'fag' = cigarette
I shut the door behind me, shivering from my rain-soaked clothes. I had just gotten home after Thomas' birthday disaster. How had I managed to royally fuck up so much that Thomas ended up beating up his own cousin at his birthday party?
I cringed at the memory of Thomas punching Tyler in the face and then cringed some more as I remembered what Tyler's slimy fingers felt like on my ass.
I mean, Tyler deserved it but the bottom line was, I most definitely did not have a job anymore.
Ignoring the weird feelings that arose every time I thought about Thomas defending me like that, I made my way to the bathroom to take a much needed shower.
However, before I could even touch the doorhandle to wash the events of the day off, I heard that all too familiar ring of the red phone.
This was the first time someone had called me since I hung up on my brother for even suggesting that my father come and see me. He had been studiously ignoring me just like I had ignored him for several weeks prior to that call.
With a frustrated groan, I convinced myself that I wanted a relationship with my brother and he was important to me so I therefore couldn't and shouldn't ignore him.
I trudged over to where the phone was in the kitchen, still sopping wet.
"Val." I heard Will say on the other end of the line. Reaching above one of the cupboards in the kitchen I felt around for the packet of cigarettes.
"Will." I said in return. I pulled a cigarette out.
"We need to talk." I gave a wry laugh. Will was being cryptic and weird and after the day I had had, I did not need this. "About our last call."
I opened the small window that was in the kitchen and hopped onto the counter.
"I don't know what you want me to say." I said truthfully before lighting the cigarette.
"I just- I just want you to give him a chance." Will said softly.
"Will." I warned.
"I know. But I don't want us to be fighting and I want you to hear me out. Please."
I took a drag out of my cigarette. "Okay." I said quietly.
"Look, I know that the things he said to you in the past were cruel but you have to understand that he was hurting. A lot. And I think that he wants to make amends, I know he does."
I paused. My brothers only knew about the things my father used to say to me. It's your fucking fault. The world doesn't revolve around you. If the world was fair, you'd be the one dead. You're so fucking selfish. And while I knew I deserved most of it, it still hurt all the same. Just the thought of my father made bile rise to my throat. But Will didn't know everything, and I couldn't blame him for that.
"Val, you there?"
"Yeah, I'm still here." I paused before saying, "Will, he isn't coming."
Will sighed. "Our family has been so broken for years, Val. First Mum died," I flinched. "Then you left and everyone has moved out, leaving Dad on his own. Mum would have hated this, you know that. She loved all of us and she wanted us to be together, as a family. I'm just trying to do that."
"I know but-"
"No, you don't, Val. I have no idea what your life is like. I want to see you, I want to get to know this new version of you that isn't through a red phone. I went from seeing you every single day to having not seen you for over three months!"
Guilt slammed into me. When I had run away just over three months ago, I was only thinking of myself, I was being selfish, as per usual.
"I'm sorry, Will, I'm really sorry."
I heard him sigh again.
"Look, how about this, me and Molly come to you to visit. I really want to see you and she really wants to see you, especially before the wedding."
I breathed a sigh of relief, he was listening to me.
"The twins don't want to see me, do they?" I asked tentatively.
There was a pause again. "You know how they are, they can really hold grudges." Not only did my brothers hate me for what happened to Mum, they hated me for running away too. I couldn't blame them, not really. But it still stung.
"Okay, so when do you want to come?" I asked, suddenly a bit more excited at the prospect of seeing my brother again.
"In a month and a half? I'll be able to give you the wedding invitation myself." I could practically hear the smile in his voice.
"You can stay at my place, if you want." I offered.
"I'd love to."
---
Monday came around and I was walking to college with a spring in my step which was very unusual for me.
"You're... giddy." Mable grumbled from next to me.
Usually these roles were reversed but I was too happy about the idea of Will coming to stay that nothing could dampen my mood.
"He's not coming for another month and a half." Mable pointed out.
"You know, I got a full night's sleep last night, haven't smoked a single fag since the phone call and I woke up at 7 today." I said, smiling.
"That's great, Val. I'm happy for you." Mable said.
"Thanks, I'm happy too."
"Also, you know the hockey game in three weeks? Yeah, we're going." She said, shrugging.
"What?"
"We're going." She repeated.
"Mable, we don't know the first thing about ice hockey. Like literally nothing."
"It doesn't matter what we do and don't know. What matters is that Marcus invited us. Us being the key word because I'm definitely not going by myself." She said matter-of-factly.
"What do you even do at hockey games? How do you know when they've done something significant?"
"I guess we won't know but it's all a part of the fun."
I was about to argue further as we crossed the road to campus when a big black car screeched in front of us, coming to a sudden halt mere inches away.
"What the fuc-" I started to say but cut myself off when I saw who came out of the car. It was Thomas.
He climbed out and suddenly we were face to face.
"Oh, hi." I said, not knowing how to act after the events of his party.
He cocked his head to the side, looking and smiling at me before saying, "Hi."
"Hi." Mable added, grinning. I subtly elbowed her in the ribs but I guess it wasn't that subtle considering Thomas was full on grinning now. "We were just heading to class. Why don't you join us?" Mable said with a sly smile.
