Alix & Valerie

by Ingrid Diaz

  I had the urge to get up and hug her but I was afraid to move. I know how much it hurt me to lose my father. I couldn’t imagine how I would feel if he’d up and abandoned me instead. “Thanks for telling me,” I said lamely, not knowing what else to say.

  Her eyes softened as she smiled at me. “I’d tell you anything.”

  I smiled back, feeling flattered. She didn’t strike me as the type to go around sharing personal anecdotes with people.

  “Is there anything else you’d like me to clear up?” she asked, taking a sip of her Pepsi.

  Well, there was one more thing and as insignificant as it was, I couldn’t help but wonder. “I was just curious as to why you were working that Thursday we met.”

  Valerie laughed out loud. “Do you lie in bed thinking about all of these random things?”

  Well, yeah. Didn’t she? “Random things just pop into my head.” . . . As I’m lying in bed thinking about them.

  “Well, one of the waitresses quit that day and Dean called me in to help. That’s why I was doubling as both waitress and bartender, but I think you asked about that on our walk that night.”

  I felt quite foolish, yes I did, but at least my curiosity was satisfied. For now. “So I guess it was fate that we met.” Since when did I start believing in fate, I wondered.

  She studied me silently and half-smiled. “Perhaps.”

  Starting to nod, I suddenly said, “Wait, I have one more question.”

  “Can I buy a vowel?”

  I shook my head. “Wrong game show.”

  “Damn. Okay, shoot.”

  “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

  “Nope,” she answered quickly. “Are you done now?”

  I nodded and finished off the remainder of my dinner. “That was the best meal I’ve had in a really long time. Although, I’m rather fond of my junior bacon cheeseburgers.”

  “Thanks. I think.” She snapped her fingers. “I keep forgetting to ask if you ever heard back about your audition?”

  I shook my head sadly. “No. Guess I didn’t get it.” Then I shrugged. “That’s all right though, ’cause there’s a play coming up I want to audition for and being in the Baldwin Players would’ve taken away most of my free time.”

  “Well, we wouldn’t want that.”

  “Indeed not.” I sat back and patted my stomach thoughtfully. “So what’s for dessert?”

  Valerie arched an eyebrow and smiled suggestively. “What would you like?”

  I knew where she was going with that look, but I wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction that easily. Not yet anyway. “I’d like some ice cream.”

  She blinked a few times, clearly caught off-guard. “I don’t think I have any.”

  I stood up and reached for her hand. “Well, then we’d better get some.”

  Ò

  Somehow, dinner with Mathew and Jessica had turned into a high school reunion. I’d called Jessica Sunday morning to tell her that Valerie could make it and she informed me that she’d gotten us reservations for seven at Pepe Le Pew’s. Well, no that doesn’t sound right. But it was something French and expensive and had something to do with a Pepe that was hopefully not of the skunk variety. After much complaint on my part, however, plans changed and we agreed to meet at Chili’s. No way was I dressing up for dinner. She’d gotten me in a dress only two weeks prior and my dress-up quota had been met for the month. Besides, Jessica hated fancy restaurants. Had the honeymoon in Europe warped her fragile little mind?

  By the time Valerie and I showed up it was 7:42 and I was surprised to find that the guest list had been extended. They’d pushed together a couple of tables to make room. Jessica and Mathew were seated next to each other. To the left of Mathew were Jade and some guy I didn’t know. Across from them were Sarah (Mathew’s thirteen-year-old sister) and Roxanne.

  Taking a seat across from Mathew and next to Sarah, I said, “Sorry we’re late we were . . . um . . .” My mind went blank and I looked at Valerie who was in the process of sitting next to me.

  “Stuck in traffic,” she supplied in a way that made it obvious that it was not in fact where we’d been.

  I caught the blush that crept across my face in the mirror behind Mathew and Jessica and decided that I had to stop doing that. I’d been blushing too much lately. The madness had to stop. I cleared my throat. Then I proceeded to introduce Valerie to everyone and vice versa. When I came to the guy sitting next to Jade, I paused.

