Ten Years Later
Valentine
“No I can’t take it anymore! I should have left you when I had the choice!” my mother’s scream echoes me out of my sleep. I throw off the covers and sit up on my bed. “I don’t even know why I married you!” my father’s voice booms across the house. “You are a selfish jerk! You never thought anything about me. You just took a job here and expected everyone else to follow you here! Can you imagine how hard it must be on Valentine?” my mother yelled again. “Oh I don’t think her worry is your concern. I think you are more worried about how things ended between you and that underage gardener! I can only imagine what bush he was trimming!” my father screams and I hear heavy footsteps. “How dare you!” my mother yells. “I am not even sure this is my child!” my father yells and I hear my mother’s sharp intake of breath. Soon after clashing of expensive cutlery follows. I get up from my bed and head to the adjacent bathroom.

Just another normal day in my sweet family… I brush and I am vaguely aware of their shouts and screams and I don’t even try to go and stop them. It will only backfire on me. I learned that the hard way. I look at my reflection and there are light dark circles under my eyes but I am sure they are temporary because I have had some trouble sleeping in the new bed and unpacking and thinking about joining new school. “Valentine get ready or else you will be late for school!” my mother yells. “Almost ready” I yell back as I put on my toms. I wear a casual loose top with dark jeans. I don’t like dressing up too much. I put on some mascara and light concealer under my eyes to cover up the dark circles and sheen my lips with a pink tinted gloss. After I pull my messy blonde hair in a high ponytail I walk downstairs.

This house is larger than our previous house and in a ‘safe’ neighborhood as my dad convinced my mom. When I get down I see dad reading his newspaper and mom cooking something in the kitchen. “There you are” my mom kisses my forehead and gets back to cooking. She serves both me and dad our respective breakfast and we eat silently not even making eye contact with each other. After we are done eating dad gets up and walks out, me following close. He takes his briefcase and kisses my mom on her check and before I leave, she kisses my cheek and I see her pat her pregnant belly and waver her hand at us with a smile on her face as I leave with dad. This is my family.

It is all about the show. They always believed in perfection and that included their marriage. It was such sorrow that what should have been perfect between two perfect people turned out to be such a disaster. They were so hung up on keeping the face of a perfect family on that they failed to actually work on it. I knew what would happen this evening. My mother will cook my father’s favorite dish for dinner and my dad will bring home an expensive gift with a sorry note for the fight this morning and will apologize for not consulting my mom before taking the job in Bradford. My mom will admit she may have overreacted. He will kiss her. They will make up. Perfect people. On the other hand I was the not so perfect daughter of these perfect couple. I never have been. My relation with my parents was as good as the man behind the counter in the gas station.

Their answer for everything was money. My mother believed money solves everything. My dad never cared enough to talk to me more than that was necessary. As the trees pass by in the suburban area I think… this is the first day of my school… senior year of high school… in a completely new school. There was no chance I would make any friends. Even in my last school was a loner. I was so used to the silence at home I never really was interested in talking to other people. There were some girls who could be termed as my friends like Mona and Talia but even then I answered them in monosyllables or shrugs. This year was going to be the same, just thousands of miles away from home. The worst part staying here is I am seventeen and I still can’t drive here. He drops me off. “Okay Val, your mother will come pick you up okay?” he asks and I nod. I look at him drive away and then I stand there looking at the large building in front of me.

I will have to spend this whole here in this school. Where I don’t know a single soul. A place where I have no idea where what is. I will have to spend this whole year alone, completely alone. I am lost in my thought when someone rudely bumps into me. “Watch where you’re going” the guy who bumped into me looks up from the cell phone in his palm up to me. Excuse me? I was standing here and he was the one who bumped into me. How dare he say that? Especially how rudely could he say that? “Dude I was standing here, you were the one who bumped into me. I suggest next time you walk, don’t text” I say and if Mona and Talia had seen me now their mouth would have been hanging open and even I am surprised by my answer. Not only is this my longest sentence in about more than two weeks, it is the fact that I retaliated. I was so sued to fights and quarrel I never really gave any reactions to this but today I don’t know what happened but I retorted.

“You’re new here” he says it more as a statement. That is when I actually notice him. Dark hair, honey colored eyes, thick eyelashes, high cheek bones, prominent chin, sharp nose, red lips… oh god those lips… I don’t think I have ever seen a guy have such dark red lips. His tongue darts out to lick his lip and vivid series of images pass my mind what that tongue could actually do. Val get a hold of yourself. I mimic his actions licking my chapped lips. I answer his statement anyways. “Yes I am, why?” I ask unsure why he asked me that. Probably because I don’t have British accent. “You’ll know soon enough” he says and tucks the cellphone in the pocket of his leather jacket and turns to walk away. I only look at him getting smaller in size to my vision before I see him get into a black SUV and drive away.

What the hell was that supposed to mean? I shrug and move inside the building trying not to think about the mysterious man I just had an encounter with. I have already done the formalities and taken my schedule so I head straight head for my first class. I enter and find the corner most seats. The teacher asks me to introduce myself and after that I spend my time doodling on the notebook while the teacher teaches in the class. The bell rings and I instantly pack up my bags and get out heading to my next class. My next class is same. I doodle on pages and look outside the window while the teacher keeps teaching. The teacher asks me a question and I answer it. Math goes by and I solve the questions easily. Another boring class, more doodling. Literature is something I like so I actually pay attention.

