Constellations

| 12 | Know Your Frenemies

Valerie yawned as she threw her bag on the floor and sat down at the table with Aria and Mike. She put her head down on the table and began daydreaming.

"Good morning." Byron greeted his children.

"Morning," Aria says, picking up the newspaper sitting on the table. Valerie didn't say anything, she just kept her head on the table.

"Late night?" Bryon asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Not late enough," Valerie mumbles sarcastically. Valerie picks her head up when her dad places breakfast plates in front of them.

"Go ahead, you can say it. Dad has gotten the hang of this single-parent thing." Bryon spoke proudly. Valerie rolled her eyes jokingly.

"It looks good." Aria smiled.

"Yeah," Mike muttered.

"Did you see mom last night?" Aria asked.

"Uhm, yes I did." He says.

"How'd that go?" Valerie asks, taking a sip of her orange juice.

"Well, what I thought was going to be a date with your mom turned into your mom telling me that she's dating other people," Bryon explained, stabbing at the food on his plate.

"What?" Mike exclaims. The room stays silent for a moment. Valerie and Aria give each other a look before staring back down at their plates, "And you're okay with that?" He asks.

"Well, it's not really my place to tell her that she can't." Bryon reminded.

Mike slams the newspaper down on the table, "That's just so you, Dad. You lie and cheat, but you draw the line at hypocrisy." Mike fumes, "You're such a role model." Mike gets up from the table abruptly.

"Mike," Valerie calls out. He ignores her, grabs his coat, and walks out the front door. Valerie sighs, putting her head in her hands.

The girls were walking into the cafeteria, talking about Ian and Alison being at Hilton Head together. Valerie knew she wasn't the only one who had a thing for older guys. That was the reason Alison preferred college parties.

"Agent coopers, not just some small-town cop who's gonna arrest Spencer's brother-in-law because Ali carved his name in a tree," Hanna said, sitting down at their usual lunch table.

"Yeah, a tree that's no longer there." Aria pointed out.

"No one knows that but us," Emily spoke.

"And Ian," Valerie noted. She absolutely hated Ian, she would be more than happy if he was behind bars for the rest of his miserable life. Valerie had a past with Ian that none of the other girls knew about. Except Alison. Ian was Melissa's boyfriend. He was a triathlete who had an endless amount of friends and followers, so it wasn't like anyone would believe her anyway.

FLASHBACK

Valerie and Alison were at one of the many college parties they had grown accustomed to attending together. Alison always told Valerie she was more mature than the other girls. At the time, Valerie took it as a compliment. She liked the feeling that Alison thought she was special, or different than the other girls, and Alison knew exactly how to make someone feel special.

"Divide and conquer?" Alison asked, looking at her friend with a mischievous look.

"Of course. Meet back in an hour?" Valerie spoke.

"An hour," Alison stated, heading off on her own. Valerie sighed, not really knowing what to do. She had a lot of friends who were in college, from meeting them at parties, but at the moment she wasn't in the mood to socialize.