  “Oh. This is Jeremy.” Then she mouthed the words “the bloke.”

  For a moment I thought she’d said “the blow” and I furrowed my eyebrows in silent question. Then comprehension dawned on me and I nodded. “Nice to meet you, Jeremy,” I said politely. “So did you guys order already?”

  “What do we look like, barbarians?” Mathew asked. “We have some manners.”

  “They were making us wait until eight,” Roxanne added from her spot beside Sarah.

  “Well, then I’m glad we managed to get away from traffic just in time.” I said this from behind the shielding comfort of the menu. I was scanning the rows of equally tempting food when I felt warm breath tickle my ear.

  “Wanna share an order of Chicken Fajitas?” Valerie whispered.

  I nodded. She could’ve asked me if I wanted to jump off a bridge after dinner and I would’ve still nodded in agreement. Obsession and infatuation at its worst . . . or best depending on how you looked at things.

  Jessica spoke for the first time. “So, Valerie, Alix tells me you’re an artist. What kind of art do you do?”

  Good question. I’d never seen any of Valerie’s work.

  “Mostly charcoal portraits,” Valerie replied. She glanced at me. “Nude portraits.”

  Five pairs of eyes focused in my direction and I hid my face behind the menu again. Even if I said I’d never posed for her they would never believe me. I kicked Valerie’s foot under the table. If her plan was to embarrass me, she was doing a good job.

  Thankfully, the waiter chose that moment to make an appearance and I made a mental note to leave him an extra big tip just for showing up at the right time. Once our orders had been placed, random conversation broke out at the adjoining table.

  Sarah was trying to summarize to Roxanne the finer plot points of Gossip Girl. Across from them, Jade and Jeremy were discussing Britney Spears. I decided right then to maintain my attention focused far away from their conversations. Across from me, Jessica appeared to be silently studying Valerie while Mathew seemed focused on Sarah’s conversation with Roxanne.

  I was feeling very awkward. Here I was with my closest friends and I couldn’t think of one thing to say to any of them. Valerie being there was making me feel self-conscious. Not to mean that I didn’t want her there. I just wasn’t sure how to bridge the gap between her and my friends. Searching my mind for something that would spark some type of general topic of discussion, I finally came up with, “So are we doing anything after dinner?”

  “Did you have something in mind?” Jessica asked.

  “Uh. No, I just thought we could all hang out later.”

  To my surprise, Valerie spoke up. “Maybe we can go bowling?”

  Jessica grinned. “Yeah,” she said, nodding, “we haven’t done that in a while.”

  Mathew smiled. “It’s a plan.” He turned to the others and asked if they were up for a night of bowling. Nobody objected.

  I let out a deep breath, thankful that my question had killed a few minutes of silence.

  “Do you like M.U.?” Mathew asked Valerie.

  Valerie nodded. “It’s a beautiful campus but I’m thinking of transferring next semester.”

  “Where to?” Jessica asked, leaning forward.

  “I told Valerie that Baldwin had a great art program,” I interjected.

  “Everyone I’ve spoken to there seems very nice,” Valerie added. “I just have to look into any potential scholarships so that I can attend full-time instead of part time.”

 
“Leave it to me and you won’t have to worry about that,” Jessica said, taking a sip of her drink.

  Valerie seemed disturbed by the comment, and I glanced sharply in Jessica’s direction. I knew what she meant by it, but it was so out of character that I frowned. It was true that with one phone call Jessica could have Valerie set up at Baldwin with all expenses paid and no financial worries whatsoever . . . but the way she’d said it almost sounded as if she were flaunting her power. First the expensive French restaurant, now this. What was going on with her? I glanced at Jade and she was staring at our side of the table. She caught my gaze and gave me a look that I took to mean “I told you so.”

