Chapter Twenty-One
Soon after we shut the door, Winnie gets a text from Eloise asking if she wants to play bingo in the rec hall with her and Ivy.
I know why they don’t invite me. It’s partly because they know I wouldn’t want to go, but mostly because the one other time I’ve played bingo, I got so competitive I was escorted out of the retirement home.
The girls still joke about it to this day, saying they were shocked I didn”t body slam the elderly ladies every time one of them called BINGO.I still hold the position that I was never in the business of attacking geriatrics, and I should have never been escorted out.
Winnie leaves to meet them down in the lobby, and I follow behind to get a bucket of ice from the ice machine down the hall. While she goes toward the elevator, I head back toward the room.
As I’m walking, my phone rings.
‘Perfect timing,’ I think to myself,
I pull it out and hold it to my ear as I continue down the hall toward my room, but almost stop in my tracks when I see Jameson going into the room right next to mine. I try not to take notice of it, but it is almost impossible when I can feel the tension of my biggest competitor staying in the room right next door.
I don’t say anything though as I answer my phone without even looking at the caller ID. I quickly walk past Jameson and unlock my room.
“Hey, smartass.” I hear from the call as I step into my room. I know who it is immediately.
I counter, “Hey, nerd.”
Valerie Mason.
Valerie is possibly the only person I’ve ever considered a friend beyond my immediate circle at Fairwood Prep. Currently an undergraduate student at NYU, Valerie’s been double majoring in engineering and chemistry since she graduated high school at the age of sixteen.She’s my age and may be one of the few people who can match me academically without competing against me.
She is probably considered a genius, but no one would know because she’s never done the true test to calculate her IQ.
In contrast, I’ve taken the test at least a dozen times in my life. She knows she’s smart enough to succeed, considering she started kindergarten at three years old. She doesn’t feel the need to know anything beyond that.
That’s one thing I envy about Valerie. I don’t doubt she could be just as smart, if not smarter than me, but she doesn’t care to know.
She’s that sure of herself, and I love her for it.
When Eloise, Winnie, and I met Valerie while we were touring NYU last year, and she was already going into her freshman year, it felt like fate. The four of us have remained friends since, but Valerie and I always had a closer bond.
She encompasses all the parts of me that I’m too scared to act on.She’s happy, funny, and not afraid of the repercussions of her non-detrimental actions.
“Since when do you come to New York and not tell me about it?” she asks exaggeratedly. “I feel betrayed.”
“Did you change your major to drama and not inform me?” I ask sarcastically, slipping my heels off my feet as I open the curtains. “How did you even find out about the ski trip, anyway? Usually, I’m the one to inform you.”
“Well, you failed to inform me, so I had to do my own research. I can’t believe you forced my hand like that!”
“Oh, so you’re keeping tabs on me now?” I taunt.
“You are in the center of New York City, the place I live, and decide against telling me? Come on, Gen, I want to see you!”
“I figured you were busy, dear. Since you are in college and all.”
She scoffs and I can immediately imagine her throwing her head back in feigned agony.That’s another thing about Valerie, she’s predictable. To me, at least.
“School is a breeze right now, and you’re only in the city one week out of the entire year.” Her voice is elongated as she tries to prove her point. “Are you hungry? Let’s get dinner!”
“Not hungry,” I say plainly, opening the sliding door to my balcony and stepping out to lean over the railing. “Why don’t you stop by the hotel? I’ll text you my room number and we can play a game of chess.”
“I’m hailing a cab!” She calls, sounding further away.
“When did you get outside?”
“I just got off the elevator of my apartment building!” She yells cheerfully, and I notice the background noise of people in her lobby.
God, she’s fast.
“Okay, okay. I’ll see you soon, Val.” I grin as she says goodbye, hanging up.
I don’t know what the worst part of opening my hotel room to an overly excited Valerie was: the squealing that threatened to break my eardrums or the hug she pulled me into immediately after.
I hadn’t even closed the door behind her before she was practically tackling me.
“Genevieve Rose! I’m still mad at you!” She pulls away just enough for me to see her grinning face. She’s holding me in the most loving way I have ever been held.
