Ain't No Mountain High Enough

"The Girl Is Mine"

Ms. Harlow was staring at me with worry, and it must have been because I had the widest eyes she'd ever seen on a guy. She couldn't have heard what Valerie said over the phone, but I could tell she knew it was important.

"You...you what?" I stammered. "Val...are you okay?"

She heaved a sigh, then said, "Actually, I'm relieved. I'm just so angry at him."

My mind raced. I was trying to come up with something to say, but I felt a strange sense of satisfaction that Stephen was gone now. But I knew that was cruel to Valerie. After all, she had loved him, even if she said she was relieved.

"What happened?" I asked carefully. "What'd he do to upset you?"

"I...I found out what he said about you, actually," she said. "I confronted him about it, and I was going to make him apologize, but he didn't take too kindly to it. So I told him it was over."

"Val..." After the falling incident, I had forgotten about what Stephen said about me. Of course, the more I told Charlotte, the more I remembered. His wish that I had died in the crash eventually surfaced to my memory. Somewhere in the back of my mind it bugged me, but I was doing my best to keep it buried. But still...I hadn't imagined it would make Valerie instantly break up with the guy. Again, satisfaction bubbled up inside me. I almost smiled.

"Don't worry about me," she said quickly. "I just...well, after I told him it was over, he left. I haven't seen him for two weeks, but I'm thinking he'll come back eventually and tell me to get lost. I've been trying to get a place situated, but I was wondering if you guys would be able to come up to help me get set up?"

My heart pounded. I hadn't seen her since she left back in January, and the thought of seeing her again- especially now that she was single - set off the butterflies in my stomach. "I-I would love to," I said, smiling slightly. "I'll tell the others, if you haven't already."

"I talked to Veronica this morning, and she said they would be happy to come! Her and Keto wanted to wait and see what you and Arjun were going to do, though."

My smile turned into a grin. "I'm sure I could go, but I'll have to ask Arjun to see if he could, too." As I said it, I gave a pleading look towards Ms. Harlow, who shrugged. If she didn't dismiss Arjun's punishment, he wasn't going anywhere. I doubted he wanted me to go telling Valerie about that, though.

"Ok, just let me know!" Valerie said.

"Okay. But...stay away from Stephen. I don't want him to-"

"I'll be all right," she interrupted, but I could tell from the sound of her voice that she was nervous, too. I did my best not to point that out.

We said our goodbyes, then I looked at Ms. Harlow once Valerie hung up.

"Well?" Ms. Harlow said. "What was that about?"

I stared at her with wide eyes for a moment. "She broke up with Stephen," I said. Gosh, was I such a horrible person that I felt a bit of joy that had happened? I mean, geez, Valerie loved the guy, and I didn't want her to be upset, and I knew breakups were painful sometimes. Especially when you moved across the country because of the guy. But hey, Stephen was a grade A jerk. He had no business dating, let alone loving, one of my closest friends.

Ms. Harlow just looked relieved. "I see," she said softly. "I believe that's for the best."

I nodded. At least she saw it my way, right? "She was wondering if we could go up to help her move into a new place. I guess she doesn't want to come back..."

"Well, she probably doesn't want to leave school right when she's about to graduate." She patted my shoulder, then opened the front door again. "We'll talk about making arrangements for a trip up there." She headed out the door, and I locked it once she was gone.

"Trip up where?" Arjun asked, startling me. I turned to see him standing right behind me.

"So you're gonna start sneaking up on me now, huh?"

Arjun gave me a wry smile. "I wasn't. But where does Mom want to go?"

"To Boston." I explained about Valerie's phone call, and he looked just as relieved as Ms. Harlow had about Valerie breaking up with Stephen. But once I mentioned going up to Boston to help her move, he frowned.

"Ugh," he said, going to plop down on the couch in the living room. "Mom probably won't let me go. Besides, finals are coming up and I can't miss them."

I rolled up beside the couch and tilted my head. "Says the guy that is absent for most of his classes."

He put his hands up in defense. "Hey, that was ONE semester, and I had good enough grades to where I could get away with it."

"If your Mom lets you go, then you could skip for at least a week, couldn't you?"

He pursed his lips, thinking it over. I mean, surely it wouldn't hurt. The guy had a 3.9 GPA, so surely it wouldn't hurt him to miss a few classes. The only thing it would hurt was his sense of responsibility.

"Maybe," he said after a moment. "But I'll have to talk to Mom about it. I would feel better if Mom was in Boston, away from...you know."

I nodded. "And if you didn't go, maybe you could take care of it while we're gone?"

Maybe I was just seeing things, but I thought I saw his skin flush pale. I didn't want him to take care of Nathan on his own, but I knew he wouldn't want anyone else to get involved. That was just Arjun for you.

"I'll think about it," he said. He got up and grabbed the Nintendo Switch off of the armoire, a slight smile on his face. "How about Smash Brothers?"

I couldn't help but smile too, despite the worry in my heart that was making it hard to breathe. But I could use some game time. "Sure."

Arjun set it up, and we played late into the night.

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Thank you for reading! 

Listen to "The Girl Is Mine" by Michael Jackson

Peace✌️~ A.J.