Breathe

Chapter 10

"Beginning today treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight.  Extend them all the care and kinds and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward.  Your life will never be the same." -Og Madino

A week has passed by and it's Friday again.  Fourth block is almost over, I'm watching the clock tick by the seconds until freedom.  This week has been stressful.  I've had three exams and a ton of homework.  It's finally the weekend though, and my teachers have been generous enough to not give my classes homework. I can finally relax.

Ring! Ring! Class is over, finally. I stumble out the door and walk down multiple hallways to meet Valerie at our lockers.  I open my locker and use my small mirror to fix my hair because it looks like a mess today.  After attempting it make it look nice.  I give up, wrap it in a bun on the top of my head, and secure it with a ponytail.  Good enough, the school day is over anyways. 

"Hey Val," I say when she opens her locker beside mine.

"Hey," she says with a smile, but I can tell something's not right.

"Your house?"

"Sure."

We're halfway to her house, but I can't take the silence anymore. Something's definitely wrong.  I look over at her and say, "Valerie, come one, tell me what's wrong."

She frowns. "You know me too well," she pauses and sighs, "Ashton and I got into a small fight."

My frown now matches hers.  "What happened?"

"Remember a while ago when I told you about our first fight and he mentioned something about leaving for a month or two?"

"Yeah, I think so," I recall the event vaguely.

"Well he brought it up again.  He thinks he'll be leaving for a month soon, but he won't tell me why. Like, how suspicious is that? I'm fucking annoyed," she huffs.  Val doesn't usually swear.

"Well now I'm really curious too.  I don't understand why he's keeping this secret.  You're in a relationship and he can't tell you? It can't be that big of a deal, surely?" I say.

"I don't know anymore.  He mentioned Luke's name, but not much about him. I don't know if he's involved or not, but could you ask him maybe?  I don't want to lose Ashton, but I just need to know."

"Yeah, of course I will," I say, pulling into the driveway of her brick house.

She heads straight for he kitchen and I follow. I grab a pack of fruit snacks with a cup of apple juice and sit on her couch, but there isn't anything interesting on the television right now.  A knock at the door interrupts our rant about our history teacher. I look over at Val and raise my eyebrows.

"Expecting someone?" I ask.

"I didn't think so," she says, clearly confused.  She stands up and walks over to the door. Around the corner, I hear the door open for a split second and slam back shut. What the hell?

I'm about to stand up and figure out what's going on when I hear a voice outside the door yell, "Valerie! Come on, let me talk to you," the voice yells.  Ashton.

"No!" she yells.

"I'll explain everything, just please open the door!"  I know she will give in.  She feels the need to know the answer to everything.

"Fine," she huffs and the door clicks open, "What?"

"I'm really sorry for the other night I—"