in all day and moped. As she was getting dressed, she noticed her bulging suitcase at the back of the room. She walked over and opened it up, revealing the pile of Charlie’s clothes she had dumped there almost three weeks before. She reached in and pulled out something yellow peeking out from underneath the pile. It was an old T-shirt with C
OLORADO
written
across the front in faded navy blue letters. She held it up to her nose and breathed in, wondering if that was what Charlie smelled like.

She slipped it on over her tank top, gathered her things, and set out on her ride.

Molly followed the directions a few miles down Boulder Canyon Boulevard and then made a few quick rights until she was at the entrance to the Betasso Canyon loop. She had already ridden much longer than she anticipated just
getting
there. She contemplated turning around, but she wasn’t tired, and all that was waiting for her was an empty house. A few riders had just set out ahead of her, so if anything went wrong, she at least wouldn’t be stranded alone.

After experimenting with the gears, she settled into a slow, comfortable rhythm and relaxed enough to look up from the ground. She had been so focused on avoiding overturned rocks that she hadn’t noticed that the trail had leveled out into a meadow of grass on either side of her.

She suddenly remembered the song Charlie had sent and took out her iPod and pressed play. The rhythmic beat of The Arcade Fire’s “No Cars Go” built in intensity as she stared out at the narrow path that gradually ascended as far as she could see.

Okay, this isn’t so bad
, she thought, clipping her feet back into the pedals.
I can do this.

She cycled across the field until it narrowed and hugged the side of the mountain, then widened again, taking her through various pockets of dense forest.

The farther she went, the more she could feel every muscle in her body tighten and snap. She had no idea where her energy was coming from. As much as her brain kept telling her to turn around, her heart compelled her forward. With each steep turn and difficult ascent, she pretended Charlie
was right behind her, encouraging her, urging her to prove what she was really made of.

When the song ended, she hit repeat and played it over until the trail looped back to where she’d begun.

Molly rode back home with the song still playing. As soon as she got to the house she ran upstairs and pulled her notebook out of her laptop bag. She had shoved it in with the internship folder at the last second. She plugged her iPod into the stereo. With no one home she could play it as loud as she wanted. She listened to Charlie’s song again and started to draw.

Charlie read Molly’s e-mail again. For a supposedly private person, she was refreshingly open and honest. He could practically feel her energy bouncing off the screen. It was a sensation he knew well and often experienced after riding the Boulder trails. The ability to let go like that, he believed, to really give yourself over to the ride, had nothing to do with being a good athlete. It was all about the capacity to focus, to know how to shut out the rest of
the world except for your immediate surroundings. Somehow, he knew Molly could do that.

He thought back to his first night and how everything in the room had blended together in an indistinguishable wash of pastels. All he could think about then was how he didn’t want to be there. Now it was the only place he wanted to be.

He stood in front of the corkboard and scanned it for pictures of Molly. He thought he’d spotted them all, but every now and then a new one seemed to appear. This time a Polaroid of her asleep on a beach next to Celeste revealed itself. Initially only her black hair was visible, like she had deliberately covered it with another picture so that she’d be obscured.

She was even more mysterious with her eyes closed, like she was aware of something that no one else could see.

It made him want to get closer, to be able to touch her.

He examined the series of sketches taped to the wall behind the sewing machine. Now that he was paying close attention, he realized that they were all drawings of the same dress but at different stages. They looked like they’d been drawn by the confident hand of someone who’d done it thousands of time before.

Charlie opened the closet and ran his hand along the row of dresses, neatly arranged by color, hanging from the rack. Which ones had Molly made? He pulled out a bright green silk dress that wrapped around the middle with a bow. He took it off the rack and held it out into the light, comparing it to the sketches, discovering that it was the same dress. Just to make sure, he looked at the collar and read the tag. It read M
OLLY
H
ILL
.

“What are you doing?”

Charlie turned around and saw Mia standing there waiting for an answer. He was still holding the green dress. “What are
you
doing in my room?”

“Charlie’s trying on a dress!” she hollered at the top of her lungs, and raced out before Charlie could catch her.

“Great,” he yelled back. “Announce it to the neighborhood.”

• • •

They heard the fireworks from the house and could see them the second they turned onto Beverly. Charlie had told his moms about them, and they decided it would be a fun family outing. The girls ran ahead in excitement while Charlie walked along with Sally and Lisa.

“I’m so glad you suggested this,” Sally said.

“Me too.” They walked along in companionable silence. It had been a while since he had been alone with them.

“We hardly see you,” Sally added, tousling his hair. “I hope that means you’ve been having a good time.”

“It’s been okay, actually,” Charlie admitted.

“It looks like you and Celeste have been getting along,” Lisa observed. This was her not-so-subtle way of probing for information.

“There’s nothing going on, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“I wasn’t implying anything,” she said, smirking.

“That’s right, she
wasn’t.
” Sally threw a warning glance Lisa’s way.

If Lisa had it her way, he would tell her
everything
, especially about his love life. He often did, but this time he didn’t know how to explain that the main thing holding him back from Celeste was Molly. How could his mother understand something like that when it barely made sense to him?

• • •

They caught up to Heather and Mia at the corner directly across from the club, where a handful of other families had set up chairs and coolers. All
you could see was the high brick wall until the fireworks shot up hundreds of feet into the air.

Farther down the sidewalk Charlie noticed Celeste sitting on the curb. She didn’t turn to talk to anyone and stared up at the exploding sky. His first instinct was to quickly look the other way, to avoid any further questions from Lisa, but when he glanced back, he noticed that she was alone. She seemed different when she thought no one was looking, not so guarded or haughty. If anything, she seemed lonely.

“I’ll be right back.” He pushed through the thickening crowd. “Hey! Celeste!”

“Oh, hi,” she said, flustered. “I’m meeting some people, but I must have lost them,” she explained, standing up. “Pretty lame display, huh?”

The sky erupted into a flash of purple, green, and orange. There was nothing lame about it. “I think it’s kind of beautiful,” he said.

She turned and stared at Charlie. “Let’s crash the party at the golf club,” she finally said.

He looked back toward his parents and sisters in the crowd, then at Celeste. The easy thing, the obvious thing, would be to go with her. “They’re expecting me,” he finally said, pointing out his family. “Come join us?”

“Pass,” she said, walking away in the other direction. “I have to find my friends anyway.”

“I was right.”

“About what?” Molly asked, coming over to the desk where Penelope was sorting through the mail.

“That you needed a day off.” She peered at Molly over her reading glasses. “It’s like you’re a different person.”