My Valentine

Fourteen

Nightingale Phillips

The whole room echoed with the sound of metal banging against metal.

"Did Mr. Valentine hear us when we got in Friday night?" Tammy asked me, pulling her top off so she could throw on her green Jersey that she'd been wearing since Freshman year for Physical Education class.

"I honestly don't know. I can't remember anything that happened that night," my eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "and he didn't mention anything on Saturday so I guess he didn't hear us."

"You lucky bitch. Do you have any idea how angry he would've been if he'd heard us?" I shrugged, pulling on my soccer shorts, "Nope."

"Neither do I," she replied, tugging the waist band of my purple underwear as I pulled the shorts on.

"Tammy stop!"
I groaned. It hurt to shout. My head was still pounding from all the alcohol I drank on Friday night.
On Saturday when I woke up, I was wrapped in a blanket in the guest bedroom and I could have sworn I caught a faint whiff of vomit.

I must have thrown up at the party.

Anyway, when I got downstairs, mom was in the living room talking to Brooklyn. She told me that Mr. Valentine had gone to the hospital to check up on his wife and had left Brooklyn in her care. I saw no signs of him for the rest of the weekend.

So, all's well that ends well.

I was back home with no tension in the air. Gosh, I missed my room.

Exiting the girls' locker room, Tammy and I headed out to the soccer field. I would probably end up being sidelined seeing as I despised anything that had to do with me actually getting off my ass to sweat, but I still changed for every class.

"Where's Berry?"

It was ironic. I met him first and we'd instantly clicked as friends while he and Tammy supposedly hated each other's guts but there I was, asking her where he was.

"How the hell should I know?"

We looped arms and I looked up at the irritated expression on her face. I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"I thought you two were an item," I teased.

"We are so not an item. Do you know how pissed my mom would be if she saw me come home with someone like him?"

I nodded, understanding exactly what she meant. Tammy's grandfather, her mother's father, had been murdered by a white man when she was just a baby and Mrs. Jones, Tammy's mother, had this deep hatred for white men.

Luckily, I was a female, so we were all good...I hoped.

"All I know is, before I started drinking on Friday, he looked a bit pissed that you invited me along," I nudged her, catching up to the rest of girls in my class.

Daisy and Lindsey was appointed opposing team captains and Coach Mills gave them the chance to choose their teammates.

"Oh c'mon! He loves hanging with you," she replied in a hushed tone.

"Not if he wants to be alone with you," I whispered back, turning to listen to what Coach had to say.

-

I brushed off the imaginary dirt off my legs awkwardly, not wanting to look like the loser I was. The lovely Daisy and Lindsey had chosen everyone to be on their teams except me. I was the only person sidelined.
I caught Tammy glancing at me occasionally, ensuring I was okay.

I just wanted the period to end.

"You've been brushing yourself off for the past three minutes," I looked up from where I sat to find a tall, slightly muscular figure hovering above me, blocking my view of the sun. His long brunette hair hid his left eye and his pulp lips clenched around the cigarette he held in his mouth, a cloud of smoke exiting through his nostrils.