  But I refused to believe it. Jessica high on mind-altering drugs or kidnapped by aliens and replaced by a pod or her being possessed by some evil spirit, that I would believe. That Jessica Heart was jealous of Valerie . . . well that was ridiculous.

  Ò

  “You’re kind of quiet,” I noted, speaking over the constant sounds of rolling balls and scattering pins. “We can leave if you want to.”

  We’d all met at the bowling alley and broken up into teams. Jessica, Mathew, Valerie, and myself comprised team one. Jade, Jeremy, Roxanne, and Sarah made up team two. Thus far, team one was in the lead with . . . well I never did look at what the score was, but we had more of the red X’s than the other team did and that’s really all that mattered.

  Valerie smiled at me and shook her head. “No, I don’t want to leave. I like your friends.”

  Relieved, I smiled back.

  Sarah walked to us at that moment. Well, she headed toward Valerie, actually, but I was sitting next to her so I decided to include myself. The thirteen-year-old plopped herself beside my girlfriend and said, “Do you know karate?”

  I’d always liked Sarah. Nina, Mathew’s older sister was cool too but I’d never gotten much of a chance to get to know her. Sarah reminded me a lot of Mathew. They both had dark brown hair and green eyes, though Mathew’s bordered more on hazel, where Sarah’s were lighter.

  “Yes I do,” Valerie replied in a gentle voice which she reserved for me and I guessed women under eighteen as well. Though hopefully not for the same reasons.

  Sarah’s face lit up at the confirmation. “Do you beat guys up?”

  I hadn’t been aware that Valerie knew martial arts. It made me wonder what else I didn’t know about her. I turned away from their conversation for a moment to see who was up. Jade stepped up to the lane, sat down, placed the bowling ball on the wooden floor before her and let it roll. Somewhere along its merry way, it fell into one of the gutters and Jade stood up and started clapping happily. She was such an odd child.

  I turned my attention back to Sarah and Valerie just in time to hear Sarah ask, “Do you and Alix have sex?”

  “Val, you’re up,” Jade called, walking past us.

  Well, she certainly dodged that bullet, I thought as Valerie excused herself as quickly as possible and headed off to retrieve her ball from among the others. I settled back to watch her, but was interrupted by a tap on my arm. Uh, oh.

  Sarah was looking up at me expectantly. “So?”

  So . . . right. “So, how’s school?”

  “It’s good,” she answered. “Do you not want to answer my question? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. But if you’re doing it then you should at least be mature enough to admit it.”

  Was she calling me immature? I arched an eyebrow in her direction. “I am too, mature enough to admit it,” I countered, feeling extremely immature for finding the need to justify my maturity to a thirteen-year-old.

  “So you admit it?”

  Had I just been tricked? “Uh. . .”

  Valerie returned at that moment and said, “Your turn, Sarah.”

  Sarah smiled at me before getting up. “You’re a dork, Alix.”

  “Thanks,” I replied and watched her walk away for a second. Then I devoted my full-attention to Valerie. “How’d you do?”

  “Another strike,” Mathew answered for her, giving Valerie a high five.

  I jumped up to hug her. I didn’t really care about the strike but it seemed like a good excuse for physical contact. I grinned, stepping away from her. “At least I can beat you at pool.”

  She nodded and sat down. “And that’s probably the only thing you’ll ever beat me at,” she replied teasingly.

  Reclaiming my seat beside her, I said, “Don’t be too sure. I’m also very good at air hockey.”

  “Oh, yeah? I’ll have to see that one of these days,” Valerie said, looking rather smug. “Are you good at basketball?”

  I thought about it for a second. “I believe I managed to get the ball through the hoop once . . . but I’m not sure.” Then I poked her in the ribs. “You never told me you knew Karate.”

  “You never asked,” she said simply. “I know Tae Kwon Do, too. And I’m pretty good at fencing.”

