𝐊𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐀 , 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐭

𝐕𝐈𝐈.

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VII.

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March 10th, 2016

Valerie had been acting unusual.

Wilbur noticed, Lorelai noticed, even Darcy who lived halfway across England had stressed her concerns about the sister.

It started with Valerie taking on another job, which was way too much for someone to handle in the first place, Then, the eldest sister had become so incredibly isolated from everyone, Val simply denied any acts of socialization.

Lorelai, (being the person she is) had to get to the bottom of this.

"Have you heard anything from Val in the past couple weeks or so?" Lorelai paced the flat as she talked with her closest brother over the phone, he too had been equally as busy as the red-headed sister. Apparently 'business was getting good' whatever that meant.

"No—no I haven't, don't you live 20 minutes away from her?" he asked,

"yes, but she's so—dull recently yknow? Like, earlier today I called her, and it was barely a minute long because she 'had to do something" Lorelai held up quotations as she talked, (although Parker couldn't see them).

"Why don't you just go over to her house—unannounced, she could be hiding something." He insisted,

Lorelai sighed stubbornly, "But isn't that sorta an invasion of privacy? Like, it's her deal, I don't wanna rope myself into it."

"But you're worried about her, right?" Parker continued, "Would you rather her be in serious trouble and you know and could possibly help her? or have her be in serious trouble, and you don't know?"

Lorelai took a moment to think, "I suppose that's fair."

She could hear the smile through his words, "Just me being a genius."

"per usual," she rolled her eyes lighteartidly, "I should go and do that now before it's too late in the day then, yknow, time zones."

"Oh right—its only noon for me" He chuckled, "I should probably get back to business stuff too..."

"Don't overwork yourself, okay?" She warned, starting to feel a little worried about how much pressure the 16-year-old was putting on himself.

"I won't, trust me" He affirmed, "à bientôt"

"à bientôt" The sandy-haired girl repeated softly, and he hung up a moment later.

Soon enough, Lorelai visited the town house in which Val still lived, the only change was the space contained two less sisters than usual,

"What's wrong?" Lorelai asked smoothly, raising an eyebrow expectingly, "You've been acting weird for weeks."

"Nothing's wrong!" Val insisted, chuckling with a nervous tone, "I'm fine!"

Lorelai pinched the bridge of her nose as she paced the living space, "Valerie...you know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Yes I know that—I know that, but—" The copper-haired sister cut herself short, chewing on her bottom lip in distress,

"But, what?"

"I—don't know if I can tell you." Val sighed, holding her head in her hands, "I don't think I can."