Too Soon | Sidemen fanfiction

5

Sunday morning came quickly- with Valerie munching on a breakfast bar and walking down the empty road, backpack slung loosely around one shoulder, and google maps chipping in every so often, reminding her where Vik's house was.

His house was quite pretty from the exterior. A small two-storey made with saturated red bricks, and wooden frames to the windows and doors, painted a vintage olive green. His house seemed inviting to Valerie- comforting, in a way.

"Hey there." Vik said in a slightly lower tone, rubbing his eyes and waving from the now open door. It was clear he'd just woken up.

"Heya Vik." Valerie smiled, stepping down the path and entering the house as Vik stepped to the side. 

She looked around the interior tentatively, a small smile appearing on her face at the framed crammed pictures of Vik and his brothers against the warm yellow painted walls by the stairs, and the happily ticking cuckoo clock against the wall. 

"My brothers and parents aren't home today." Vik commented, seeing Valerie looked across the walls. "I'm going to go brush my teeth and stuff... Feel free to take any breakfast from the fridge or just set up your computing work on the table in the kitchen."

Valerie headed into the kitchen as Vik could be heard moving around the upstairs. She helped herself to an iced bun from the fridge, washing her hands before taking out her laptop and computing work from the backpack, and sitting on one of the stools around the kitchen island. 

Vik returned down the stairs a few minutes later, engaging in small talk for a while, before they planned out their project and made a start on their coding- stopping at twelve o'clock for a break.

"Want anything to eat?" Vik asked, looking through the fridge. 

"I'll pass, I took a bun from your fridge earlier." Valerie admitted. Vik shrugged and sat back down at the table, empty handed. Instead, he dug around one of cupboards underneath the island, finding a small pouch and emptying its contents onto the table. About seven nail polishes scattered across the table- all differently branded, as if they were the remains of old kits.  

Valeria watched as Vik selected the nude brown tone, just a bit darker than his actual nail, and began painting over his nail messily- going over the sides of his nail frequently and painting his skin.

"Vik, you're doing it all messy..." Valerie commented at his wavering hand. "Do you want me to do it?"

Vik's head snapped up, slightly confused and slightly nervous.  "Would you..?" Vik asked, valerie simply answering by picking up the polish and laying his hand flat- painting his nails far more smooth and neatly. 

"Thanks." Vik breathed, admiring his nails. "Much neater than I usually do."

"How come you paint your nails?" Valerie questioned, picking up a nail polish and looking at the colour within.

"Oh, I-I'm bi." Vik blushed a bit whilst saying. "Painting my nails just kind of feels... Well, like my way of showing that I'm not quite a functioning member of society. And not many people notice it , so it's... it's just a way of accepting myself really, isn't it?" He felt awkward and yet good for saying it- having only come out to his boys. Hang on... The boys... Shit. Today was Sunday, which meant that Vik was expecting-

DING!

The sound of the doorbell ringing reverberated around the house, causing Vik to jump up with wide eyes. 

"Uhm, one second." Vik hurried to the front door, returning a moment later with a tall, blonde boy who had to duck when entering the room, as to not hit his head on the doorframe. 

"Hi." Valerie smiled and said cautiously as he looked at her.

"Hi..." The boy replied slowly, looking at her funnily. "What are you... Doing here?"

"Oh, Vik and I have a project to work on." Valerie replied as Vik entered the room again. "Oh, and I'm Valerie. Valentina for full."

"Simon." He replied simply, taking a seat opposite and looking around the room instead of her.

Valerie was confused by the boy, but ignored his presence, deciding to continue with the coding of the front page, checking things up every so often with Vik, who was biting his nails and sitting by her at the island, not quite paying full attention.

The room was filling with more and more tension each time the cuckoo ticked.

...

Josh scoffed at the sight of Vik's house. Though he had already seen it before, the sight of the happy sunflower pots and plastic windmills in the front garden was enough to make Josh sick. 

As Josh kicked a pebble off the path with his thick commando boots, he pushed the door open- assuming it had been left open- kicking his shoes off at the entrance and heading into the kitchen, unsurprised to see he was last to arrive.

Much to his confusion, however- the new girl was sitting at the island besides Vik, a confused expression dancing over her face as she glanced up every so often, cautiously observing the presence of the other six boys. 

Then again, Josh couldn't blame her for being nervous.

"Okay uhm, what's happening right now?" Valerie asked, breaking the clearly awkward silence with a look of confusion towards Vik, as she pushed the laptop back across the table.

"Uhm... I uhm..." Vik didn't know what to say. And the more he stuttered and stumbled over his words, the more clearly unsettled the girl was getting. It was when her hand began inching closer to the set of keys besides her, Josh realised someone had to say something to stop the girl from doing something stupid. 

"We're going into the spare room upstairs, we aren't going to bother you." Josh put plainly, staring her down.

Valerie quirked up a brow at him, eyes flitting up and down his frame in a way which would've made Josh feel judged if it wasn't the lack of malicious-ness in her look. Josh scoffed a bit before uprighting his posture from the wall and walking out of the room, upstairs to the room with seven chairs in a circle.

"D'you reckon I can come, considering we need to agree on what we do on the project?" Valerie asked Vik, causing the other boys to stop leaving the room and give one another looks, staring at Vik for his answer.

"I don't think so." Vik shook his head quickly. "We like to keep what we do private. You can work on it here and go home whenever though, because we're probably gonna be here for a while..."

"Oh... Okay..." She responded slowly, nodding slightly before readjusting her gaze to the laptop.

And so, for the next eight hours, all Valerie heard from a floor underneath those seven, were distant screams, a few loud thuds, and what sounded maybe even like sobs. It was all too distorted for her to put a label on what she had really heard- and so at ten o'clock, when it was too dark to leave and return to her house- Valerie closes her laptop and rested her head on thr kitchen island. Although her intention was a nap, within only a few minutes, she was flat out asleep.