"But she's a Cheerleader" (gxg)

40: trying to forget

Dylan's pov:

"Thanks for helping me cook" my mom said to me. I was cutting potatoes while she was sautéing onions. Today was my dad's birthday, which meant the whole firehouse was coming over for dinner. They offered to host but my mom wouldn't let them, she said they've already done enough for us. Luckily Valarie was still coming later.

"Yeah sure" I said back, dryly.

My back was to her but I knew she was looking at me.

"Are you okay? You didn't really tell me how last night was."

I stopped cutting for a second and looked up.

"It was good." I lied.

She looked at me for a few seconds more before shifting her attention back to the stove. "okay" she said.

I continued cutting the potatoes. I hadn't told any of my friends what had happened last night. I mean Shane had left early and Kacey and I were too focused on getting Valerie home safely for the topic to even come up.

It's not like I really want to talk about it. I just wanted to forget what happened.

After I finishing doing my part with the cooking, I went outside to get the extra tables and chairs out from under the deck. I grabbed a stack of chairs and started walking backwards when someone came up behind me and put their hands on my shoulders. It scared the shit out of me and I banged my head on the top of the doorway as I was walking out from under the deck.

"Oops you might want to be more careful" Valerie said, making me turn to look at her. I forgot she was coming early to help me set up.

"Really? You had to do that I was walking backwards"

She fake pouted. "Sorry" she said.

I picked up the chairs again and continued walking. This time I walked forward. "Can you grab that grey table?" I asked as I set the chairs down.

"Okay" she said.

I unstacked the chairs and a few seconds later Valerie came over with the table. We unfolded it and set it down in the middle of the lawn. There were already two other tables which I had moved around earlier.

I started moving all the chairs and once everything was in its place I pulled out one of the chairs and sat down. Valerie did the same and sat next to me.

"How are you?" She asked. She looked at me with gentle eyes. I moved my head to the side and sighed.

"I'm okay." I said back.

She looked like she was struggling to say something.

"Dylan I'm uh- in really sorry about last night." She said. I looked at her confused.

"What?"

"We were supposed to go to Olivia's to have fun. I should not have started drinking." Once she said that I rolled my head back.

"It's fine-" I started to say.

"No. I know you don't like to get mad at people but I fucked up. I should have been there for you considering today. I shouldn't have left you to care for me"

We looked at each for a moment. Neither of us said anything.

"And just so you know......I'm going to stop drinking"

She had a serious look on her face. I immediately started laughing. She glared at me.

"What is so funny?" She asked, offended.

I stopped laughing when I realized she was actually seriously. "Um nothing...nothing"

"If you can do it I can do it right?" She said, standing up.