By her twentieth birthday, there are a few things Valarie Ricci knows for certain.
She knows that her waitressing job barely covers the costs of living out of a beat up old van. She knows she's stuck in the dead end hometown her high school friends...
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"Hello?"
A mild shock ran down Valarie's spine at the raspy voice. She didn't have fucking clue what she was going to say. She wiped once more at her raw, tear-stained cheeks and leaned forward with her elbows pressed atop her knees as she sat on the edge of the bathtub. "Hello," she said, like they were business partners.
A pause. She heard some shuffling on the other end of the line. Then: "Hi, Valarie."
"Hi, Alice." A knee-jerk smile blossomed across her face. "I, uh, wanted to make sure you didn't give me the number to a pizza place or something."
Really, Valarie had locked herself in the upstairs bathroom after getting so frustrated with Nonno that she burst into violent sobs. She'd been trying to write an idiotic fucking essay about Hamlet even though she had no fucking clue what she was writing about when Nonno kept interrupting her asking where her grandmother was.
She spent about two hours staring down at a blank page, and the moment something resembling an actual sentence started forming in her head, Nonno had once again barged in and started arguing about going to the bank. Hence, the tears, which were followed by that horrible restless loneliness that lived somewhere under Valarie's skin.
So, she made an impulse decision and pulled up the number Alice had put into her phone.
If Alice noticed the scratchy, strained quality of Valarie's voice, she didn't say anything about it. "I didn't know people still called each other."
"I like to walk on the wild side."
"Didn't realise I was talking to the school bad boy."
She giggled, and it alleviated some of the weight pressing down on her chest.
"Wait, I don't think bad boys are supposed to giggle."
"They absolutely giggle."
"No, they smirk. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Bad boys have feelings, too."
"They have damage," Alice said. "They're misunderstood."
"Who's the expert here?"
"Guess I'm starting to question your qualifications."
"Rude."
"What are you going to do about it?"
Valarie was smiling so wide her cheeks hurt. "Is this our first fight?"
"Yeah, I don't think there's any coming back from this."
"Damn."
"Maybe I should have given you the number for a pizza place. We could have avoided this," Alice said. "But I haven't lived here long enough to actually know any pizza shops around town so..."
"We used to have a Pizza Pizza but it closed down because of rats. Also, the pizza was bad."
"The more I learn about Valentine, the more glamorous it gets."
