VALERIE

Sixty Six

Waking up from his sleep on the floor just reminded Nick once more of how fucked his night really was.

He looked around in the darkness of Johnny's familiar room and found no trace of Valerie.

It was 6am, the sun was still down. So the darkness surrounded Nick as he stumbled around Johnny's house looking for Valerie until he found her in the backyard sprawled on the floor letting the sprinklers wet her.

"What the fuck are you doing?" He called out from a safe distance as he slid the patio door shut.

With her wide smile she sat up on the ground, "Come on." She urged him motioning him with her hands.

Nick looked at her like she was on something, "Are you fucking crazy?"

Crazy.

Valerie was too familiar with that word.

It was used to describe her.

She was fucking crazy.

She was broken.

Broken into millions of tiny shards that couldn't be put back together and when someone tried to they just ended up getting cut by those shards.

"Nick." She chimed trying to convice him to go in with her.

Her white oversized tshirt Johnny lent her was see through, parts of the material was stuck onto her body giving him a transparent view of the body he used to be so familiar with. Her brown hair was in wet strands and her legs were muddy and full of pieces of the dry fall grass.

He shook his head, "Let's go inside."

"Not until you come lay down with me."

He scoffed and scratched his head, "You're fucking mental."

Valerie's smile faded.

Nick didn't realize what he said until she walked out from the spritz of the sprinklers and past him where she went inside, he quickly followed her back in and grabbed her by the forearm, dragging her to the restroom by the living room.

Throwing her in there he came in and shut the door behind them then flipped on the lights.

She smiled, "You're so transparent."

He ignored her statement and started her a bath with warm water, she watched him carefully as he actually took the time to make sure it was okay enough to warm her up.

"Just soak in it." He commanded opening the door to leave, "Nick wait."

He looked back to see her standing there in just her undergarments, the first thing he noticed though was the tattoo.

The small tattoo of the palm tree, just plainly on her hip bone.

For a split second he looked down at the side of his index finger where he had his.

"Do you think Johnny has any bubbles?" She questioned stepping into the water.

Taking a deep breath he closed the door behind him again and rummaged through the bottom of the bathrooms sink.

"I think this is good enough?" He said handing her a pink bottle, "It says just two cap fulls."

Valerie looked at the bottle and nodded at the instructions Nick was giving her.

"You're right." She whispered dumping the entire bottle into the water immediately creating a wonderland of bubbles in the tub.

She submerged herself in before momentarily emerging from the mountain of soap she created.