Looking For A Legend (Book 1)

Looking For A Legend Chapter 40 - Valentina

            Valentina had always gotten caught up in Leibe Schwartz’s drama.  She never meant to, but it always happened.  The first time was one week after they’d met, when Leibe somehow convinced Valentina to talk to a boy Leibe liked on her friend’s behalf.  Of course, there had been a miscommunication – maybe it was Valentina’s accent, or her more developed body, but the boy thought it was Valentina that liked him.  When Leibe found out, she was furious and didn’t speak to Valentina for three days.  Valentina was devastated that she had lost her first American friend already.  It took Murroh going to Leibe’s parents, but they girls were made up by the weekend.  Valentina was forgiven, but it was not forgotten.

            Two months later, reasonably comfortable with her new living arrangement, Valentina had her first crush.  She couldn’t remember his name anymore, but he was in her French class.  Valentina hardly needed to pay attention, having spoken French home in Switzerland; it gave her more time to obsess over her classmate.  Excitedly, Valentina had shared her feeling with Leibe on the train home.  The next day during lunch period, Valentina saw Leibe flirting with and eventually kissing the boy. 

The cycle continued to the next five years.  After a while Valentina learned not to ever admit her crushes to Leibe, at least no one she really liked.  She couldn’t have any friends that weren’t already friends with Leibe either.  She couldn’t take any elective class Leibe wasn’t taking also.  She couldn’t buy any clothes Leibe didn’t like on Valentina or wanted for herself.  Leibe ran Valentina’s social life until they moved from New York to London.  It was only Valentina taking an academic path that Leibe couldn’t follow that broke her free of that, and Leibe still ended up taking Valentina’s boyfriend.  Not that Valentina particularly wanted Billy Duke, but it was the principle of the matter.

Valentina had just stepped out of the bath, and slipped into a brand new matching set of lace bustier and panties in a soft pink when her phone rang.

“Hello?” She asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice, in case it was someone from the hospital.

“Hey Valentina,” Leibe’s voice came across meek, and quiet.  Or maybe just distracted.  Valentina wasn’t sure it was really Leibe, and not one of her sisters that occasionally stole her phone and called Valentina asking for curse words in other languages.  But Shoshanna and Shari hadn’t done that in a while.

“Oh, hi Leibe.  Listen, thanks for finally returning my call and all, but I have leave to pick up Eli in like an hour and I need to finish getting ready…” Valentina was cut off.

“Can we video chat on the computer?  It’s important.” Leibe insisted.  Valentina sighed and agreed.  She set up her laptop on her bed and got dressed while it booted up.  Valentina pulled on a black chiffon-over-silk skirt and a dark grey cotton shirt that hung off her shoulders and clung to her curves.  She launched the chat program while buckling on a red belt.  Valentina was digging through her closet to find her red patent leather pumps when the call came through.  Valentina accepter the call and went back to looking for her shoes.

“Valentina?  Are you there?” Leibe’s voice came from the laptop’s speakers.

“I’m here.  I’m looking for shoes!”  She called back.  “I have to pick up Eli.  I just told you that!”  Valentina found her shoes buried under a suitcase and returned to her computer.  She stepped into them, excited for Eli to see them.

Leibe looked different.  Her face was puffy, and she wasn’t wearing any make up.    Her hair was pulled back into a frizzy bun, and it didn’t look like she was wearing any designer labels, just a tee shirt with a stain near the collar.  “So, um… Billy’s coming over in like twenty minutes.  And well, I have to tell him something really difficult.  Can you tell him for me?”