Venice (bxb)

7. Valentina

There aren't many advantages to being a child of the Conigrave family. There are, although, restrictions. Especially for the female offsprings. So when Venice and Jason were slowly creeping through the door at four, Val is awake, studying on the kitchen island.

"They're all dead asleep." She didn't even bother looking at the door to know that her brother and cousin were high as kites. "Did you have fun smoking weed with our neighbour?"

Ven and Jason were startled for a moment but regained composure as they tried to walk toward the kitchen island. "I mean, we've smoked better weed," Venice started like an ungrateful brat.

Jason didn't let him continue, "yeah, but it's important to be grateful for whatever quality of anti-depressant we are blessed with."

Venice would've corrected him if he weren't in an absolute state of internal flaccidity. "I don't think weed is an anti-depressant, Jace."

"It should be. I'm so anti-depressed."

She sighed, shutting her laptop in a manner that resembled her mother's. "Go to fucking sleep, you assholes." The irritation was clear in the arch of her eyebrows. Her mother would've gone nuts if she wasn't in her room at 10 in the night but the boys can fucking come back home at four, hallucinating the shit out of each other.

"Yes, ma'am," they announced in chorus while chugging milk straight out of the bottle. "You want some?"

"Jesus, no."

"This milk is good, bro. Tasty. Where it come from?"

"From cows, Venice. Please just go to sleep." She exasperated, dragging them upstairs by the hem of their sleeves. As she deposits each of them in their own rooms, "listen, school's in four hours. Sober up or whatever."

Orange light spilt through Venice's windows as she tucked him into bed, "you're such a dick, Ven. I thought you were gonna take me too," but he was too inebriated to respond or maybe he pretended like he was but either way, Valentina's woes fell on deaf ears.

She went back downstairs and pushed her feet into a pair of Adidas joggers which she took down to the depths of the neighbouring cul-de-sac. As her feet hit the ground, she gained a certain thumping rhythm in her veins that vibrated right into her chest.

Maybe moving here wasn't the best idea but Long Island had started to feel like a cage that her parents would never let her break out of. Moving for college wasn't even an option, what with her parents being wanted criminals and all.

Here in Atherton, maybe she could separate herself from her family. Be seen as Valentina and whatever she wanted it to be. She'd always thought of Venice and her as this tangled, potted plant that had vines so deeply inseparable that she couldn't tell where she ended and Venice started.

Jason's been making it extremely clear though, drawing intricate boundaries between Val and Venice. He's such a duffer. He's the deep resentment lodged in the depths of Val's heart that she can't quite shake.

"Hey, Valentina!" At first, she ignored it because it always felt like somebody was calling out to her. "Valentina!" Her earphones popped out as she slowed her pace to look back.

Link. God Awful Link.

"Hey, Link."

He sped up to her pace, now they were jogging side-by-side, much to Val's displeasure. "Did Ven and Jason get in okay? I saw them to your door."

"Yeah, but they seem more fucked up than you are. Do you have a supernaturally high tolerance or better, are you a functional addict?"

He dropped his head in a chuckle, "your brothers went a bit hard on the pen. I told them to slow down but they didn't listen."

"Well, that sounds like them." There was silence for a bit and just when Val thought it would, fortunately, last forever, Link spoke again.

"Do you run this way often?"

"Not really. Do you?"

"Everyday."

"I take the opposite route, the one that goes by the park."

"Right, that'll do it." He agreed, slightly out of breath. "Are you settling in okay?" Val did not respond to it for the first few seconds which made Link think that she didn't hear it. "Are you sett-,"

Honestly, I don't care about settling in or fitting in. This honestly feels as temporary as anything in my life so I'm not bothered about creating a permanent environment or investing emotionally in one because what is this insipidity in the lives we're supposed to live? I don't understand and I certainly do not understand the hype. There isn't a lot left in me to invest in these people or this place so I'd rather hold onto the little I have left but she didn't say any of that. "Settling in, Link. Settling right in."

"Gnarly." He nodded, kicking his legs back with a little bit of vigour. She chuckled at this.

"So you live with your Mom?" She asked.

"Yeah, divorced parents."

Valentina turned to him, "what does she do?"

"Um, Mom? She's in-uh, law stuff. Yours?" Although he might've done it unconvincingly, he'd managed to divert the topic.

"Business. They run this tech firm remotely."

"Silicon Valley money. Nice."

"I guess," she looked ahead and then turned back as if an afterthought, "what law stuff?"

Link would've read this to be invasive if he hadn't known that Valentina was a bit rude and nosy. "Law enforcement," he said hesitantly. He could've arrested Val just based on how the colour drained from her face but he's got to give it to her, she was good at hiding it.

"Cop, huh?"

"Meter maid. Barely." This was a lie but he didn't want to dampen the progress he'd made with the Conigraves.

"Still a cop."

Link agreed with her. Still a cop.

a/n: I'm trying to prolong the route to the sexy scenes. don't act like you don't want it.