Ever since I hugged Valerie two weeks ago, I haven't been able to get her out of my mind. I mean, before I thought about Valerie, her soft brown eyes and her softer hair a lot but now it just seemed to be a constant state of being.
I don't know what came over me when I chose to hug her. I never hug anyone. Ever.
The last person I hugged was my sister seven years ago.
And yet, it just felt right. Better than what I had imagined. I'll admit, I had thought about what she'd feel like in my arms but the reality was even better.
She was soft and her hair smelled like roses.
I was fully and utterly obsessed with Valerie Fawkes.
While I thought about what she felt like in my arms practically all the time, I also thought about that worried look she had on her face after receiving that phone call.
It occurred to me that maybe her family problems are even more fucked up than mine. Which is saying something.
Ever since that phone call, she had been off. Quieter. When I teased her, instead of coming up with some clever quip, she just nodded or gave me a tentative smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
I was grateful for any smile she sent my way but I did not like the fake ones at all.
Which was why I was standing outside of Mable's Mathematics classroom, determined to find out what was wrong with Valerie so I could fix it.
Once I saw brown hair and a freckled face, I said, "Mable."
"Jesus!" She yelped, jumping. "Thomas?! What- You scared me!"
"We need to talk." I said, ignoring her reaction.
"About what?" She asked, recovering by brushing her hair out of her eyes as if she didn't just jump out of her skin.
"Valerie." I said at the same time she mouthed the name while rolling her eyes.
"Should've guessed." She said. I narrowed my eyes at the response.
"Something's wrong with her."
Mable gave me a funny look. "And what makes you think that?"
"She's... deflated. I don't know. Different. She isn't as happy as she was before."
Mable stared at me. "Someone's a bit obsessed."
"I'm not." I was.
"You are."
"Doesn't matter. The point is something's off and I want to know what."
"What are you going to do about it?" She said it as if insinuating I would do absolutely nothing.
"I'll fix it." I said simply.
"You can't just fix other people's problems." She said, raising her eyebrows.
"Valerie isn't other people."
"No she's not." Mable sighed. "Look, I'm only telling you this because I'm pretty sure you won't leave me alone until I do." This was correct. "I'm not entirely sure what's wrong but a couple of weeks ago she was really happy about seeing her brother for the first time in like four or five months but then she got a phone call-"
"The one two weeks ago." I clarified.
Mable shook her head. "I mean, yes, she got that one but there was another one last week. Ever since then, she's been weird."
"Has she smoked recently?" I asked.
"Yeah, last night. How did you know that?" I nodded slowly. Valerie only smokes when she's anxious or unhappy. She told me that.
Something is definitely wrong.
I don't bother answering Mable and instead say, "Thanks. I have to get to class." I turned around and started to walk away.
"Hey- wait!"
But I was already gone.
---
"Today, you will be getting your essays back." Professor Twine said. I held my breath. "The class did... less well than expected." I slumped down into my seat, losing hope. Valerie was silent beside me. She was staring at nothing in particular, lost in thought. "However, we persevere." He smiled. "Congratulations to Val who got the highest grade in the class. A+." He beamed at her but Valerie made no reaction, still lost in her thoughts.
I gave her a small nudge and said, "Valerie, that's you."
"Huh, what?" She said, looking at me and then looking around her in confusion.
"You got an A+." I said, my brows knitted.
"Oh, really?" She said, still sounding slightly out of it. I nodded, still frowning.
After Twine gave her a funny look and started handing out the papers, I said, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, why?" She said, not looking at me.
"You seem kind of off." I didn't know if I should bring up the fact that I knew about this mysterious phone call that had seemed to throw her so off balance. I didn't know if it was my place so I decided to keep quiet.
"I'm fine." She said quickly, taking her paper from Twine.
"Congratulations, Thomas. You have made a vast improvement, no doubt thanks to Val." He said, sending a smile her way.
She made no response and I wasn't entirely sure if she was even aware that a conversation involving her was going on.
I took my paper from his hands to find a bright red A on the top of my paper.
"I got an A." I whispered. This seemed to get Valerie's attention because her head twisted my way and she asked,
"What?"
I held up my paper, grinning only for her. "I got an A." I repeated.
"Oh my God, that's great!"
And before I knew what was going on, her arms were thrown around me and I breathed in her rosy smelling hair that I had come to crave.
Tentatively, I put my arms around her. Several students made comments in hushed voices and sent dirty looks Val's way. This only made me hug her tighter.
To my displeasure, Val started to pull away, her cheeks flushed pink in a way that drove me crazy. She's beautiful.
"We should celebrate." I blurted out. It was the perfect excuse to spend time with her.
"Yeah, you should invite your hockey friends round or something. I'm sure they'd be proud." She said, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear nervously.
Did she think that I didn't want to hang out with her? That couldn't be farther from the truth.
"I only want to celebrate with you." I said with a smile, ignoring the stares and gawks of several girls that were rudely eavesdropping. "You are my tutor after all."
"Are you sure? I don't want to get in the way-"
"Valerie?"
She looked up at me. "Yes?"
"Let's celebrate." I said, drawing a smile out of her.
"What do you want to do?" She asked.
You, I thought.
Instead, I grinned and said, "I have an idea."
---
"We're supposed to be celebrating you. This is the opposite of that." Valerie huffed from next to me, as we walked to my new apartment.
"Who says that watching Bridget Jones Diary isn't celebrating me?" I asked innocently.
"It's my favourite movie?" She pointed out.
I shrugged. "You have good taste."
She rolled her eyes and I smirked. "Besides, it's not about what you do but who you do it with." I said. Valerie stayed silent.
"Hang on, I thought we were going to your new apartment?" She furrowed her brows in confusion as we turned around the corner onto the street next to her apartment.
"This was the only apartment that was available on short notice." I shrugged. This was partly true. There was limited apartments available but this one was closer to her. I tried not to think about why that was important to me.
"Oh." She said as the doorman opened the door for us.
I pressed the button on the elevator to go up.
Valerie was looking all around her, in amazement and I couldn't help but smile at the look of awe on her face.
"Where's the mould?" She demanded.
"Mould?" I asked, getting into the elevator and having to practically drag her in after me.
"The roaches? Peeling wallpaper?"
This made me frown. "How dilapidated is your place?"
She scoffed. "It's all I can afford so I try to ignore the ugly bits."
I got the sudden urge to ask her to move in with me because I hated the thought of her in a place that sounded like it was about to crumble. I shook my head to shake off that idea. That was absolutely insane.
As the doors dinged and I opened my front door, I heard a soft "Woah." from behind me.
Valerie hurried in, looking all around the apartment in amazement. To no one's surprise, she went straight for the giant bookshelf in the open-plan living room.
She gasped. "I've always wanted a bookshelf like this."
"How tall are the walls in your living room?" I asked, leaning against the wall, hands in my pockets, watching her.
"Why?" She said, throwing a puzzled look at me over her shoulder.
"I can get you one." I said, completely serious.
She blinked at me then started laughing. "You're funny."
Distracted by the compliment she gave me, even if I wasn't intentionally being funny, I didn't realise that she had moved away from the bookshelf to somewhere else until I heard an excited, "You have a pool!"
I followed her over to the window that overlooked my indoor pool. "I didn't notice that." I said truthfully.
"You're insane." She said, shaking her head in amusement. "How big is your TV?" She asked, her eyes narrowed.
"100 inches."
She rolled her eyes. "Of course it is."
She hurried over to the sofa, plopped down and sighed. "I could get used to this."
Please do.
---
I'm so excited to write the next chapter!!
Word count: 1543