All the Little Things by Sarah Lawton (the best books to read txt) 📕

I see lots from Serena. Molly wasn’t telling me the truth about why the others aren’t coming tonight. Serena’s been speaking to Matt. She knows what happened and she is not happy about it. That’s why her and Tilly aren’t here. This is the end of everything now. She’s destroyed us, ruined us. Another black mark for Molly, who has clearly been getting away with things for far too long. I hear the flush and I push the phone away, my hand shaking. She comes back with wine and I take a deep breath; I need to calm down and stay in control.

‘Are we allowed to have this?’ I ask her, knowing that Abi can be a bit funny about us drinking. My mum is desperate to be a relaxed, uber-cool mum, but Abi has no such qualms, despite the buggering-off-all-the-time tendencies.

‘Who gives a fuck?’ is her succinct reply. ‘They’re out ’til after midnight as they’ve gone off to do some restaurant in Bath for the stupid blog.’ She pours us large glasses of wine, the liquid glugging out of the bottle. I look at her face, notice that she looks flushed, and a bit smudged. I think she has been crying. I don’t feel sympathy. This is all her own stupid fault.

I sip the wine. It isn’t the same as the one I drank with Alex our first night. I think about our kissing on the sofa and what we ended up doing this afternoon that was even better. When I look up, Molly’s eyes are boring into me again.

‘You’re screwing him, aren’t you?’ she says.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Liar, liar, pants on fire. You’re screwing Newboy. There’s something wrong with him, you know. He asked me all sorts of weird things about you.’

‘Like what?’

‘Like where you’re from, who your dad is, if you even know who he is. Why you’re so fucking weird.’

‘I am not weird! And he doesn’t think I’m weird, he gets me!’

‘Clearly there’s something wrong with him then!’

‘What, there’s something wrong with him because he’s not interested in you? Because he wants to know about me, instead?’

She gives me a cool look.

‘No, I just don’t trust him. He’s creepy.’

‘How do you know what he is? Have you been hanging out with him?’

‘No. He’s probably going to get kicked out of the college because he’s never there.’

‘I see him there! You’re just jealous!’ I say, before realising that she has been manipulating me into admitting there is something going on between us.

‘So, is he any good? Big dick? Did you suck him off?’

Hearing her reduce my afternoon into small, dirty phrases is making me even more cross, so I tell her if she doesn’t shut the fuck up then I’m leaving, and that nothing has happened anyway. I know she doesn’t believe me and instead she immediately follows it up with another sucker punch. The Molly one-two.

‘You know I could have him any time I wanted, don’t you?’

‘What?’ I have to close my eyes for a second to keep the hate in.

‘Alex. He doesn’t want you. We practically fucked in the common room yesterday. He was all over me.’

‘Why are you saying this? You’re a liar. You just said you didn’t hang out with him, but now you’re fucking him in the common room?’

Molly shrugs, and sways slightly. Is she drunk again? She is! I wonder how much she has been drinking recently. It’s as if alcohol has taken away the old Molly and replaced her with this new one that I don’t like. That I don’t like at all.

‘Not lying. I thought you would want to know. He’s not trustworthy.’

‘Molly, I really think you should shut up.’ She won’t. She has no idea how angry I am.

‘What are you going to do about him? I think you should dump him. Don’t make me prove he’s just the same as all the others. He wants me as much as they all do. It’s all they want.’

Her eyes are appraising my face as I listen to this. Is this a threat? Is she actually threatening me? Would she actually try this now she knows I am with him? Can I be sure she won’t? Oh, Molly. You stupid girl. I won’t be threatened.

‘I don’t know why you are saying all this, Molly. It’s none of your business.’

‘I thought you might actually be upset for once,’ says Molly, sipping her drink, eyes sliding away.

I remain still but my mind is frantic. Am I supposed to cry? Thinking about what Molly said makes me feel furious so I try to push the thoughts away. I need all of this to stop. How did I end up with such a shit best friend again? I feel like I have been fooled, like she has always been this person underneath, that she’s just fake niceness varnished over a hateful, green-eyed thief. She is jealous of me, of my boyfriend, of my mother. She wants what’s mine. But she is not going to have it.

Molly goes and sits in the front room, flopping down onto the sofa and spilling wine on herself, but she doesn’t notice. I sit and breathe for a minute, trying to calm down. I need to pretend everything is okay while I come up with a plan, so I go and sit down next to her, and I grab her hand to make her think I’m not angry with her. She doesn’t say anything, but I see her relax. We finish watching a film we started weeks ago, when things were still perfect, and drink more wine before going upstairs. I ask to borrow pyjamas and she gives me a scrappy little lace nightie which I’m not sure about. She’s wobbling about all over the place, she must have been drinking all day. Part of me wants to just go home, but then there will be the inevitable inquisition from my mother. And I haven’t decided what I need to do about Molly yet.

‘This is a bit