Read Out of the Blue for Free Online Page A

against the wall. He pulled one leg up and rested the ankle on his knee, creating a table with his leg.
    “What do you mean?”
    “You’re just one of a kind. Really unique. Not like any other girl I’ve met.”
    “Oh,” she said, looking a bit deflated.
    “That’s a good thing,” he said.
    “You’ve met Nicole.”
    “She’s the exception,” he said, and looked outside. The day was beautiful. Typical sunny, cool day. Trees leaning slightly with shimmering, rustling leaves that danced in the wind and the sunlight. “I was shocked when you hit that girl.”
    “Why?” she said.
    “Because you hit someone,” he said. “Not something I see every day. Why did you do it?”
    “I don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t done that before.”
    “Was it because she grabbed my butt?” He smirked. “Or because she made your life heck growing up? Man, I can see why you’re so odd, if you had to put up with that for longer than five minutes,” he said.
    “Much longer,” Molly said. “But I think she’s worse now. I think I mainly did it because those girls are part of the reason I was so isolated that I was almost molested. And even if I’d forgiven them for that, seeing them do to you what was done to me was too painful to ignore.”
    “So you do remember?” Justin said, glaring at her for a moment.
    She blushed, a red blotch moving all the way up her neck to the bottom of her cheeks, leaving white splotches on her cheekbones. She looked away quickly, nodding.
    “I knew it!” Justin said, jumping up off the bench and punching the air, drawing a few confused looks from onlookers. He didn’t notice as he sat back down and rubbed the tops of his knees and grinned. “Silly Molly.”
    She shrugged and didn’t turn to face him.
    “Molly?” he said. “Look at me Molly.” When she didn’t, he reached over and put a finger under her chin to try and turn her towards him.
    “Stop it,” she said. “I don’t want to look at you. I’m not ready to face you yet.” She stood. “Please don’t follow me,” she said. She turned and walked with her arms folded towards the hallway with the bathrooms.
     
    Molly headed down the hall, only looking up from the teal and purple carpet more suited to the 80’s long enough to see that she was still headed in the general direction of the bathroom. She didn’t look to the side of it, just saw that it said restroom, and went in. She kept her head down, hoping not to see any familiar women there, and headed into a stall. She sat down on the toilet and thought for a moment. It was sad that there really wasn’t anywhere that you could escape people other than a bathroom. That had been her frequent destination at lunchtime during school.
    She’d hide in the stall and think of how grateful she was to not be a monster like Cynthia and her girls, because she was pretty sure that, as much as it hurt, she’d rather be on the receiving end of that pain than the giving end. She’d known that she would grow up and get away and be able to choose who she was around, but Cynthia would have a hard time going anywhere with that personality.
    She heard someone enter the bathroom stall next to her. She looked up at the stall wall to see quite a few obscenities. This bathroom was dirtier than she was used to. Then she heard someone speak up from the next stall.
    “Could you hand over some toilet paper? There’s none in this stall.”
    Molly blanched. It was a man’s voice. She’d gone into the wrong bathroom. She unrolled some and tried to throw it over the top. She tried to pull her feet up so they weren’t visible under the stall. But then how would she get up so that she could leave?
    She decided to risk it. She planted her feet, quickly unlocked the door, and headed out, only to see a man rinsing his hands at the sink. Trying to look normal, she decided to wash her hands as well, not realizing how bad this looked in a men’s bathroom with urinals around.
    “Whoa!” the