𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥

002. Your Boyfriend.

     

     VALERIE SLEPT in until the afternoon the next day because she and Steve were swimming late at night and she ended up going to bed pretty late but it was fine. She got up, took a shower, got dressed, styled her hair in two high ponytails on the top half of her head before she began to head over to the mall. She planned to spend Steve's lunch break with him just the night before, it's usually at 1 or 2 pm, depending on how his and Robin's schedule was.

She bumps into someone on her way in making her turn towards them, "oh, I'm sorry—" she paused when she saw it was Riley Kingston. Someone who was her best friend since elementary, before Steve became her best friend. Riley just stared, glancing up and down. "Watch where you're going, Smith." She says and Valerie quickly nodded.

"Y-Yeah, I'm really sorry..." She whispered and Riley crossed her arms, smiling softly. "Isn't it pretty pathetic your boyfriend works at Scoops Ahoy? In that little sailor outfit, he looks more of a douchebag than usual." She says and Valerie furrows her brows at her former best friend. "He... isn't my boyfriend." She says and Riley just slowly nods. "Sure he isn't." She forced a fake smile before walking away, joining her friends, three boys and two other girls, laughing with the two girls she's with.

Valerie rolled her eyes and headed on towards Scoops Ahoy, crossing her arms. She sighed as she walked up to the counter just as Steve gets rejected, the two girls walking away. "And another one bites the dust." Robin says, revealing the whiteboard for a tally that say you suck and you rule. "It's because people think Val and I are a couple." Steve says with an annoyed tone, looking at Valerie. "Speak of the devil, you showing up here everyday really makes it seem that way." He leans over the counter, towards Valerie who boops his nose.

"We had plans to get lunch together, dingus..." She says and Robin snorts. "Dingus. Right on. You hear that? I got her saying it now, Harrington." She points to Valerie then she quickly put away the whiteboard. "Wait, you two aren't a couple?" She pointed between the two. "No..." Steve says and Valerie just shook her head in response to Robin.

"Oh..." Robin whispered and quickly wiped off one of the lines under you suck. "That one I wrote was that I think you're a dick for even thinking of flirting with girls when you have a pretty girlfriend already... But now I know she isn't your pretty girlfriend." Robin says as she shrugs her shoulders slightly. Valerie's heart beats faster as her cheeks turn red at the compliment of her being pretty.

"You think I'm pretty?" She smiles widely and Robin nodded her head. "Yeah, duh." She says and Valerie smiled as Steve slowly turns towards the curly headed girl. "Let's go. I'm starving." He whispers and she just nods. "Later Robin." She waves as Steve tosses his hat into the back room, "I'm taking my lunch break now." He says as he walks away. Robin just sets Steve's hat onto the table before heading to the front of the ice cream parlor.

In the food court, Valerie sips her soda and constantly kept glancing up at Steve who's eating his burger and french fries. Despite Steve always wanting to maintain his "figure", they got Burger King. "What's bothering you, Val?" He glanced up at his friend who sighs.

She leans over the table. "You know the stuff I said about, um, my mom admitting she's not my real mom last year?" She asked suddenly and Steve slowly nods. "Yeah... so I sort of went and asked my dad who my real mom was. He totally freaked out on me." She glanced down, pursing her lips together in a thin line.

"Oh... Was-was it bad?" He asked and she quickly shook her head. "I asked him before school ended and since then, he's totally been on edge. Arguing with my mom about why she told me and all that... So I just went to my grandma for help." She says, glancing around the food court. "My mom is white... that's why my dad freaked out." She whispers to the boy.

"Oh, it-it, uh, explains your complexion, then?" He says, unsure of what to say and she slightly squints her eyes at him. "Yeah... You can just say I'm mixed, Harrington." She said as she slowly nods her head and he looks down.

"Sorry... if it was offensive." He apologized and she quickly shook her head, raising her hands. "It's fine... But, um, I did more digging. Turns out, she was, um, an old classmate of my dad's from college and she didn't want to have... a mixed child, as her first born so she abandoned me with my dad and my dad met my mom so, I guess it all worked out in the end... to someone who actually wanted me as a daughter." She says, snatching one of his fries.

"Dude," he whispers as she dips it into her ketchup. "It's just... morbid. I always wondered why I looked so different from my parents and my little sister. They always said the same, that we all come out differently. But turns out I have a white biological mom... who didn't want me." She says and he just frowns at her.

"I'm sure... if it were different, she would've stayed and loved you for the person you are." He says and she nods slowly. "Yeah, I mean... even my grandma explained to me why she didn't want to stay with my dad, at the time, my grandpa didn't think it was... right for his son to date her." She shrugs softly.

"It's kind of sad... just because they were different by skin tone, that still didn't mean they aren't also equal." She whispers, looking down and he just stared at the girl in front of him. "Well, if it helps, I wished my parents weren't together either." He laughs awkwardly and she simply glanced up at him.

He continues to laugh, so she just smiles and rolls her eyes as she looks down. "You're an idiot, Steve..." She says but it wasn't in a mean way so he just smiled, eating the rest of his burger so they can head back to Scoops.

 

  

  

  

AUTHORS NOTE

i can't wait for the part when dustin shows up and he's like "is he here? ☺️" and robin's like "is who here? 😀"