Tyler and the Valaholics: The Beginning

Chapter 45

Song of the chapter- 'Blood, Sweat and Tears' by BTS 💓💓

'I am addicted to the prison that is you,
I cannot worship anyone else besides you,
I knowingly drank from the poisoned chalice'

(translated)

"That's it!" Cynthia yells and proceeds to scurry to write down the answer she must've just remembered.

Rosaly turns around from two desks in front of me and laughs, making eye contact with me. Typical Thia, she forgets stuff and then remembers them in a flash that she advertises freely.

"Walter, return to your own paper!" the invigilator's shrill tone makes Ros scramble back to her paper, furiously writing away.

Chuckling at her, I turn back the pages to check that I've answered everything. Two checks and three answer revisions later, I turn to the clock to see that there's still a good hour left and I've got nothing to do. A crack in the wall to my right seems particularly fascinating as I trace my fingers over and over it repetitively. After what feels like an eternity of analysing the ragged edges of the crack, I turn back to the clock to see that not even two minutes have passed.

I groan loudly, hitting my heavy head repeatedly on the desk. I'm extremely sleep-deprived after two entire days of incessantly tutoring Ros, Lau and Lia, helping out Thia and several of my classmates and revising on my own in the time when I was supposed to sleep. I swear, tonight, I'm going to sleep like a log and never wake up until-

"Tyler! Stop disrupting the decorum of the examination hall and leave if you're done!"

I start, sudden joy prominent in my voice, "I can leave?!"

"If you're done, then yes."

I squeal and quickly gather my belongings, and rush to the invigilator. While she inspects my paper to ensure all the particulars are filled in, I turn around to take in the looks of disbelief from half of the class and the knowing smiles from the other half. Rosaly, Natalia and Lauren are amongst the first half while Cynthia flashes me a big smile.

"You're good to go."

At the sound of the instruction, I thank her profusely and run out, not even caring that I hit my bad shoulder on the wall in passing. Sure, that does hurt a lot but I'm too drowsy right now to care. Messily packing up my bag, I greet a few of my soon to be ex-classmates before I trudge back home in a haze, barely even registering when the sky begins to drizzle down in tiny droplets. I find myself not knowing what I'm doing as I lose concentration, my feet guiding themselves, I hope, by practice. 

Just when I reach out to open the door of my apartment block that I somehow stumbled to, someone holds it open for me from my side. Turning my head, I see Dad, looking as calm and collected as he always did, save for when Father showed up. He smiles wordlessly at me, his eyes shining with the nostalgic look that he has whenever he's remembering something. He loved Mom so much even though he did have his fights with her. The memory of one rushes into my mind.

One time, Dad showed up home drunk and Mom was so mad at him that she didn't speak to him for an entire week. Violet and Vanessa acted as their messengers while I just kept asking Dad why he drank like Father. I hated to even consider that he could in any way be similar to him. 

The lost look in Dad's eyes vanished as one of terror overtook his face and he slapped himself until I stopped him. 

"Dad, promise me you won't hurt Mommy like he did!"

"I won't, Val pop, never. I'm just really scared she'll go back to him."

"But- but he's nowhere as nice as you! He's only mean to me! He's so sweet to Van but he scolds Mom so much! Why did she even like him?" I whined.

Darkness prominent in his eyes, Dad spoke, "Because, sweetie, she chose the poison he was as an antidote to her demons."

When I don't move, Dad speaks in the affectionate deep and velvety tone that he reserves for Vi, Van and me, "C'mon in, Val pop, aren't you tired?"

My heart racing, I extend my arm out to touch his shoulder but the deep maroon vest sheathing his shoulder disintegrates to nothingness the second my fingers brush it. Dad fades away until only his head is left. His calming voice that I can never hear enough of rings out, "You can do it, sweetie."

By the time the sentence ends, he's gone. The door is still open but it's propped open by a confused-looking Cynthia who almost purrs, "You okay there, Valeria?"

I wildly whip my head around to seek his smiling face, feeling angry and disappointed at the same time when I don't find it. I wind up on all fours, begging the dust-smeared pavement to confirm that he was here. All that I can see in the dust are the impressions of Cynthia's pointy mulans and my sneaker prints.

"No, he was here!"

My disbelieving words cascade out of my mouth several times as the clouds pour out their fluid content through my eyes. Cynthia's warm arms envelope me as she pulls me up to my feet and guides me until we somehow reach our apartment and she knocks on the door. 

I'm hysterical, nearly screaming my head off when Stacie opens the door and lets us in. I'm somehow propped up on my bed and force-fed what tastes like a whole loaf of bread soaked in tomato soup. The effort to swallow ceases my screaming and I'm too tired to even protest when Cynthia transfers my books off the bed to the desk by the side in a way that's surely going to give me nightmares when I do tidy it up. Before I know it, I'm warmly wrapped up and I drift off, my last coherent thought being of how Dad's smile was big enough to reach his eyebrows, making me smile.

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Hey there! Thank you for reading and, I know, this kind of feels like a weird chapter. In case you're wondering what happened, lack of sleep for more than 36 hours can easily cause confusion, disorientation and hallucinations. Even 24 hours without sleep is hard (I tell you from experience) let alone more than 50 like she's endured.

This chapter cedes more insight into Violet's father. What do you think of him? What about the flashback? What does that make you think of their mother and Valerie and Vanessa's father?

Admittedly, the song would be more perfect for the story of the two but I put it in here because I love it so damn much! I'm not a Stan of BTS or anything because I've literally only heard Blood, Sweat and Tears, DNA and Mic Drop but I love them!

Aaaaand, this chapter's been ready for a long time (months) but I hadn't published it *facepalm moment*

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