Molly’s laughter filled the room and Caleb couldn’t help but smile. He grinned as he locked eyes with Molly. Her blue eyes sparkled when she laughed, like the surface of a calm lake at sunset.

“There is no way you actually tried that,” Molly replied with a giggle as she brushed her curly brown hair behind her ear.

“Trust me, he has done worse,” Carly sighed as she shook her head.

“Carly’s right,” Caleb agreed with his best friend. “She wasn’t any better though—we were pretty crazy kids.”

“Hey, I was just going along with your ideas!”

“Well, I wish I knew you guys back then!” Molly chimed in. “My childhood had more piano lessons than adventures…”

“That’s why you are so much more talented than we are,” Caleb pointed out. “I’m surprised you even want to talk to losers like us.”

“I guess the practice paid off, but I wouldn’t say you guys are losers! My life would be so boring without you two. I’m so glad that Carly and I took that philosophy class together in college.”

“I’m glad you understood what they were talking about in that class,” Carly admitted. “Otherwise, I might still be trying to graduate…”

“That’s not true, you would have done just fine,” Molly insisted.

“She would have found some one else to cheat off of,” Caleb joked. Carly glared at him and he laughed.

Molly stood up and grinned. “Well, I have a surprise!” she announced, whirling around from the small wooden table the trio was sitting at. “I brought dessert!”

“Molly, you didn’t have to do that!” Carly complained. “The whole point of me having you over is that you didn’t have to cook us dinner, again”

“Oh, I had some time and I wanted to, don’t worry about it.” Molly brought a pie tin to the table with a home made cherry pie inside. The crust was decorated with candied cherries. “Tada! I made Caleb’s favorite!”

“This looks amazing!” Caleb said as his eyes doubled in size.

“It looks too perfect to cut,” Carly added.

“Thanks!” Molly laughed. “I figured we could watch a movie or something and have dessert.”

“That sounds like a great idea, but I have to run some errands…” Carly sighed. “You two should hangout though. Caleb lives right down the street, although it may be a dump over there.”

“Hey, my place is never that messy,” Caleb complained.

“Okay, yeah, that would be great!” Molly interjected. “I mean—if you don’t mind…”

“Uhh, well… I don’t, but I have to be up for work early tomorrow,” Caleb mumbled. “Maybe we can have a piece of pie now and save the rest for a movie night soon?”

“Oh…” Molly deflated and twirled a lock of curly brown hair around her finger. “Yeah… we can do that.” She stood up, and scurried into the kitchen. “I’ll cut everyone a piece!”

“Caleb,” Carly growled under her breath. “Can you help me with something?”

“Sure,” Caleb agreed quickly, standing up to follow as Carly stormed out of the room and into her musty unfinished basement.

“What the hell are you doing?” Carly snapped the moment Molly was out of earshot.

“Nothing…” Caleb grumbled, flinching as Carly glared at him as if her eyes could kill him. “I have to be at work at 7 A.M.”

“You never sleep anyway. Also, it’s 7:15 right now.”

“Maybe I want to go to bed early.”

“Come on, you have never gone to bed early in your life. Don’t lie to me.”

“Fine, I think it’s a bad idea.”

“What, eating cherry pie?”

“You know what I mean…”

Carly sighed, “Actually, I don’t. Molly and you would be perfect together, but it’s like you avoid her.”

“I don’t avoid her!” Caleb cleared his throat and added, “You don’t have any errands, why are you avoiding movie night?”

“Molly wants to hangout with you alone, so I found something else to do. Is that a problem?”

“No, it’s just that Molly is the prettiest and nicest person ever…”

“Exactly! She is perfect for you!”

“Yeah, but she is also your best friend-“

“Best friend besides you,” Carly interrupted. “You are also attractive, smart, and-“

“And in debt because of my… situation,” Caleb cut in. “Someone like Molly deserves better.”

“Caleb, you made one mistake…”

“One mistake that is so bad I’ve only told you and my mom what happened. A beautiful, nice person like Molly can find someone without so much… baggage,” Caleb sighed. “She will probably come down to help if we stay any longer.”

“Wait,” Carly cried as Caleb turned towards the stairs. “How long are you going to let this one mistake keep you from being happy? Can’t you just give it a chance?”

“Not with Molly…”

“Why not?”

“Because if things go wrong I wouldn’t just be hurting Molly. Think about it, what would you do if Molly and I broke up and hated each other?”

“Neither of you are that kind of person.”

“Carly, you are my best friend. For awhile, I thought you would be my only friend. Molly is awesome, but I can’t risk losing both of my friends.

“Shut up, you’re doing the movie night, Carly snapped. “You are going to stop assuming the worst!”

“But, I just think Molly would be happier with someone without so many problems.”

“Stop thinking, your bad at it,” Carly sighed as she headed up the stairs. “And just so you know, you two aren’t so different: she is up there thinking that her problems are too big for you to like her as well.”

“What problems?” Caleb wondered out loud.

“If only you had time alone with her to ask questions like that…” Carly rolled her eyes and went upstairs.

Following slowly, Caleb sighed and scratched his head. Shaking his head at the top, he steeled himself and entered the living room determined to take a chance for the first time in years.