Ain't No Mountain High Enough

"I Want to Know What Love Is"

Arjun and the others were about as skeptical as I was about a party, but we went ahead with it anyway. We had it at Arjun's house a week after New Year's — and a week before Valerie would be leaving. Of course, we decided that there would be absolutely no game of Truth or Dare. Once we were all at Arjun's house and the decorations and food was all in place, we sat around in the living room waiting for the woman of the hour. The woman of the hour...and her boyfriend.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Veronica said, sighing.

"There's no form of alcohol whatsoever," Arjun spoke up from where he was playing Smash Brothers Ultimate on the couch with Keto. "And we won't be playing any stupid games. Minimal risk of goofing up."

"Somehow, someone will still goof up," Veronica said as she stood at the window to watch for Valerie.

I had a feeling she was right, but I wasn't about to agree with her out loud. I was preparing to keep a tight rein on my temper, because if anyone was going to goof up, it was going to be me and my internal volcano. Stephen just had a way of setting it off without actually doing anything. Not to mention that the others were still hiding whatever it was that caused them to be so cold to the guy. I wondered if the truth would be revealed that night. Maybe that was why Veronica was so worried.

It was a few minutes before Valerie and Stephen showed up, and I could tell as soon as they walked through the door that something had changed between them. I couldn't exactly place it, but they just seemed...tense, I guess? As everyone greeted each other, I could see that Valerie's smile seemed strained. If anyone else noticed, they were keeping it to themselves.

"Randall, Arjun told me this was your idea," Valerie said when she got to me. She bent to give me a hug. "Thank you for this...I was hoping to spend more time with you guys before next week."

I returned the hug, and I realized that she was thinner than normal. When she pulled away, I could tell she definitely lost weight. She was pale, too. I tried to keep the worry off of my face by smiling. "Yeah, I was hoping so too..."

Her eyes lingered on me for a moment, then she returned to Stephen's side. He put his arm around her in an almost protective manner, and was watching me with a suspicious gleam in his eyes. Now that I was looking at him, I noticed that he seemed different, too. His hair was a bit longer and almost reached his shoulders. Dark circles were under his eyes.

An awkward silence settled over us for a moment that lasted far too long. Literally no one offered to say anything, and I was pretty sure Veronica and Keto were having a telepathic conversation with each other. The twins were staring intensely at each other, and Veronica subtly jerked her chin towards Stephen every now and then.

Something was definitely up.

Ms. Harlow came in and rescued us from the silence. "Ah, Valerie, you're here!" She hurried over and gave her a quick hug, then shook hands with Stephen and introduced herself as Arjun's mother. She quickly turned her attention back to Valerie. "How have you been? Ready for Boston?" Ms. Harlow smiled, but I caught a weird look in her eyes, like she had picked up on something, too. I knew Ms. Harlow had a knack for sensing when something wasn't right. Yet, she plowed on with the small talk.

"I'm good," Valerie said with a slight nod. "And yeah, I'm excited, even though I'll miss you guys."

"Aw, well we'll miss you too," Ms. Harlow said, patting Valerie's arm. She glanced at all of us just randomly standing around in the front hall. "Well, are you guys just going to stand around staring at each other?"

That got us moving. Arjun sighed like he was wishing he could be anywhere but here as he disappeared into the kitchen. Veronica and Keto went to the living room and continued the game of Smash Brothers. Stephen followed them, and I decided to go to the kitchen with Arjun. Wherever Stephen was, I didn't want to be there. The chances of me going off on him were just too high.

To my surprise, Valerie followed me.

"Randall, do you mind going to get that tablecloth from the closet?" Ms. Harlow asked when we got to the kitchen. "I forgot about it until just now."

"Sure," I mumbled. I started wheeling back the way I came, out into the front room, down the hallway and past my bedroom, then to the room at the farthest end of the house. It wasn't really a closet, since it was too big to be considered one, but it was also too small to be a bedroom. It was more of a storage room than anything else, I guessed. Shelves lined the walls, and all kinds of stuff was organized on them. I easily found the tablecloth on one of the bottom shelves.

"Randall?"

I paused. Valerie had followed me here? I grabbed the tablecloth and put it in my lap before turning my wheelchair so I could see her. "Yeah?"

She glanced around the room, then over her shoulder. I could hear the others talking in the living room. None of them were wondering where we were, yet. When that seemed to satisfy Valerie, she shut the door. Finally, she met my gaze and said, "Can we talk?"

I tried not to raise my eyebrows. "Um...sure, I guess." I felt heat going up my neck as I processed what was happening. I had prepared for this party for a long time so I could avoid messing anything up. But how could I avoid messing up anything when I was alone in a room with Valerie? Alone with Valerie, the only thing I could do was mess up.

And mess up I did.

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Thank you for reading!

Listen to Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is"!

Peace✌️~ A.J.