<completed>Promise (Juliantina)

33

Val just kept running and running until she is out of breath, Diego was licking her tears away. 
She speed-dial Chloe to meet her, Chloe didn't ask a question, she immediately drove over to where they are and brought them to her house. They made a quick stop to buy some canned food for Diego.

Throughout the car ride, it was silent. Val was looking at the window, thinking back and unconsciously she started crying. Diego jumped up and down on Val's lap trying to lick her face to comfort her. Chloe noticed the commotion, she handed over a box of tissue to Val and stroked her hand to comfort her.

Finally, they have reached Chloe's place. Chloe holds onto Diego's leash and let him walk, while she has her arm around Val and they made their way into the house. Val dropped herself to the couch, and Diego was sniffing out the new environment. Chloe went to get two glasses of red and sat on the coffee table facing Val who's on the couch.

Val grabbed the glass and drank it all at once.

"What happened?"

Val started crying, Chloe went over to her side and laid Val's head onto her lap. "Shhh shhh. Hey Val, you don't have to tell me now, just cry it all out. Feel better when you are ready to do so. I'm right here."

Chloe was stroking Val's hair and Diego was too tired that he fell asleep on the floor near their feet. Chloe noticed Val has stopped crying, "do you wanna get up and wash up before we go to bed?"

Val got up and shook her head, Chloe went to get refill for their glasses with red.

"She cheated on me."

Upon hearing that, Chloe dropped one of the glasses and cut herself. "Fuck!"

Val immediately got up and went to the kitchen, "I'm sorry, let me help you with that." Val grabbed a kitchen towel to stop the bleeding on the palm.

Chloe tucked a stray strand of hair behind Val's ear and gently strokes Val's cheek, "I'm so sorry to hear that..." She grabs Val's head and rest it onto her shoulder, she rubs circles on Val's back to comfort her. They stood like that for a couple of minutes, "Val, I hate to tell you but I'm getting a cramp here if we continue to stand in this position."

Val smiles faintly, and pull Chloe to the sink to wash off the remaining dried blood on her palm and cleared the shattered glasses lying on the floor. She managed to find a first aid box and bandage up Chloe's wound. "Hey, let's go up. You need to rest."

Both of them are sitting at the edge of the bed, holding onto their glasses of red.

"With who?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"She cheated on you with who?"

"Our new neighbour..."

"How?! He or she? I mean we are talking about Jul here... I hate to ask this but are you certain about it?"

"I saw Jul coming out from her place, Ashleigh was half-naked trailing behind her... If you were in my shoes, what would you think?!"

"Shit Val, I'm so sorry..." Chloe reaches out to Val's hand.

"It didn't strike to me that Jul will be the one who cheats in this relationship, I thought you will be the one because the number of girls who are pining for you is insane... I have to ask this million dollar question- Is Ashleigh hot?"

"Fuck you Chloe!"

"Hey, i'm just trying to gather facts here on why Jul will do this to you..."

"Yes, she is. Jul asked if i'm sexually attracted to Ashleigh and I said yes. You know the funny thing is, she actually wanted to matchmake you and Ashleigh... Now look at what it turned out to be.... I shouldn't have let her go over to Ashleigh's place."

"Wait, so you knew Ashleigh before Jul?"

"Yeah, I saw Ashleigh on one of the morning walks with Diego, back then I didn't know she is our neighbour so I let it pass until Jul saw her again at the beach. She invited Jul to her place for tea and that's how it happened."

"Don't you think it happened too fast? Like something is not right, how can Jul cheat on you with her when they barely know each other?"

"You do know how does one night stand works right?"

"Ohhh I got you...."

"But seriously speaking, we are talking about Jul here. I'm sure there's a reason why she did this, why don't you give a chance to explain her side of story? You need to know the truth.. You said that Ashleigh is hot, maybe Jul thinks so too and temptation kicks in?"

"I need time and space from her, I couldn't think right now..." Val rubbed her temples and drank the glass of wine, she went down to grab another two bottles up and proceed to drink straight from the bottle itself.

"You are gonna get drunk if you drink at this rate, slow down..."

"Even better, then I won't remember what happened tonight..."

"Are you sure? You will wake up with a hangover and thinking why you drank that much last night and then everything will resurface again, do you want that? Don't be a coward and face the music. It's not your fault but you have to deal with it and not dodge it."

Val couldn't care less, she continue to drink from the bottle. Chloe tried to snatch it away from her but failed to do so, she decided to go down and check on Diego. By the time she came up back, she saw two empty bottles and Val was dead drunk on the floor.

The next morning.

Val woke up and groaned in pain. She felt like she got hit by a truck and her eyes roamed around the unfamiliar room. She suddenly flicked up the blanket on her and checked if she is fully clothed. Unfortunately, she was half-naked. She slowly turned to her side and see who's sleeping on the other side. She pulled down the blanket from the other party's face, she let a sigh of relief when she realised it was Chloe but then she saw Chloe who was half naked too. She panicked and woke Chloe up, Chloe turned around but with her eyes still closed. "Chloe, this is important. Can you wake up for a second?"

"Hmmm, yes?"

"What did we do last night? Why were we half-naked? Did we..."