"Uh, sure." Thomas said. He was closest to Mable but he walked over so he was beside me as we started walking to class.
"By the way, I was going to ask how you were after the party." Thomas said to me. "I went after you but I got... caught up."
"It's fine. I'm fine." I said and then quickly realised I was being selfish so I added, "I'm also really sorry for causing a scene at your birthday. I made everything about myself." Mable looked at me.
"What? Why would you apologise? Tyler groped you and you're saying sorry?" He said this more to himself as if he couldn't believe it.
"I should have been more professional. He was a customer." I said quietly. Thomas gave me an incredulous look.
"What you did was amazing by the way." Mable said to him and I glared at her. "She thinks so too but she won't admit it because she has this bad habit of putting all the blame on herself."
"Mable- What? No I don't." I said, feeling my cheeks go warm.
"Yes you do." She said smugly. For fuck's sake.
"I do not!" I said more firmly this time, turning to her.
"Remember that time in Madame Blanc's class when we were fourteen?" I did remember. She turned to Thomas now. "There was this guy in our ballet class called- what was his name again?"
"Ethan." I grumbled.
"That's it. Ethan. He was lifting Val but he had been drinking the night before with the other ballet guys and so he was super hungover." I can't believe Mable was telling Thomas this. I managed a glance in Thomas' direction but he looked way too engrossed in the story.
"Anyway, so it got to the bit where he had to lift her and she was supposed to do the splits while he lifted her. What did he do wrong again Val?"
I sighed before giving in and saying, "He was supposed to lift me around the waist but he stumbled or something like that and he grabbed my hips instead."
"That's right! Then Val tried to push her legs out but when she did, the idiot's hands slipped and she fell. It left a massive bruise on her-"
"Mable!"
She just rolled her eyes. "The point is, he left a bruise and then when she fell, she started apologising to him even though she knew he was drinking because the prick fucking invited her to drink with them the night before! What's more is that everyone let her take the blame. It's ridiculous, Val." She finished.
"Whatever." I said.
"Wait, even your teacher let you take the blame?" Thomas asked, genuinely interested.
I shrugged. "She had a thing for ballet boys."
"That's... disgusting." Thomas said.
"Yeah but it balanced out because Mr Keene had a thing for ballet girls." Mable said and I nodded. Thomas looked even more disgusted and I couldn't really blame him.
"So are you guys professional ballet dancers?" Thomas asked but he was only looking at me.
"She is. I'm not anymore."
"It's a shame. She was like the best in our class." Mable said, a look of reminiscence on her face.
"How come you stopped?" Thomas said.
"It just wasn't me anymore." Mable gave me a look of sure it wasn't. But I ignored her.
We came to the hallway. Thomas and I's lecture hall was on the right and Mable's was on the left.
"I'll see you later, Val." Mable said, giving me a quick hug. "It was nice seeing you Thomas." She looked between me and him, smiled to herself and then walked away.
When it was just me and Thomas and Mable wasn't around to accuse me of blaming everything on myself, I decided to ask, "What happened after I left your party? Was it really bad?"
"She's right. You do blame a lot of things on yourself."
I shrugged. "Just habit, I guess." He gave me a funny look.
"Haven't you seen the news?" He asked and he was standing so close that I had to crane my neck to look up to him even though we were still walking side by side.
"Um... no? Should I have?" I said, feeling uncertain.
"Nope. I like that you haven't." He said thoughtfully. "We just read my father's will." He added.
"I'm sorry." I said. He furrowed his brows.
"You're not going to ask what I inherited?" He asked with a smirk.
"Isn't that rude?" I fired back.
He grinned. "I suppose it is." He paused. "And why are you sorry? You're the first person to have said that. Most people have just been congratulating me."
People were congratulating him? His father was dead. Gone. And people were happy for him? "I'm sorry because wills feel final. It means that they're really gone. And it's a reminder that they're never coming back."
He looked at me. "You say sorry a lot." He pointed out. This caught me off guard. Whatever I thought he was going to say, it was not this.
"I don't say it that much." I defended.
"Yeah you do." He said, smiling now. I noticed that we had both subconsciously slowed down our pace as we were walking to class.
I gave him a wry smile. "I don't."
"You're stubborn too."
"Only when it comes to you." I said. I was smiling now too. I looked at him and his gaze heated. Before I could think about what that meant, we had come to our lecture hall.
Averting my eyes from his, I pushed open the door and walked in.
Several looks came our way and also several glares, directed at me. I frowned, confused. As I walked past the blonde girl that had been talking to Thomas the other week, I heard her turn to her friend and whisper in a not so quiet voice, "Of course when he becomes loaded, she latches onto him the first moment she gets." Then they both turned to look at me. What the fuck?
I looked at Thomas to see if he heard but he was too busy glaring at the two girls with a look of pure loathing on his face.
"Come on, Valerie, let's find our seats." Thomas said, pulling me by the wrist to follow him.
Every single fibre of my being honed in on that point of contact between me and Thomas. His fingers were rough and cool and I liked the way they felt on my wrist. A twisted, scary part of me wished that they were in my hand.
"Okay." I said, not looking back at the girls.
---
Thanks sm for reading!
Word count: 2208