"What are you thinking about?" she asked a little while later. "D?" She looked up at me with big, trusting eyes. "What are you thinking about? You look like you're miles away."

"About homecoming," I replied, thinking about how I could help her have that amazing senior year she deserved. "I'm gonna take you."

Molly chuckled nervously. "You're w-what?"

"Homecoming. It's next month, and I'm gonna take you " I repeated, feeling excited for the first time in my life about the prospect of attending with a girl that I actually wanted to spend time with. The only girl I wanted to spend time with. "You said it yourself; we'd have gone together if you hadn't left." I wanted to be the one to fix everything for her. I wanted to give her a fucking epic senior year. She deserved nothing less. And yeah, if I could ease the guilt inside of me while doing that, then it was a bonus. I shrugged. "Well, you're back, and we're going."

"No, we're not," Molly laughed, shaking her head. "You're gonna be crowned homecoming king – again – and I have more respect for myself than to be the pity date on your arm."

"Would you quit it with that shit!" I snapped, pissed with her words. "You're not my pity anything. And you're not deformed, dammit. You're my friend, and I, for one, think you're goddamn beautiful!"

"Are you kidding me?" She sprang off my lap so fast, my eyes blurred. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"

"What's the problem?" Confused by her reaction, I slowly stood up, eyes tracking her every move as she paced her living room floor like a tiny, blonde whirlwind. "I offered to take you to a school dance, Molls. The fuck is there to be mad about?"

"You offered to take me?" she repeated, voice laced with hurt. "I'm back now?" Throwing her hands up in the air, she released a furious scream. "I've been back for two freaking years, Daryl!"

"I know!" I held my hands up. "And I told you that I was sorry about that. I'm trying to make it up to you –"

"By offering to take me to homecoming? You erased me, Daryl!" she cried, brown eyes laced with venom and pain. "From your life. From your memory." Her mask of distain and indifference was betrayed by the tremor in her voice. "We were best friends since birth! After everything we've been through… You just went and forgot about me! And don’t think I don’t know what this is, either," she said accusingly. "You being here. You're trying to ease your guilt about what happened at school by…" Stopping short, she exhaled a ragged breath and forcefully blinked away the tears filling her eyes, "hanging around with the town's burn victim – "

"Would you quit it!" I snapped, completely fucking affected by every hurtful word that was spilling from her lips. I loved her and I left her behind me. I moved on. I lived my life and forgot all about the girl that flowed through my veins more potently than blood. Couldn’t she see how fucking sorry I was for forsaking her? "It ain't like that, Molls, and you damn well know it."