DISCONTINUED.
❝ WE'RE YOUNG! WE'RE
SUPPOSED TO RAISE
SOME HELL! ❞
When a supernatural rift in Valerie Fairchild's
complacency causes the veil covering her
complicated history to be swept a...
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"COPS! IT'S THE COPS! RUN for it!"
The shrill battle cry bounced down the paneled hallway and into Jimmy Lockwood's cramped, hot room. Despite the obvious commotion heard outside, the room remained silent and still. Much to Val's relief, Steve stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth still so close that Val could taste his breath on her tongue. Beer and spearmint.
"Cops! Everybody out!" The cry was heard once again, and this time, it seemed as if it lit the carpeting on fire. Everyone jolted into action. Foreigner's Urgent was stopped dead in the middle, the absence of bass reverberating the floorboards made the whirlwind of scrambling teens seem like a herd of elephants. It was strange how one little word could cause such a flurry of panic. Steve leapt from the ground, forgetting completely about his bare chest, and reached down to hoist Val up with him.
"Let's go!" Steve shouted over the bustle, his hand gripping steadfast on Val's sweater sleeve. The sudden shift from sitting on the floor to standing beside Steve gave Val a headrush, and the alcohol she drank earlier in the night seemed to only just now be catching up with her. Steve pulled her in the opposite direction of the stampede, instead grappling with the handle of Jimmy's closet door.
"What are you doing?"
"Just shut up, and get in!" Val was hauled into the closet before Steve followed, slamming the door behind him. The cramped space was shrouded in darkness, and a small sliver of light shined through the crack in the door, illuminating Steve's face just enough for Val to see his wide eyes and flushed cheeks. Although, she imagined that her face was probably similarly panicked, and as the chaos in Jimmy's room died down to a few odd shouts here and there, Val forced her breathing to ease.
"You were gonna kiss me, Harrington," she remarked suddenly, trying not to smirk too smugly. The comment earned a contemptuous look from Steve, who huffed.
"It's part of the game, Val," he argued, folding his arms.
"You wanted to kiss me," Val teased, ignoring his use of the name she revoked from his vocabulary. It must have been the alcohol making her warm and bubbly, she reasoned, it was going to her head. "You wanted to–"
"Will you shut up?" Steve reached forward and wrapped his hand around Val's giggling mouth, the closeness in proximity slipping Val's cloudy mind. "The cops'll hear you." Val feigned a gasp from under his hand and reached up to pull it away. She was met with little resistance from Steve, who was clearly fighting away a smile at her teasing.
"Oh no, then they'll know you wanted to kisssss me." The hand that Steve had been trying to smother Val's voice with moved down to jab at her sides. If she had been sober, she might've questioned why Steve thought that move would silence her taunting. Given that she was dubiously ticklish, it, in fact, made Val shriek with laughter.
