Paul Lahote's entire life shifts at the sight at Valentina Thurston. Her warmth and kindness effectively forces him to reconsider his bad boy persona he'd put on for so long. Though, she does have her own small, ever-growing, obstacles to overcome...
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Valentina awoke to three missed calls from Jacob, who had left mysterious and worrying voicemails in her inbox.
"Val! Val! I don't know what's happening but it - AH! - but it hurts so badly!" A loud scream tore from Jacob's throat and Valentina cringed, not knowing if she could stomach the rest of the voicemail, yet she did. "I need - I need you to tell Bella that - AH!" A loud, almost ripping sound came from the speaker of her phone and the teen jumped, tears filling her eyes at the sound of her friend's panicked voice. However, with the sound came the end of the message and when the feminine voice asked her to press one to hear the next message, she did.
"Val." Jacob was crying. "Val I-I don't know what happened. I j-just-" Her friend was suddenly cut off by a deep, rich voice that would have been soothing had the words that accompanied it not been dipped in a vile tone.
"He'll have to call you back, Val." The way the stranger spoke her voice was harsh, yet she wanted to hear it again. His voice was soft over his anger, like water extinguishing a fire. Valentina became worried again as the message ended. She was almost scared to play the last item in her inbox; and the fear stayed even after she had played it for only herself to hear. The tantalizing fear she felt morphed into despair as she thought of ways to tell Bella what Jacob's monotonous voice told her.
The teen did notice how the first voicemail in her inbox was marked with a timestamp of only 9:36, not long after Jake had left the theater seething in anger at Mike; and the second was only minutes after the first. However, the last message came three hours after the second, leading her to believe that Jacob had thought very hard about his words. Valentina quickly got up, pulling on black jeans that ripped at the knees and a large white sweater. As she pulled on her white slip-ons, she heard her phone ringing and she rushed to answer it, hoping it would be Jacob with an explanation.
"Hey Val! Are we still meeting at the diner?" Bella's soft voice asked, ignorant of the potentially threatening situation her best friend was in.
"Uh y-yeah!" Valentina tried her best to sound confident and reassured, though she was sure her words failed her.
Luckily for Valentina, however, Bella was oblivious to the stutter of certainty and chirped out a single, "Awesome!" before ending the call. With a heavy sigh, Valentina combed her fingers through her hair and made use of concealer, blush, and mascara. She placed a gold ring on her finger and a simple gold necklace around her neck before actually brushing her hair and leaving her room.
"Dad, I need a ride."
"Have you made your bed?" Daniela asked her daughter.
"Of course I have!" Valentina had not, but did not feel like heaving herself back upstairs to make a bed she would get back into later.
"Where am I taking you, Vallie?" Chris asked, a cup of steaming coffee in his hand.
"To the diner just down the street. I'd walk but it is just...too much work for me." Her parents laughed and she gave them a warm smile before walking out to her father's car.
"Have a good time, prinses!" Chris yelled from the window as he drove out of the small parking lot. Valentina waved back to him before walking into the diner, the aroma of freshly cooked burgers and baking pies greeting her.
She noticed Bella in their usual booth, a milkshake on each side of the table and a large plate of fries in the middle.
"Bella, have I ever told you that I am, truly, in love with you?" Valentina asked her friend as she shoved steaming fries in her mouth.
"As if I wasn't already certain of that," Bella laughed and they both noted how true it was, though neither opted to say that out loud. As her eyes widened in remembrance, Bella asked, "Did you speak to Jake after last night? I called him and he didn't pick up so I talked to his dad and he didn't give me anything."
Opting to lie and figure out what had happened to Jacob herself, Valentina simply shook her head. When Bella's shoulders fell, she almost reconsidered, yet didn't.
"Maybe he's sick." It wasn't entirely a lie.
"Yeah, maybe," Bella responded.
Valentina simply could not bring herself to tell Bella Swan that Jacob had told her - over the phone - that he never wanted to see his best friends again.
A week later, Jacob had still not returned Bella's calls. His father called it mono, and yet Bella was unconvinced. Valentina had not had the time to go to the reservation, or even come up with anything to say to Jacob when she confronted him for being an asshole.
"Val, I need your help." These were the first words out of Bella when Valentina opened her front door.
"O-Ok. With?"
"I need to confront Jacob."
With that, the two teens set off for the Black household. As they approached, the light sprinkle became torrential downpour, almost sensing the shift in emotion. As the truck squealed to a stop, the girls noticed Jacob walking out of his house.
"Stay here for now, I don't want you to get sick," Bella ordered her friend before climbing out of her truck, angrily setting off for Jake, who now donned very short tufts of black hair.
Valentina could not hear the conversation but noticed how dismissive Jacob seemed to be towards Bella. When Bella shrank in on herself, Valentina decided that was her cue to join them.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Jacob asserted, "You've been lying to everyone - Charlie, Valentina, but you can't lie to me. Not anymore, Bella." A group of boys suddenly called out to Jacob, beckoning him to the treeline. Jake looked at them, then back at Bella, almost painfully, "Look, Bella, we can't be friends anymore."
"J-Jake I know that I've been...hurting you." Even through the rain, it was obvious Bella was crying. "It's been killing me. It kills me. I just need, like, maybe give me some time or something?"
Jacob shook his head, "It's not you."
Bella was exasperated, "'It's not you, it's me' right? Really?" Val could only watch the two fight, not knowing what to say or even when to say it.
"It's true. It is me. I'm not...good. I used to be - a good kid. Not anymore. This doesn't even matter, this is over, just like I told Valentina."
There it is. The one thing she didn't plan for came back for her in the end.
"Like you told Valentina? When did you talk to her?" Bella looked between her friends, a sense of disbelief washing over her.
Jacob was almost confused, "Last week. After the movie, I called and left three messages."
Bella turned to Val, "You told me you hadn't talked to him!"
Valentina held her hands up in defense, "Which wasn't exactly a lie! I hadn't talked to him, he talked to me. And told me he never wanted to see us again." Bella had nothing to say, she simply walked away.
"Bella, wait!" Valentina called out, "I didn't wanna lie to you-"
The older teen cut her off, "But you did. You both did."
"I didn't wanna hurt you," Valentina yelled, choked by sobs.
"Well you're just a natural I guess!"
Hurt by her friend's words, Valentina yelled out, "You're being such a baby!"
"At least I'm not pregnant!" At that moment, everything seemed to stop for Valentina. Bella's pale hand covered her mouth before she began ushering apologies.
Valentina looked at Jacob, then Bella, before she ran off in no general direction, just away.