It isn’t the first time I’ve had the realization that she is one of my best friends, but it isn’t any less surprising.It is shockingly odd that this is the moment for this recurring realization, while she is holding me in a rib crushing hug.
“I know you can’t be mad at me for long, Valerie Paige.”
She pulls away from me again, looking at me with a confused expression. “How do you know my middle name?”
I shrug. “It was on your student ID around your neck the day we met.”
“Oh, the good ole days!” She exasperates, throwing her arms in the air, finally detaching herself from around my shoulders. “You need to visit more. Before you know it we’re going to be using walking canes and box dyeing our hair because we’re too embarrassed of our gray locks.”
“Shut up, I just visited a couple months ago! And we’re still spring chickens!”
“Yeah, except for the fact that I spend my Friday nights with bacteria cultures in a lab.”
“That doesn’t make you old.” I ruffle her hair playfully, finally shutting the door to my hotel room. “That makes you smart.”
“I feel like I’m draining my youth down a chem lab sink.” She frowns, flopping onto my bed.
“Sure, make yourself right at home,” I joke, lying next to her. “And you’re not washing away your youth, you”re saving it. Think about it, Val. You’re going to be done with grad school at the same time most people are done with their bachelor’s degree. You’re ahead of the game.”
“Yeah, but those people are getting an actual college experience. Meanwhile, I’m not even twenty-one yet. I don’t get to experience frat parties or keg stands because I’m viewed as a child.”
“I’ll take you to a frat party when we’re both twenty-one, Val. I swear they’re not as cool as what you’re doing in that fancy lab of yours.”
“It’s not mine,” she mumbles, making me smile.
“It sounds like it is. You spend every waking moment there.” That makes her scoff.
“I’m here now, aren’t I?” This is why I love Val. She pretends she doesn’t know when I’m joking and then makes her own joke about it. “Are we going to play chess, or what?”
“Well, I don’t see a chessboard anywhere. Did you forget it in your cab?” This time, she thinks I’m being serious.
“You never told me I was bringing the board!” She looks around the room for any sign I’m messing with her. “Where’s yours?”
I couldn’t hold in my laughter any longer. Valerie realizes I was kidding, and her face goes stoic.
“You asshole.” She sighs as I stand from the bed, retrieving the chessboard from my suitcase.
Sometimes I feel like I never truly connected with kids my age. That was until I met Valerie when we were almost adults. Sure, I have Eloise and Winnie, but I’ve never had the type of friend that understands me on an intellectual level.
Eloise and Winnie are smart, but they also have other things to focus on. For Valerie and I, our entire lives have revolved around school, and our intelligence, which is what they could never relate to.
“Why are you even in New York for a ski trip? The city isn’t exactly known for its mountains of snow,” Val asks as I set the chessboard up on a small TV tray that sits on the bed between us.
“Because we don’t actually do a lot of skiing while we’re here. We go maybe two days, and all the other days we do things the school wants us to do, like college fairs and tours. Really, they call it a ski trip to con us into coming.”
“Remind me to never go to a private school,” she says, sounding serious.
“You already went to one, Val.”
She laughs and places the last king on the chessboard. “Okay, you ready?” She asks from the opposite side of the bed.
“Yup, let’s get going.” I move one of my white pawns forward.
With light conversation and casual bickering, we are now on the third game of chess. We both won once, and I was now losing the tie breaker.It’s been hours since we’ve moved from our positions on the hotel bed.
Sometimes I forget how much longer chess games take when you’re playing against someone who really knows how to play, in comparison to when I usually play with Logan or Luke, who both understand chess, but not nearly as well as Val.
“Oh, I have a question for you,” Val says as if she just remembered her question. “Do you know someone named Luke Shepard?”
“Yeah... Why?” I didn’t want to take the time to explain how I know Luke until Val confesses why she wants to know him.
“He barged into my lab last night at like ten thirty. I’d never seen him there before, but I saw his visitor pass said he was from Fairwood.”
I nod in understanding. “Yeah, I know him very well.”
Her eyebrows furrow. “How?”
“He has been a part of my friend group my entire life. We grew up together, and he went to prom with El. You remember Eloise, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I still talk to Eloise and Winnie.” I nod, not having much else to add. “So, does Luke study chemistry? Or what?”