The class doesn’t go as I planned it would be, instead it is more tedious than the other classes. So I get back to doodling and chewing on the rubber at the end on the pencil. “Hey do you have an extra pencil?” the boy who sat next to me asks. I turn to look at him with a bored expression and he flashes me a smile. Over the past years I have been told multiple times that I came under the ‘pretty girl’ zone as Mona called it and ‘Hot zone’ as Talia said but I never really paid attention to that. Yes I have had a couple of boyfriends in the past but none of my relationship worked out because of the same thing – I was too closed up. I never opened up. I was yet to discover whether it was true. I never had much to tell them.

Here what was happening was very obvious to me. The guy looks at the attractive quite girl, asks her for a pencil, the next day he returns it and somehow manages to take her number, soon that very night a text comes from an unknown number and the texting starts, then the boy asks the girl out is not so subtle way and they go out for a couple of weeks only to have an ugly breakup. Yeah not up for that. When I shifter here I promised myself one thing. I would at least try to change. That is what I promised Mona and Talia too. This doesn’t mean I am going to get drunk off my ass and run around the street topless but I will try to be more outspoken. I am almost tempted to start up a conversation with the cute guy sitting beside me but I know it will just end like the rest of my relationships so I take the pencil I was using and him that before taking out a pen and continuing doodling.

“You don’t talk much do you?” the guy asks and I look at him again. I raise an eyebrow in silent question and he laughs but soon covers up with a cough when the teacher looks in our direction. “Hi I am Christopher” he extends his hand to me when the teacher keeps continuing her class. “Valentine” I say and keep doodling on the notebook not shaking his hand. “Valentine huh? So what you were born on 14th Feb or something?” the guy asks and I look at him. He is clearly not getting that I don’t want to talk to him. The man has styled light brown hair which is borderline blonde with deep green eyes. He is quite attractive but I am definitely not going to keep it on.

“Yes actually” I say in a clipped tone and hope he gets the message. He doesn’t. “Huh so where are you from?” he asks. I don’ want to answer. I just want to look away but I answer him nonetheless. “Boston” I try to keep my answers as short as possible but the whole time he keeps asking me questions. It is irritating but he is also funny and charming perhaps so it is not as bad as I initially thought it would be. The bell rings and the students pack up to leave.
I come out of the class the familiar buzz and hum of high school students filled the hallways. I made my way to the cafeteria and took only an apple and a juice and headed towards the area where everyone was sitting. Here benches were out in open area. Every place seemed to be occupied by people. I hoped to find an empty bench where I could sit alone but obviously that is not going to happen. The day was nice. It was a pleasant weather with the sun shining and there is a gentle breeze.

I see an empty bench with only one girl sitting there. The bench is on the other corner of where I am standing but even from this far I can tell she is beautiful. She has a slim frame and long dark hair. She seems to be reading a book so I approach her. “Is this seat taken?” I ask and she looks up from her book to asses me. Her eyes are of caramel hue with a bit of green mixed in them. She just shrugs and I sit opposite to her. I bite into my apple and try to see which book she is reading but I can’t. “So what book are you reading?” I ask and she looks up again. She is right now giving me pretty much the same look I gave that guy from my lit class. “Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf” she answers and gets back to reading her book and I decide not to ask her more.

After a few seconds she closes her book and looks up at me again. “You’re new here aren’t you?” the girl asks me. I mean why the fuck does people keep asking me this question? “Yes I am. Is it so obvious because I don’t have British accent?” I say exasperated. First that guy near the parking lot and now her. Wait what was her name?... I don’t think she told me her name. “No not because of your accent. Because you’re sitting with me” she simply answers and goes back to reading her book. I look around and see most of the students glancing at me and whispering among themselves. What the fuck is going on? The girl in front of me seems oblivious to the attention our table is receiving but I am majorly uncomfortable. “Why is everyone staring at us?” I whisper. I never liked attention so this was definitely not something I was looking forward to on my first day here.

“I am Raven” the girl says and stuffs the book in her satchel. “I am Valentine but you can call me Val” I say and remember that I asked her a question she didn’t answer. “You didn’t answer my question” I say and she cocks her head to her side. “It is not us they are staring at, it is you” she simply answers. “So why are they staring at me?” I ask. “Because you are sitting here” “So what? Nobody is allowed to sit here except you?” I laugh. “Pretty much” she shrugs and my laugh increases but dies quickly when she is not laughing.

“Why aren’t you laughing?” I ask. “Do you want to go somewhere people are not looking at you like you are an E.T?” she asks and stands up pulling her satchel with her. I look around and yes they are looking at us or me like I am alien so against my better judgment I get up too. “Yes please”


A/N: HEY EVERYONE. STORY UPDATE!!!
AND I JUST WANT TO SAY HOW MUCH I LIKE READING ALL OF YOUR COMMENTS.
CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM AND SUPPORT IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED.
HOPE YOU GUYS LIKE THIS CHAPTER.
P.S. I KNOW I HAVE A LOT OF TYPOS IN THE STORY BUT BEAR WITH ME BECAUSE I HARDLY EVER PROOFREAD ANY OF MY CHAPTERS.
:)

Notes