the bucket list | lrh

36 - the last peaceful night

Valentine was bored. She wasn't enjoying the beer, and she definitely wasn't entertained by whatever sports news show the boys were watching. She didn't care for the new people she had met, after a short and awkward introduction from Mariam. Luke was glued to whatever wall was farthest from her, and she just didn't like it. She hated everything about the situation, but Valentine is not rude. Valentine would never speak such words, but she hated it enough to quietly and seamlessly slip from the group. As she wandered into her make shift bedroom, she left the door open in case anyone decided to visit. She was hoping for a certain blonde's attendance, but that never really came.

Instead, she sat in solitude for about ten minutes with nothing but the faint noise of a clock ticking to keep her company. Then—out of the blue, as this hadn't happened since Valentine left Texas—her phone began to ring. Initially, she'd assumed it was Scout calling to check up. She hadn't stayed true to her word, and she hadn't called him every night. She expected a slightly annoyed but understanding fatherly phone call, but she was a little surprised to see Mary's name instead.

As Valentine scrambled to close the door in attempts to silence the laughter from the other room, her mind went crazy with conspiracies. She wasn't really expecting Mary to be keeping touch throughout the trip, so she figured it must be important. As she clicked the button to answer the call at last, her hands only shook a little in anticipation.

She wasn't sure why she felt so nervous for something so simple as a call from her best friend from home, but something told her to be on guard.

"Hello?" Valentine finally spoke into her speaker, listening closely as shuffling sounds through from Mary's end.

"Val... hey," Mary greeted her friend, feeling a little drained from the night she'd had. After finding her mother in quite an interesting position, she had spent a while contemplating every decision she'd ever made in life.

"You okay? What happened?" Valentine panicked, not missing the way Mary was dragging her words out as if she was in pain. The little brunette had a great sense when it came to her friends, she was always an observer. She noticed little things, like Luke's accent thickening when telling a lie—or in this case, Mary slurring when she's upset.

"Hey, nothing I'm... I'm fine. What are you guys doing tonight? How's Cali?" Mary stalled, not exactly wanting to lead with what she really called about. She was confused, stressed out, and a bit angry. Mary needed to talk to her best friend about what she had just stumbled into, just like any twenty year old girl would. But this was a special occasion, and the blonde just couldn't reach out for comfort yet. She had to figure out how to say it first, then somehow find a good way to word it so not to absolutely terrify Valentine.

"It's good, I guess. Some stuff has happened but... I'm not really ready to talk about it yet... I'm kinda hiding from everyone right now." Valentine spoke softly, so not to let anyone overhear outside the comfort of her little room. She leaned back a little, making herself comfortable on the bed as she awaited her friends response.

"That's good! I'm glad you're not hating it, and you don't have to talk about anything unless you want to. You didn't have sex though, did you?" Mary did her best to come off like she usually did, but she could hardly keep from spilling everything.

"No! Of course not!" Valentine practically squealed in embarrassment. Sure, she'd done that before, but she never really liked talking about it. It was personal to her, and she surely wouldn't share those thoughts about Luke with Mary.

"Oh! Well, okay... where are you guys staying?"

"Actually, we're staying at Luke's old high school friends... Her name is Mariam, she's cool I guess, seems evil..."