“He’s still in high school, so not yet, but I’m not sure whether or not he’s planning to.”
“That’s why I was confused. I’ve never seen him in any of my science or lab classes. It seems odd that he showed up there.”
“How do you know his name, then?” Her face is immediately covered with a guilty expression, and I raise my eyebrows at her.
“I hacked the sign-in form.” She admits after a few moments of silence.
“You what?” My eyes go wide. “How do you even do that?”
“We sign into the lab building electronically. One of my friends who’s a tech major taught me how to get into it last year.”
I don’t even want to know why she would even need to do that in the first place. “Well, if he was there to do forbidden activities, he wouldn’t have signed in using his real name; he’s smarter than that.”
“Just not as smart as us,” she amends.
I smirk. “Oh, my dear, no one could ever defeat us in that department.” My faux old, English accent could probably cause ears to bleed, but Val only smiles at it.
“You are right, darling.” She uses the same type of God-awful accent as she grabs my hands. “No one could defeat us. Ever.”
We’re smiling like idiots. “Not when we’re together.”
“You know, usually you’re a lot more serious, even around me.”
It’s true, I’m typically serious and stern around everyone. I don’t enjoy letting go of my sophisticated composure.
Lately though, especially now that I’ve gotten a chance to hang around Valerie, I’ve felt less of a need to keep this type of posture around the people who don’t care about it.Valerie doesn’t care if I’m serious and sophisticated. She likes being around me, and that makes me want to let go and have more fun than I usually allow myself.
“I don’t know,” I answer. “I feel like it makes being around me easier when I don’t act like a stuck-up bitch.”
I don’t think her face could spread into any wider of a grin. “I appreciate you being authentic around me, Gen.”
My voice wavers. “I’m not sure if it’s authentic yet.”
“Well, then I don’t want it.” She speaks concisely, with a power that I respect beyond belief.
I love her almost as much as someone could platonically love a best friend. A type of love that nears the type I have for Winnie or Eloise.
“I’m glad you’re keeping tabs on me, Val. I really love having you here.” “Even if you’re beating me at chess yet again,” I almost add, but don’t.
“I will always be here.” She sounds sincere, and I know she means it. “Wherever you are, whenever you need me, I’ll be here.”
“When’s your next class?” It’s Sunday, so I know she doesn’t have any today.
“Tomorrow.” She almost groans. “Chem 310. Bright and early at eight in the morning.”
I almost laugh at her misery. “I warned you not to take early morning classes.”
Her pointed look says it all. “I’ve been in college longer than you have; there’s not much for you to warn me about.”
She was right. I changed the subject. “Have you talked to your mom?”
I’ve met Val’s mom on a multitude of occasions, and she’s a saint. To me, at least.
Val doesn’t have quite the same opinion as I do. “It’s been a few weeks, but yeah. Last I checked, she’s doing fine. She’s still not up for visitors and doesn”t really like talking on the phone for too long because it hurts her head.”
“You don’t have to pretend you don’t have feelings about it, Val.”
I am quick to realize I shouldn’t have said anything.
Six months ago, Valerie’s mother was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer and has been in and out of the hospital for the past few months.
She nods, but I know she’s fighting herself. “I wish there was more I could do.”
“Val, you’re pouring your entire life savings into getting her the best medical care possible. There’s nothing more you could be doing if she doesn’t want you to.”
“I know she’s not forbidding me from seeing her because she doesn’t want me there.” She scrubs her hands down her face. “She’s doing it because she thinks I don’t want to be there.”
That was true. I had heard Valerie’s mom say countless times over the phone “Honey, you don’t want to see me like this. Let’s just wait until I’m better. Then, you can visit all you want.”
“It just sucks,” Valerie sighs. She doesn”t want to show emotion, but she’s a sensitive girl who can’t help it. I don’t blame her; I have no idea where my head would be if I were in her shoes.
“I know it does.” I don’t, actually, but that’s what people say when they don’t quite know how to console someone they love. “I mean, I can only imagine how much it sucks.”
“She’s my mother, and she claims she doesn’t want me to see her.” Her eyes are welling even faster as I push the TV tray out from between us, making pieces of the chessboard go flying all over the carpet. We’re both too distracted to care.
