Page 61 of The Ex Factor

‘She got a bigger one,’ Molly said, not taking her eyes off Ashley. ‘She’s going to America.’

Deacon blinked. He scratched his beard with a thumbnail. ‘Right. I’m not gonna pretend I’m not jealous as fuck,’ he said. ‘Congratulations. I’m going for a shit.’

He shuffled off to the bathroom. The hallway went quiet again.

‘I can tell them no,’ Ashley said suddenly, looking at Molly. Her eyes were wide. ‘I can just do the local stuff. Build it up slowly.’

‘Are you thick?’ Molly said. She gave a short, sharp laugh, stepping closer. ‘You’re not saying no to that.’

‘It’s four months.’

‘Right. It’s four months,’ Molly repeated, smiling. She had three years of drama school. She could pretend to be happy for Ashley. ‘People do four months in rehab. They do four months in prison. You’re playing guitar.’

‘What about us, though?’ Ashley asked. She reached out, her fingers catching the edge of Molly’s sleeve. ‘We just started.’

‘We put a pin in it,’ Molly said. Her throat felt tight, like she’d swallowed a coin. But she kept smiling. ‘We’ve got till you go. And when you get back, we’ll pick it up.’

Ashley looked at her like she was trying to figure out if Molly meant it. Then she leaned forward and put her forehead against Molly’s shoulder.

Molly wrapped her arms around Ashley’s jacket, holding on tight, staring past her head at the peeling wallpaper by the kitchen door.

Steve’s voice crept back into her head, uninvited.

Watch what happens when she has to choose.

Molly squeezed her eyes shut and held Ashley tighter, trying to drown it out.

Twenty-One

Now

The Scottish countryside outside the bus window was green and flat.

Ashley looked down at her notebook. She’d been staring at it for three hours. There was nothing on the page. Ashley didn’t really expect there to be. Other than a brief incident after bumping into Molly, her recent writer’s block was still very much operational. She wasn’t really trying to write anyway. She just needed somewhere to point her eyes that wasn’t at Molly.

The back of the bus was completely quiet. Molly sat in the corner booth wearing a big grey jumper. She had headphones on and looked at her phone screen. She had only exchanged the briefest of morning greetings with Ashley so far today.

The door to the back bunks opened, and Toby, Elena, and Jax came out into the small kitchen area.

‘I’m just saying,’ Elena said, sitting down right next to Molly but addressing Toby. ‘It was distracting.’

‘What was?’ Toby asked.

‘You know what. You eyeballing me during the bridge.’

Toby grabbed a bag of kettle chips from a cupboard and popped them open irritably. ‘Wasn’t.’

‘You were glaring at her, I saw it,’ Jax said, grabbing a chip from Toby’s bag and tossing it into their mouth. ‘You were just mad because Elena changed the synth key patches to an inverted chord progression on the third verse and didn’t bother telling the guy holding the drumsticks.’

‘It creates a floating harmonic tension!’ Elena interjected, entirely unbothered.

‘It threw my entire tempo count off!’ Toby snapped. ‘I’m playing on four, and suddenly her pad sounds like it’s sinking into an ocean.’ He went pink. ‘But I wasn’t glaring. But if I was, it was about the structure,’ Toby said. ‘Some parts need to stay the same.’

‘Like the bunk assignments?’ Elena asked slyly.

Jax took another chip out of the bag in Toby’s hand. They looked between Elena and Toby quickly. ‘We just needed a chat.’

‘We were talking about the setlist,’ Toby said. He looked at Jax, then at Elena. He looked stressed. ‘And the new bassline. Which sucks.’