Scarred Hearts

18 | Why couldn't I have been born rich?

Much to Valeria's relief, Nicholas didn't show up on the bus the following day.

How she was supposed to look him in the face after their little... incident, she did not know. He appeared to be avoiding her anyway, so perhaps she wouldn't have to relive that moment in her mind ever again.

Granted, the way she had pulled him to her kept playing in her mind over and over, whether she saw him or not. But the less it was brought up again, the easier it would be to pretend it had never happened in the first place.

She halted as this thought crossed her mind. It was a relief that he wasn't even glancing her way again. Good. Familiar. Yes, this was all she had asked for before, and now she had it. No one was bothering her. No Nicholas, no one. Alone. At least when she was in Ivy Crest.

Alone on the bus, in the hallways, in the cafeteria.

"Can I sit here?" Mina asked, putting her tray down next to Valeria.

She sat down before Valeria could reply, so she didn't bother to.

"Are you going to stay mad with me forever?" Mina asked, trying to keep the corners of her lips tilted up.

"I'm not mad, I'm genuinely disappointed."

Valeria thought about her own words. No, that wasn't quite true. She was mad. Quite a bit. At Mina, at Lana, at Roger, at... Nicholas.

"You sound just like my parents," Mina said, intending it as a joke, but it came out so self-deprecating that it did little to lift the mood.

Valeria made a move to get up, but Mina reached for Valeria's hand and squeezed it. "I'm truly sorry, Valeria."

Mina let go of her hand and began to push her food around on her plate.

Valeria wanted to leave. She really did.

"Are you not going to sit with them?" she asked, shooting a glance at the table where Lana and the others (including Nicholas) were happily chatting, not paying them any mind.

Mina shook her head weakly.

"Is everything OK?"

A shrug of her shoulders was Mina's only answer.

Valeria let out a sigh and settled back into her chair. She picked up her fork and resumed eating her lunch, sensing Mina's eyes on her. "Yes?"

"Nothing," Mina said through a wide smile. "I'm just really sorry."

"You've said that already."

"Sorry!" Mina stopped, realizing she had apologized for apologizing, and then laughed.

Valeria managed a weak laugh. "It's fine, just stop apologizing, please."

"Right." Mina hesitated briefly before continuing. "Nicholas invited me to his birthday party. We could go dress shopping together. If you want."

Valeria shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "I'm not going to his birthday."

"Oh. I thought you were... friends with the family."

"Not really." Valeria wished, more than anything, that the topic of conversation stayed as far away from Nicholas as possible, and her tone reflected that. "My mom just works there. We're not friends."

"Well, there's always the winter formal, right?" Mina said, attempting to salvage the mood.

"I don't think I'll be going to that either."

"Right." Disappointment clouded her features, and the hopeful anticipation that had animated her just moments before seemed to evaporate.

"Why don't you ask your friends to go with you? I'm sure they'll be going to both parties." Valeria couldn't help the words from bursting out, and she wasn't sorry if the resentment showed in them.