Worlds and Cocoons

*Can't Forget You, by My Darkest Days*

The rest of the car ride was silent as both Scott and I were buried in our own little worlds of pain and misery.

All I kept thinking about was how much I couldn't wait to get back and cry on Molly's shoulder. I didn't think a good cry and a pint of ice cream would help anything. But if there was something that would, Molly would know about it.

The moment we pulled into the driveway, Willimina, Molly's mother, came racing out with tears streaming down her face waving something around in her hand. My heart sank into my gut, and trepidation rushed through me. Something was definitely wrong.

Scott leaped out of the car and raced towards her in a flash.

"Molly! What happened to Molly?" he asked almost intuitively.

"Sh-sh-she ran away!" Willimina wailed as she collapsed into his arms, sobbing hysterically.

I rushed out of the car to help. I was in shock and wasn't sure I heard them correctly. Molly was gone? Impossible!

Willimina handed the note she had been waving to me.

-Mom,

I know you won't understand why I did this, and I'm sorry. Please know that I had to. It's time I learned to stand on my own two feet and take care of my own affairs. I'm going to be fine. I'm smart, and I'm tough, and I'll be able to handle whatever life brings my way. I love you all. Please tell Scott thank you for giving me the push I needed to be true to myself. I love you all.

Molly

P.S. Please take care of Becca. -

I wanted to feel something, anything, as I read Molly's goodbye to her family. But I felt numb instead. Absolutely numb from head to toe, as if someone had drained all of my blood out of my body. How could Molly do this? Especially right now. She knew what was happening to me and everything that was going on. How could she abandon me now?

My phone chimed in my purse, and I fumbled with the zipper in my rush to get it out. For the first time in forever, I hoped that it was someone other than Noah.

"Molly?! I answered anxiously. "Molly! Where the hell are you?"

"Yes, it's me, Becca," Molly's voice came through the phone.

"Is that Molly?!"

"Where is she?"

"Tell her to come home now!"

A chorus of worried and furious remarks came from behind me as I tried desperately to hear her.

"I won't tell you where I am because you will come and get me. I need to prove to everyone I'm not just a useless, spoiled brat. I can do something other than spend my family's money," Molly insisted, her voice thick as if she was trying not to cry.

"Molly! You don't have to run away to prove that. Please, come home! Please, I need you! We all need you to come home!" I pleaded with her. "I-I can't get through this without you."

"Yes, you can. You are stronger than you think. The strongest of us all. You are brave, smart, and strong. You can survive this. I'm so sorry, but I can't go home. This is something that I have to do, and I-"

A voice came over the intercom announcing a flight number. But I could only make out part of the numbers.

"I have to go, Becca. I promise this is not goodbye. Just a see-you-later, okay? I love you, and I believe in you. I would never do this if it wasn't for someone much more important than even myself. I love you, and please, forgive me... and trust me."

"Molly, no!"

"I love you," she repeated, her voice fading as she hung up the phone.

"Molly!" I screamed uselessly into the silent phone.

I tried calling her back immediately, but she had already turned her phone off. With a scream of fury, I threw the phone to the ground, watching it shatter with morbid satisfaction.

My knees gave out, and I hit the graveled driveway. I felt the jarring pain of the rocks. But it was nothing compared to the deep, abiding pain of my world crashing and burning around me.

"Becca! Becca!" Scott shouted as he knelt in front of me.

Emotionlessly, I looked up at him.

"Where is she?!" he demanded with a mixture of fury and desperation.

"Gone..." I croaked.

"Where?! Where, Becca?! Where did she go?!"

I shook my head as the word GONE kept tumbling around in my numb brain.

Everything and everyone I'd loved was gone.

I heard Scott and Willimina talking, but I couldn't make out their words. Suddenly, I was lifted into Scott's arms and being carried. When he opened the door, the house was bursting with shouting and commotion, but none of it touched me as I was whisked up the stairs.

Scott gently laid me on the bed and wrapped the covers around me until I was swathed in a cocoon of stuffing and soft fabric.

He handed me a stuffed bear that I absent-mindedly took and squeezed close to my aching chest.

I heard the door shut, cutting out the voices from downstairs, then the bed dipped as Scott sat next to me. Vaguely I felt him slowly stroking my arm, but I was so deep in my agony that I couldn't come out enough to say anything.

I had no idea how long I laid there staring off into space, catatonic and unresponsive.

But Scott never left.

As the world slowly returned to my melted brain, I looked up at Scott. His deep blue eyes were a million miles away as he stared at the bear that I still clutched. I glanced down and immediately recognized Mr. Scruffkins, Molly's childhood best friend. There was not a single photo between the ages of two and ten that did not have the bear in it. She had loved that bear so much, rarely left it behind when she was young.

The bear was patched, sewn, and missing its bow. All proof of how much Molly had loved that thing.

Molly had even brought it to the first day of high school AND college. Secretly, of course, hidden in her locker or backpack.

The fact that she had left it behind now was all the proof we needed to know that she had really left us all behind.

That was when the tears came.

Scott stayed with me that night as I cried until exhaustion took me, and I was unable to stay awake any longer. But when I woke, he was there then too. Staring out the window, I knew he wanted to be anywhere but here. I didn't have to know the whole truth to see his heart was shattering as well.

I didn't leave my cocoon that he had built for me, but I was finally able to speak.

"Isn't there somewhere you need to be?" I croaked out through a raw throat.

He turned away from the window and gave me a weak smile that didn't touch his eyes.

"I think you've had enough people leave you. I won't be one of them," he responded.

I didn't say anything back because my voice had died. But I was so grateful to Scott. I reached my hand out of my cocoon, and he easily caught it. We drew strength from one another, and the sense of loneliness eased slightly.

I had never been close to Scott, seeing him as only my best friend's stepbrother. But at that moment, we were kin.

Family.