  “Fencing? Is that where people wear those tight clothes with the ugly masks and jump back and forth trying to poke each other with wobbling swords?”

  Valerie smirked. “Something like that.” She looked around for a moment, then grinned. “Looks like your friend Jade is getting along well with her date.”

  I followed her line of sight and cocked my head to the side. Jade and Jeremy were making out quite fervently. They needed to get a room and pronto. “Well, at least she’s having fun.”

  “I’d say.” Then she nudged me with her foot and motioned with her head, letting me know that it was my turn to bowl.

  Bowling, unfortunately, does not fall into the glorious list of activities that I do well. And frankly, the shoes don’t help make the experience any more enjoyable. However, I must admit that the moment just before the bowling ball hits those pins is one of the most exciting things I’ve ever experienced. How pathetic am I?

  There must be a method involved in throwing the ball just so, in order to achieve that perfect strike. But I wasn’t going to find it and I had to accept that fact. So I made my way toward the edge of the lane, threw my arm back and swung it forward, letting the ball do its thing.

  Its “thing” turned out to be rolling off to the far right side and hitting all of one pin before falling out of sight. Sadly, that was an improvement to the assortment of gutter balls I’d been throwing all evening. I grabbed another ball, ignoring the mock-clapping of my fellow companions and went back to repeat the process. This time, the ball decided to visit the left hand side, meanwhile missing all the pins in its allotted path.

  I sat back down beside Valerie and received a pat on the head for my great performance. “Your evil mockery shall stop.”

  “Or what?” Valerie challenged.

  “Or I’ll call Sarah back over here and tell her to ask you embarrassing questions.” That was probably the lamest threat in the history of threats, but it was the only thing I could come up with.

  Valerie’s eyebrow arched in response, then she proceeded to pat my head again.

  Ò

  Some time later, I decided to challenge my girlfriend to a game of Monopoly. I wasn’t sure what the game was supposed to accomplish, but it seemed like a fair enough competition. Besides, there were interesting odds at stake. The winner got to have a wish granted by the loser. I wanted to win, but to be quite honest, I didn’t particularly mind the idea of losing either.

  We were sitting across from each other on Valerie’s bed with the game spread out between us. A sleeping Loki rested beside me and every now and then I reached out to stroke her fur.

  It was now close to one in the morning and I kept glancing at the clock, willing time to stop turning. I had class in the morning and I couldn’t miss it, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave Valerie’s company either.

  As though reading my mind, Valerie said, “We can finish the game another day. I know you have school tomorrow.”

  “I’m not sure I trust you with the game,” I replied, though it wasn’t true. I knew she wouldn’t cheat.

&nbs
p; Soft blonde hair fell against her face as she laughed. “We can add everything up and see who has the most money.”

  To this I agreed. Mostly because I really did have to get going or I’d never get up in time for class. I wasn’t sure I’d make it as it was.

  We spent the next few minutes adding up all the money and the values of all the properties along with the houses and hotels on each monopoly. I didn’t have much hope of winning since Valerie had pretty much shattered my dreams by acquiring Boardwalk and Park Place early on in the game, but it didn’t hurt to check. As it happened, once everything had been methodically calculated and verified by both parties, it turned out that I did lose after all.

  “Okay,” I said, doing my best to appear like a mature woman capable of admitting defeat with minimal amounts of pouting. “What’s your wish?”

  Valerie was in the middle of putting the Monopoly money away and she looked up at me in confusion. “Huh? Oh . . .” She returned to the task of clearing the board without responding. I figured she was trying to come up with something to wish for, so I didn’t press the question and instead started helping her put away the game pieces. Once the game had been neatly put away in its box, Valerie took a deep breath and said, “I would like you to pose for me.”

  I blinked.

  “You don’t have to do it,” she followed quickly. “If it makes you uncomfortable. I mean, just ’cause I won in a board game doesn’t mean you owe me anything. You don’t have to do it,” she said again, lowering her head in embarrassment.