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Nick takes a deep breath outside the door. They have her phone, and not the one she carries around on her.
She doesn’t have time for this, they’ll look through it. They probably already are!
“Hey guys!”
Shit, she could hear the questioning tone in her own voice as she practically jogged around Molly’s bed. Get a fucking grip!
Okay, yeah. They’re holding the phone. It’s fine. Nick can still twist this to her advantage. “Hey, what are you doing with that?”
Jeremy holds up the flip phone and Nick braces herself.
“The question is, what are you doing with it?” Jeremy asks sharply.
Nick stumbles through a million different scenarios in her head. None of them end well. She feels faint.
“Yeah, Nick, why do you have a secret phone?” Molly steps in beside Jeremy, looking betrayed for second time that day.
Nick just wants to curl up and disappear.
“It’s not a secret phone,” she hears herself say. She sounds like she’s pleading with them.
“Then… why were you hiding it in the air vent,” Molly asks, but it’s more of a statement at this point. Nick feels herself zoning out, pulling away from the situation.
She forces herself to focus as she stammers for a second, “Wh- Because some people in this house like to go through my stuff!”
“Well clearly I have good reason to,” Jeremy scowls. And Nick..? She honestly doesn’t even know what to say because what the fuck?
Nothing should justify that invasion of privacy.
Molly steps in again, “Jeremy called the last person you talked to. It was some guy named Max Hammer.”
Nick takes a moment to thank whoever is still looking out for her that Sam didn’t pick up the call.
She fumbles again, spitting out the first thing that comes to mind, “Well maybe it was a wrong number!”
“I hit redial.”
“Nick, you can tell me. What’s going on?” Molly asks, and Nick can see that she’s concerned but she just wants it all to go away! and-
“Yeah. Tell us the truth for once!” Jeremy looks down at her.
All the plans in Nick’s head quiet.
“Fine. You want the truth? I keep that phone because some of my homes haven’t always been safe,” She says, as calmly as she can, though her heart feels like it’s leaping out of her chest.
“But you’re safe here-“
“Well how do I know that?” She sees the hurt flash through Molly’s eyes, but her mouth keeps moving regardless without her consent, “I don’t always live with people who have my best interests at heart.”
Molly takes a step backwards and Nick’s stomach twists in guilt at the pained expression on her face.
“Molly, I-“
“What does that have to do with having a secret phone?!” Jeremy snaps. Nick forgets about Molly, turning to glare at him.
“That phone was given to me by my last family, just in case!” Nick shouts. Something in the back of her head tells her she shouldn’t be revealing how much the phone means to her, not just as a means of communication but as a gift from Dorothy, but she doesn’t listen.
Jeremy moves out of the way when she lunges to grab it from him. “Give it back!”
“In case. Of. What? I don’t get it,” He ignores her attempts.
“Oh, of course you don’t get it. You have no idea how good you have it with two parents who love and support you!” She says, fighting for any form of composure.
“That still doesn’t explain why you have to hide your phone!”
Nick needs to leave before she does something stupid.
“I don’t have to explain myself to you!”
“I’ve never hidden mine!”
She doesn’t feel good. She just wants to go home.
“You’ve never had to!”
“Well neither have you!” Jeremy screams.
“Yeah, well you haven’t had parents who push you down the stairs for forgetting to wash the dishes!” Nick screams back, before her thoughts can catch up to her mouth.
Her mind tells her to break something, run, fight, hide, but her legs won’t move. Vaguely, she thinks she can hear Molly gasp behind her through the muddled mess her senses have become. The blurry figure Jeremy has become staggers backwards, nearly tripping over the bed. Her vision of the event goes in and out of focus.
Fuck.
FUCK! SHE RUINED IT.
SHE RUINED EVERYTHING!
Nick tries to swallow, but her throat is only met with dry scratching. Molly all but runs across the room — screaming something, Nick doesn’t know what — before she’s crouching near Nick.
And hey, look at that. Nick doesn’t remember sitting down.
She scrambles away from Molly, pushing backward with her legs until she hits the wall.
Ed comes into the room, and Molly stands up again. She doesn’t want Molly to leave because then Nick will be alone with him and she can’t-
“No!” She grabs Molly’s wrist and pulls her back down hard enough that she makes a small noise of pain when she hits the ground.
“Nick… Nick,” Molly says, repeating the name in agony. Nick realizes that there are tears streaming down Molly’s face. Her voice cracks trying to get the words out, “You’re okay. It’s okay, I promise.”
Nick feels her stomach churn. They’re going to call CPS- Dorothy. She’ll see that Nick won’t be able to pull this con off, that she’s damaged goods and she’ll be returned to actual CPS where they’ll put her into another home, one that will be worse than the last one and she’ll never be able to get the money for her dad and-
Molly grabs her hand, “Breathe with me. In and out.”
She breathes exaggeratedly, making loud noises each inhale and exhale. Nick recognizes that she’s breathing at least twice as fast, and tries to slow down.
“It’s- you don’t- you don’t understand-!” Nick wails, looking at Molly’s pitying eyes and knowing that every moment she spent in this house is hurting all of them. “I just want my dad back!”
“I know, I know-“
“I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry. I just want my dad,” she sniffles, reduced to a pathetic mess on the floor.
Molly just pulls Nick into her arms and holds her. By now, Nick is crying silently, and Ed has left again.
It takes a long time for Nick’s sobs to stop, and Molly doesn't leave her side.