“You know how she is. She doesn’t want to see you until she’s at her best.”
“Well, what if her ‘best’ is dead?” She uses hand quotations, then lays her arms at her side.
“Valerie.” I can’t do anything but sigh.
It is true that I have no idea exactly what she is feeling; I have already been open about that. But I have never even thought about the possibility of Valerie’s mother dying.So, I couldn’t help but question how Valerie ever could.
“Isn’t that awful? That I’m even thinking of that possibility?” Tears are freely falling down her pale cheeks.
I’ve never been in a situation like this. What is the proper etiquette of consoling someone who is crying over their sick mother?
I have no idea. I’m working entirely off instinct that I did not know I possessed. I have never been a hugger, or a huge fan of physical affection at all, but the only instinct I can think of is to reach across the bed and wrap my arms around her shoulders.
She falls forward, and my immediate reaction is to pull back. Nope, this happens when people hug, I remind myself.
She retracts almost as quickly as she fell into the embrace, wiping her tears away quickly and taking a breath. “Sorry, sorry.”
“Shut up.” I want to laugh, but can’t, even when Valerie’s face portrays the slightest glimpse of a smile. “You know how much I care about you.”
She nods, and it’s almost like a switch flips. She’s suddenly washing any sign of sadness off her face, sitting up straight, and looking as fierce as ever.
“Okay, let’s change the topic.” She claps her hands together, smiling.
“To what?”
“How about a certain someone you happen to be competing against?” God, no. God, please no.
“How do you know about Jameson?” This sounds like the start of an unpleasant conversation.
“Oh, I’ve heard all about it from Eloise and Winnie. I just need more details in order to confirm my timeline.” She presses her palms together in front of her before setting them down in her lap as she crosses her legs.
“What do you mean by ‘timeline?’”
She shrugs, already looking guilty. “I’m just mapping out my predictions of when you guys will “Oh, I don’t know…” She trails off before gushing out, “Get married, have kids―”
I cut her off. “What the hellare you talking about?”
“Oh, come on!” Valerie throws her head back. “From what I’ve heard, the tension between you two could be cut with a knife. My bet is that you guys will at least fuck once or twice before you graduate.”
“We don’t like each other, Val.”
She points a finger at me in a way that says “Aha! “You didn’t deny it!”
“Deny what?” I almost laugh. “I can’t even deny your treacherous statement when the logistics of it don’t make sense!”
“Are you forgetting that you are within his proximity all the time?” She wiggles her eyebrows in faux lust. “Including right now. We should see if we can figure out what room he’s in, I bet we could bribe the front desk.”
Valerie is a complex person with the brains beyond any I have ever seen outside of myself, but she is also more fantastical than I could ever be.
“I don’t even like him as a friend, Val. Let alone as anything more venereal.”
“I think you’re in the stage of denial.”
“What grief am I experiencing?” I counter, leaning back against the firm hotel pillows.
She grins like the town idiot. “The loss of The Jameson Beaumont Experience.”
“You sound like you’re speaking from a certain type of experience,” I tease, pulling on her arm so she’s forced to lie on her back next to me.
“God, I wish.” She groans, flopping backward. “I’ve seen the homecoming pictures. He’s quite the looker.”
I give her a timid look. “Obviously, I wouldn’t recommend Jameson Beaumont to be your Mr. Dreamboat, but if you want to go for it, go right ahead. No one’s stopping you.”
The hair I’ve been twirling between my fingers to no end slowly starts to fray and split at the ends.
Valerie turns over to punch me in the arm. I wince in response, dropping the strands of hair to rub at the sore spot. “Ow!” I’m being dramatic, and she knows it. “What was that for?”
“Don’t sit here and tell me I should go for Jameson when it’s clear I want you to. I don’t have a thing for him—not that he isn’t super hot or anything. I wanted to see if you would take the jealousy bait, which you clearly didn’t.”
“That’s because I have nothing to be jealous about. You want him? He’s yours, lover girl.”
Valerie seems to give up on her failed attempts. “Smartass.” She breaks out in a smile. I’m grinning too.
“Nerd.”