A Pal Love Story: Parker and Val in the Biodome

The Diva and the Hottie

Val's POV

This has got to be the worst news I've ever heard.

Parker and I will have to deal with Crystal and Drake for a whole year. A whole year. I don't know if I can make it. The only thing we can do is avoid them for the time being.

Drake's ok I guess. Besides the annoying flirting, he's a pretty cute guy and he's been pretty harmless. He also looks really familiar to me for some reason. 

But Crystal is so annoying. Not only does she have to be really fricking pretty, but she's also really smart and really into Parker. Why does she have to be better than me at everything? And why does she have to be into my Parker?

"Ok everyone listen up!" I hear one of the instructors yell as we walk towards the entrance to the biodome, "Before I assign you your rooms, I have a few ground rules to tell you. You cannot leave the biodome except under extreme circumstances. There will be two times in the next year that you will be allowed to leave for fresh air or to maybe collect more plants to experiment with or something. Also there is a frozen yogurt shop in there. You are not allowed to disassemble anything inside of there, especially the fro-yo machine. I know it's a weird detail but it happens. Finally, for the room assignments, you will all be sharing a room with the partner you came here with. Now, we are aware some of you are boy-girl pairs, but we trust you to be civil. Your group will also be sharing that section of rooms with another pair, and that is what we will assign right now."

After that whole speech, she starts telling us what groups are going to be paired up together in their section. Parker and I listen in to try and hear our names.

"...And Parker Rooney and Val Wishart you'll be with Crystal Ruby and Drake Hansen."

Now that has got to be the worst news I've ever heard. Now we can't avoid them.

Parker looks over at me and rolls his eyes. I give him a slight smile in return.

"Isn't that just the most wonderful name you've ever heard?" Crystal asks while walking over towards us. 

"Val Wishart? Yeah it sure does roll off the tongue," Parker responds as he smiles towards me. He likes my name? 

"No. Obviously I meant mine. Crystal Ruby," she says, rolling the r's as she waves her hands like she presenting her name like Vanna White.

"I don't know. Sounds a bit too precious to me," I respond. I quickly get tired of our fighting and take Parker's hand so I can drag him to our room.

I am beyond excited but beyond nervous to be sharing a room with Parker. Sure, we'll be in different beds, but it's kind of weird thinking about living with your crush. Especially since he probably doesn't like me back. At least I hope he doesn't. I can't risk endangering him.

"Val? I think this is our room," Parker says. I look at the door and sure enough it has our room number.

"Drake! Here it is!" I hear Crystal scream from behind us. I turn around and see Drake dragging all of their bags behind him and panting and sweating while Crystal happily skips towards our door.

I grab our key and put in the knob. Then I turn it slowly and open the door to reveal a hallway. There's one door on each side of the hallway where I'm guessing the two bedrooms are and then a room at the end of the hallway where we have our own private science lab. They mentioned somewhere in the brochure that we'll have our own lab for our own experiments and then there's the group project in the middle of the biodome where anyone can go and help out with the company's already-in-progress project.

I run down to the door on the left and open it quickly. After all those hours on the plane, I've never felt more tired. And jet lagged. 

I run over and jump on the bed and feel the mattress below me. Parker comes in a few seconds later with both of our bags and I immediately feel guilty.

"Sorry. I'm really tired and was just desperate to know what a bed feels like again. Especially since I haven't slept on one since two nights ago," I blush as I think about sleeping on the couch in Parker's arms last night.

"It's fine. Just go to sleep. I'm gonna unpack some stuff," he replies. 

So then I drift off to sleep and the land of sweet dreams...

The next morning I wake up. I look at the clock next to me on the nightstand and see that it's 10:00am. That's a decent time to wake up.

Suddenly I realize that I'm not the only one in my bed.

I feel the weight of another body and just hope it's Parker because if it's not, that would be kind of creepy.

I glance beside me and see Parker sleeping and facing me. I have to stare a bit longer because, once again, he looks so peaceful. 

His eyelashes flutter open suddenly and he just stares at me. He slowly starts to smile with a dazed look on his face, but then he realizes where he is and he starts coughing, startling me. 

"Good morning, Parker," I say.

"Good morning," he says as he stares at the bed beside this one and points at it,"I should be in that bed, shouldn't I?"

"Yeah," I answer, although I really don't mind, I don't want him to know that.

"Oh I remember. I was so exhausted from unpacking last night that I think I just collapsed on the bed nearest to me," he remembers. Makes sense to me. 

"That's ok. I don't mind," I pause, processing what I just said even though I just told myself I didn't want him to know that,"I mean, it's not really a problem. Not that I'm saying I want you to share a bed with me. Not that I'm saying I don't want you to. I mean I'm not asking you to. But- oh I'm just gonna stop talking," I stop myself before I can say anything else embarrassing.

He just responds with a tiny laugh and snuggles under the blanket. He is so adorable.

"So if you two aren't together, then why did you sleep together last night," the voice of the devil asks from our doorway.

"Yeah. Are you two friends with benefits or something? Because if so, I'm disappointed. You could do better, Val," Drake asks from beside her.

"We're not together. This happened by accident," I explain.

"Yeah. We didn't even do anything. We actually just slept beside each other," Parker adds on. He thinks for a moment and then says, "And even then, I'm not interested in you, Crystal. Like I've mentioned many times before."

"Same for you Drake. And don't just go around insulting Parker like that," I say.

"Ok fine. But only for you sweetheart," Drake says as he winks. I hear a little growl from beside me.

"We'll leave you two alone so you can get ready for the day. But don't have too much fun. Let's reserve that for us two," Crystal says while pointing between herself and Parker. Parker just rolls his eyes and honestly, I've never agreed with him more. 

I wait for them to exit the room and close the door before saying,"They are so annoying."

Parker laughs and responds,"I know right?"

"How are we gonna survive this year?" I genuinely ask.

"We have each other," he says as he puts his hand over mine. I smile at him for a moment before remembering that I can't let him do that. I can't let him get too close to me.

I slip my hand out from under his and quickly make the excuse,"I'm gonna go take a shower, ok?"

He looks disappointed for a moment before responding,"Ok. I'll go grab us some breakfast from the cafeteria and bring it back here and then shower after you."

"Ok."