worst in me | joe keery (1)

42 : caring and ignoring

Valoria woke up to a liquid being poured onto her head, causing her to jump up. The brunette had a pounding headache and could feel her dry, rough throat as she stared at the two people who poured the water over her head.

Finn stood with Natalia, putting down a small bucket onto the floor while Natalia stood with her arms crossed over her chest, an angry and hurt expression displayed on her face as she stared down at the brunette. "What the fuck, Val?"

"What did I do?" Valoria defended, sitting up and wandering over to her small bag of clothes, tugging out a new sweater.

"You're really asking that." Finn mumbled quietly, rubbing one of his eyes as his gaze remained fixated on the ground. Natalia shook her head, placing a comforting hand on Finn's shoulder before looking up at Valoria.

"Joe told me about your fight with him and how you two broke up. I immediately called to check up on you, except your cell was off and you weren't home. Do you know how long it took us to find you? We had to rely on gossip sites, for fucks sakes!"

"Did it occur to you I didn't want to be found?" Valoria retorted with an eyeroll, pushing past her friend and brother and heading to the bathroom to change. Once she finished, she stepped out of the bathroom and prepared herself for another argument.

"What is this?" Finn asked his sister, holding up two bottles of alcohol Valoria drained last night. His tone held a mix of shock and disappointment as he gazed at his older sister, who stood with her mouth opening and closing for s moment with no proper response.

He stared at his sister for a moment before tossing the bottles onto the carpet furstratedly, turning to Natalia and mumbling something to her that Valoria couldn't quite capture. After that, he exited the room and left the two friends.

"Where did it go wrong, Val?" Natalia asked with a soft voice, reaching out to grasp her friend's hand. "When did you start hurting?"

Valoria shook her head, swallowing the build up of nerves that rose in her chest. "I don't know, Nat. I just know that I keep screwing up."

Natalia pulled her friend into a hug as she let a sigh escape her lips. "You're gonna be okay, you always are."

Valoria let out a pathetic laugh, shaking her head slightly. "I'm fucked up, always have been. Nothing will change that and no sweet words will fix my mental state."

"But if you open up, maybe it'll help."

"I don't want to open up, why the fuck does no one understand?" Valoria said, her voice raising slightly. Natalia took a small step back, raising her hands up innocently.

"I just want to help, Val."

"You want to help, Joe wants to help, Finn wants to help." Valoria let out a bitter laugh. "Maybe I don't want help because I can't be saved."

"That's bullshit and you and I both know that. Cut the fucking crap." Natalia cut in, the soft expression that usually held on her face being replaced with a hard one, her jaw clenched. "All you do is push away and all you do is reject and hurt the ones you care about."

"I don't believe anyone cares, that's why!" Valoria defended, her voice only getting higher.

"This isn't some fucking movie, Val! Stop making it seem like this life is some joke and that no one cares because if you took one second to actually look at your phone right now, you would have known how many people care!"

Natalia took in a deep breath, her face now flushed in anger as she picked up her bag off the floor, giving her friend a final look. "Talk to me when you have your priorities in check and you're not drowning yourself in this dumb self pity you have."

With that, Natalia followed in Finn's steps and left Valoria's hotel room, slamming the door shut behind her. Once the brunette heard the footsteps echo down the floor, she sunk to the ground with tears leaking down her face. She had no clue what she had just done, but she knew that she really did need to fix everything that she had mucked up.