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A HEADACHE didn't even begin to describe the pain Valentina felt that morning after Halloween. Yes, her brain felt like it was splitting in half, but so did her stomach, her leg, and her entire body in full.
Hunched over the toilet that had been flushed three times already so that it didn't get clogged up by toilet paper and vomit, Valentina wasn't even worried about being late for school. The only thought in her mind was how raw her throat felt.
The boy across the street was also in there, but she'd prefer to act like that wasn't true.
Before she flushed the toilet for the fourth time, Valentina placed her hands on her bruised knees—bruises that she didn't know the cause of—and stood to her full height.
Her aching head spun for a minute, and she blamed it on the abrupt speed at which she stood up. Then she turned to grab the orange pill bottle on her counter, twisted the cap, took one out, and dropped the white pill into the yellowish substance-filled toilet bowl. The liquids swirled in a circle before being sucked down the drain, never to be seen again.
Unless Valentina got sick again that day, which was more than likely. She had a feeling there was more of whatever went down last night that was going to come up today.
Walking back into her room after placing the pain medication back on the counter, Valentina crouched down to the floor and pulled out another pill bottle from under her bed. This one was stored at the bottom of a shoe box that once held her old, black Mary Janes, but the shoes were somewhere lost in her closet and the box contained several bottles of tablets and liquids alike. 'Her secret stash,' she liked to call it.
Two white circular tablets later, Valentina's throat was feeling even more raw and tender than before. Hopefully the drugs would take care of that, but they weren't kicking in fast enough. She'd read somewhere that after a certain amount of time the effects of the opiates wouldn't feel as strong as her body became accustomed to it. Any normal person would've taken that as a sign to stop taking recreational drugs, but Valentina just popped an extra into her mouth before tucking the box back under her bed.
Sparing a quick glance to the alarm clock on her nightstand, Valentina took note that first period would begin in about ten minutes. She was already late, so there was no need to rush while the girl picked out her outfit for the day.
She still felt like shit and would most likely end up going home early—she wasn't totally sure why she was going at all in the first place—so Valentina decided on some comfortable black and gray, plaid pajama pants and a gray sweatshirt. 'Hawkins Soccer' was written on the front in dark green lettering, and a large, orange tiger took up most of the space on the back below the gray hood. She never played soccer. She never played any sports. She bought it one day after school at the concessions stand when it started raining and she'd just washed her hair.
Lacing up her white converse with several miscellaneous stains, including food, drinks, and an exploded bottle of coke from last year, Valentina threw her green messenger bag over her shoulder and left the house without even bothering to check what the purse contained.
