Mary didn't really know why she'd taken a liking to Calum. The boy always seemed weird to her, and she'd never showed any interest before Adeline did. Sure, he was fun to have around and she enjoyed his company much more than she'd ever really admit, but he was Adeline's.
Mary and Adeline had quite a difficult friendship. Much like Kellianne and Deleany, they had a bit of a competition dynamic. There was nothing to fight for, yet the girls would make everything into a war. They loved each other dearly, but they were just teenage girls. Mary had made an innocent joke one day about falling in love with Calum the weirdo, and Adeline had blown it way out of proportion. Days of the silent treatment later, and Adeline finally admitted that she had feelings for the tanned boy. Mary ate her words about falling in love with him, and she wasn't really serious about it in the first place anyways.
As the sunlight spilled through Calum's bedroom window, Mary furrowed her eyebrows and woke up slowly. She didn't really remember climbing into bed with him, but it made sense after the night they'd had. It was hours of talking, but that wasn't all they did.
Mary considered getting up. For a moment, she even contemplated leaving before he woke up himself. But she stayed there, head rested on his bare skin. She snaked a hand up, tapping mindlessly against his chest. She hadn't put any thought to the gesture, but it had woken Calum and that meant it was time for the situation to be real.
"Am I supposed to say goodmorning?" Calum asked, voice low and thick due to the good rest he had just gotten with Mary in his arms. He seemed absolutely shameless, and it baffled Mary. "Since when are you all cool?" The blonde scoffed, rolling away from the boy and towards where she had thrown her shirt the night before. She habitually grabbed it and threw it over her head.
"Since when are you in my bed?" Calum retorted, a subtle grin creeping up on his lips. He had just eyes just barely cracked open, like he was afraid of the light.
"Since when did you ask me to come over?" Mary rolled her eyes, knowing that the argument could go back incredibly far if they tried hard enough. It could really be anyone's fault, but Mary wanted to blame Calum.
"I'm not playing that game with you," Calum crossed his arms against his chest where Mary had left him cold after providing enough heat that they weren't even using a blanket. He couldn't really bother to retrieve his own clothes, so he just settled on being shirtless as Mary practically squirmed to cover herself.
"What game?" She smiled, a little trace of admiration peeking through the girls usually rough exterior. She would've treated it like any other random hookup if Calum hadn't been so cute, and she could've sworn he was doing it on purpose.
"The game where you just bitch until you win," he smiled back, eyes now fully open and focused on her where she sat up next to him. He wanted to reach out and rest his hand on her thigh, but he didn't want to overwhelm her. He knew he was still on thin ice because he knew about Kellianne's secret before anyone else, but he didn't want to bring that up and hit any nerves.
"Me? Bitch? Please!" Mary scoffed, not really all that offended because Calum was obviously joking. Not to mention he was grinning like a child by then, and it almost fascinated her.
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When Valentine first woke up, she was slightly disoriented. She was getting used to never recognizing her surroundings upon first opening her eyes, but this time she was overwhelmed with familiarity. Not only was she tangled up with Luke in her old room at her Nana's lake house, but her morning was plagued by endless thoughts about her previous nightmares.
She slipped away fairly easily. Luke didn't really have her in his clutches, and it wasn't long before her feet padded out of the room and into the hallway quietly. She wanted to mentally curse her grandmother for never installing carpet upstairs, because every time she used to wake up she'd end up waking Adeline as well. She had no issue getting past Luke though, and was out of the room almost immediately.
She didn't really have anywhere in mind, she just wanted to walk. Valentine had a tendency to wander, and with a backyard as pretty as her grandmothers, it just made sense to her. She used to wake up before each and every sunrise, and watch the day begin outside before anyone else got up. She found it so tranquil, and it was best done alone. Of course, she had never done it with Luke. She never knew the glory that would be having him join her on those early morning adventures.
But unfortunately, Luke was fast asleep in her bed upstairs while Valentine trailed out, down a hill and towards the edge of the lake. It was a tiny body of water, and the small brunette always thought of it more as a pond than a lake. For years, she could remember coming out to that very clearing and running around with Adeline. In their youth, everything was so easy. It was annual Easter egg hunts, and it was warm hot chocolate by their Nana's fireplace inside. It was running through the heat and feeling bubbles pop on your skin, that's what Valentine would say. To her, that backyard was a wonderland. It seemed a bit smaller without Adeline's smile brightening it up, but it still had its charm.
Valentine Leonard was alone out there, the absence of a sister or a peer obvious to her poor heart. It was nothing but her and the thick, humid summer air. Valentine used to worry she'd get lost back there, but now it looked quite quaint and home-like. It wasn't that massive terrain she thought it was anymore. The deck was nice and spacious, but there actually wasn't as much grass as she remembered. It felt like it went on for miles when she was young.
