It's nine in the morning and Charlie has been standing on the other side of the bathroom door for over twenty minutes. Molly has been throwing up continuously and she won't let him come inside to help her. Finally, she flushes the toilet and washes her face at the sink to disguise the sickness tears, he turns and folds his arms, pretending not to look.

"I get why you don't drink," she says.

"I drink," Charlie says. "Just. . . not that much."

"It's so embarrassing," Molly mumbles.

"It's not that bad, I mean we literally had to pull a guy out of the washing machine last night. And don't even get me started on the girls that flooded the downstairs bathrooms because they were dressed in mermaid costumes and wanted to feel closer to the ocean."

Molly laughs as she walks back into the bedroom. She picks up her glass of water that Charlie got for her in the night and she sits in a chair as she drinks it.

"I'm glad you stayed, I didn't think you would," Molly says.

"I was going to leave after the pool games but Perry cornered me and made me. . ." Charlie stops as Molly looks up at him. "That's not what you meant." She shakes her head gently. "Of course I stayed, I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"Lauren told you to come didn't she?" Molly says.

"Yeah she was worried. I was worried."

She rubs her head as she thinks about something. "I can't remember anything before coming to this room."

"You don't remember calling me? Leaving a voicemail?"

She removes her hand and her eyes widen in panic. Charlie laughs lightly and moves away from the wall. "Relax," he says. "It wasn't bad. You just said that you missed me, a lot."

"Well that can't be right." She looks at him and smiles. "I blame the alcohol."

"I uh. . . I went to look for you after that and I saw you with Jack. I know you can't remember it but you looked really happy."

"Ah, crap. Jack." She rubs her head and sighs. "I remember Lauren saying something about him leaving. I probably scared him away."

"Maybe he just doesn't deserve you," Charlie says. "What kind of person just takes off and leaves their date like that?"

"It wasn't his fault." Charlie clenches his jaw when he hears her defending him, he tries to disguise the anger by cupping his chin. "I was in a bad way, I might have said something to him. I don't know."

"Like what?"

Molly shrugs and looks down at the floor. Her face is pale and all of her make up has washed off, her hair is knotted and frizzy but Charlie likes it. He likes that she can sit in front of him looking her worst and feeling her worst and not caring about what he thinks. She's still beautiful to him, even when one of her fake eyelashes is hanging off her eye. She's vulnerable, bare, but she's also the strongest person he's ever met.

"Oh my god!" Molly gasps and covers her eyes. "I kissed you. Again. What the hell is wrong with me?"

"Wait, you didn't remember that until just now?" Charlie says. She shakes her head and then bites on her nail, glancing at him with embarrassment. "It's okay, I'm not complaining."

"It's like my mind is scrambled into these tiny puzzles." She puts her elbows on her knees and stretches her face in frustration. "I think I spoke to Aubrey last night. I told her that we kissed."

"Yeah I spoke to her too. Well we mainly yelled at each other."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Charlie says honestly. "We're not together, we haven't been together in weeks."

"She seemed to think you are."

"I put her straight last night. Me and Aubrey are over, anything else is just in her head. She was manipulating you, it's what she does. We've been over since the night I met you I just didn't realize it then."

Molly doesn't know how to take that, Charlie watches as she wrestles with the right reaction. "Charlie, um. . ."

"I know," he says. "We're going to go back to ignoring each other after today."

"I don't want to ignore you." Molly stands up and paces around the room. "I don't want any of this."

Charlie sits at the end of the bed calmly. "Then why do it?"

"Because you confuse me!" she says. "I've never been in a situation like this before, I don't know what I'm even doing. You scare me, in a good way, and I'm confused if we're friends or less or. . . more."

"Do you want to be more?"

"Stop it," she mutters.

"What?"

"Stop confusing me." She rubs her head and walks back over to the chair; she turns her back to him as she takes another sip of her drink.

"It's not that confusing, it's just a question. Are you really going to tell me that you didn't feel what I did when we kissed?"

"I don't want to talk about this right now, I'm not feeling well."

"If we don't talk about it now then we never will because you'll go back to pretending like I don't exist!"

Molly puts the glass on the stand angrily and sighs to herself. "What do you want me to say? That I have feelings for you? Yes, I do. But it's because I care for you that I have to distance myself. I don't want to drag you down with me."

"That's not possible," Charlie whispers. "Molly, you pushed people away because you've always thought of them as temporary. This isn't like that. There's a world out there beyond a hospital room!" He stands to his feet and flies his hand to the window. She turns around slowly with tears in her eyes. "I want to show it to you because you're not meant for that room, Molly, you're not."

"What am I meant for?" she cries.

Charlie approaches her, keeping his eyes locked on hers as he touches her face. "Me," he says.

Her eyes become so bright, as though she's understanding life for the very first time. How great it can be, how high it can take her. Charlie is laying his heart on the line and she has every right to reject it, to crush it, but he can see her becoming braver.

"I know it's scary," he says. "I'm terrified, too. I don't want to let you down either and I can't promise I won't screw this up but what I can promise, is that I will try every day to make your life worth living."

"This is crazy," Molly says as she leans her forehead into his. "I look a mess."

"You could definitely use a shower," Charlie mumbles.

Molly laughs and slaps his arm. She's still crying and her eyes are sore when she looks back to him. She stretches her hands around Charlie's shoulders. Her smile is everything.

"Just give me a chance," he says. "One chance. I know that you're trying to survive on your own but what if I was meant to be beside you all along?"

"I'm complicated, Charlie. My life is complicated. You don't deserve to be pulled into it."

"I'm already pulled into it. The way that I feel about you. . . those feelings don't come around very often. You make my pulse do weird things too."

Molly laughs timidly, flicking between his eyes delicately. "Are you sure?"

Charlie nods, gulping as he starts to sweat with nervousness. "I need you in my life. I just. . . need you."

"I need you too," she whispers.

Charlie smiles. "My turn."

Molly glances at him in confusion but that disappears when he leans his head down and kisses her. Her fingers squeeze tighter into his back and the air is somehow hotter. This is the first time they've kissed passionately and they move as one down to the bed as though they're in each other's minds. She lays beneath him and he takes her hand, he kisses away her cries until there is only laughter, only happiness. Their touch is an explosion, it ignites so many fires that every inch of him is burning.

"Do you want to go get breakfast?" Charlie says breathlessly as he pulls away.

Molly grins and forces his lips back to hers. "Not yet."

They lay there for a while. Kissing, laughing, exploring. Charlie imagined this moment many times and yet he never imagined feeling like this. This is their first and he smiles to himself as he realizes they will have many more to come. A whole lifetime worth of firsts.