"What more do you have for me?" Valentine spoke quietly, sure that no one but her and the universe could hear. She wasn't really asking a godly figure, but rather just the world. The same series of events that led to her sisters death, and whatever fate led to Kellianne keeping such a dangerous lie. She was talking to her past, her present, and her future. She wasn't in the right place to be daunting in that way, but she didn't care about that. She didn't care if it was her against an army of men. All she knew was to keep pushing, because that's what Adeline had taught her.
Adeline wasn't exactly an authoritative figure to Valentine, but rather someone she just really looked up to. Since an early age, the younger girl followed whatever Adeline did. It was always that way. But Valentine was alone now. She didn't have that shield, that guidance. She had no one to yell at her for waking up next to Luke again. She had no one to run around in that grass with. She was alone that morning, she didn't even have to worry about waking Adeline. Sure, some things stayed the same. The large oak tree next to the fence looked like it always had. Valentine could vividly recall climbing through those thick branches, trying to get higher than Adeline could.
Nonetheless, Adeline encouraged Valentine to every extent she possibly could. She wanted nothing but the best for her younger sister, and she even kept that same secret. And so Valentine was almost thankful. Because if Adeline had kept the secret, it must've been important to them. Valentine remembered her grandmothers words about wanting to protect her, making sure she still felt apart of the family. Valentine almost wanted to thank Adeline for that.
"Because I'm... I'm doing fine! You know that?" She spoke, voice traveling through the lillies on the ground and echoing past the water like a stone. She stiffened her back and stood in front of the nothingness, ready to conquer the world and strike down anything that dared to cross her path. All along, Valentine had been tossed and turned, taken advantage of and messed with. She never lost faith though, because she saw the way her sister persevered through everything.
Call it luck, or maybe fate, but the stars had to have been working together when they boiled up Valentine. She was a force to be reckoned with, so fierce and ready to blow. But she was so lovely, so kind and impactful. She smiled at strangers, but would probably pounce if she was threatened.
"Because... because I'm doing fine..." she mumbled, knowledgeable of the fact that she wasn't really talking to anyone. Her voice was getting lost, but she hoped it'd reach someone in outer space some day. She wasn't sure why she felt so compelled to speak, but she felt heard.
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"How long are you staying?" Mary asked, a clear amount of concern in her tone. She didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but Valentine couldn't exactly run from the situation forever.
"Just tonight... I'm not sure how long we'll be in town before we leave for Pensacola though," Valentine explained, trying her best to soften the blow of her absence. She knew she wasn't doing her duty as a friend, but she had too much on her mind to focus on anything but herself.
"I have to tell you something..."
"Well, don't say that. Given our circumstances it's a little scary," Valentine joked, sure that Mary knew she had her trust. The two were sweet to each other in that way, they never really fought like Adeline and Mary.
"I slept with Calum. I mean... I literally slept with him. We hung out and then we kissed and—"
"Adeline's Calum?" Valentine gasped, having forgotten about the tanned boy due to the amount of space Luke had taken up in her days.
"Yes, him. You think she'd kill me? I mean, you're literally dating Luke so... I think I get a free pass," Mary joked, trying her best to stay lighthearted as it was clear her friend wasn't ready to talk about what had happened the stormy night previously.
"Okay, she didn't like Luke though. And what do you mean you slept together? Like you didn't have sex?" Valentine asked, genuine curiosity obvious in the way she got so enthusiastic. She cared so much about her friends lives, even if she got a little too caught up in her own to be there properly.
"Yeah, but he's the sisters best friend trope. And no, we had no sex at all. I woke up and woke him up and then we joked around and then we ate breakfast and hung out like normal people. I mean, we definitely kissed here and there but—"
"So you didn't have sex?" Valentine gaped, glad that Luke and Rebekah had run to the grocery store while she was in the shower. They needed to get ingredients for her grandmothers extravagant dinner plan, and she wasn't really jumping at the opportunity to join them in that. When she'd thought of the excuse of calling her loved ones back home, neither Rebekah nor Luke could deny her the ability to stay behind.
"Shut up. No, we didn't have sex. You and Luke ever do that?" Mary joked, throwing the blonde as her best weapon against the little brunette. And it did it's job, because even just his name left Valentine flustered and nearly incoherent.
"We always! We never do that!" She defended herself, caught off guard by Mary's so forward way of asking that question.
"You never have sex or you never don't have sex?" Mary retorted, feeling stubborn as ever. Valentine enjoyed the snarky remarks, it felt normal to her. Through everything, those two girls always kept up that banter and teasing.
"We never have sex! Whatever," Valentine rolled her eyes, wanting nothing more than to change the subject. Even though she was so desperate to stop talking about her relationship with the blonde who wasn't in her company for the first time in days, she couldn't help but lose the fight against that smile creeping up. She liked talking about him, in any way she could. Luke had grown to be her comfort character, and any time he'd be on topic, Valentine simply didn't know how to act normal.