Dark Valentine (Monster High; Book 1 of the DV Duology)

Chapter 15: Sympathy, Tenderness

Kieran

The first thing I did when I got home that afternoon was call Whisp. She picked up pretty quickly. "Hey, KV, what's up?" she asked me.

"Not much, Whisp, you?"

"Just reading. But don't you 'not much' me when you're grinning like an idiot. What happened?"

I chuckled. "Someone I've fallen for reciprocates my feelings. That's all I can really say for right now."

"That's awesome! Do I know her?"

"Well, the thing is, it's actually a boy," I corrected.

"Right, sorry. Well, still, would I have met him?"

"Probably not," I said, "He's...he's pretty amazing, though. I hope you get the chance to meet him one day."

"Yeah, I'd like that. So, other than this boy, how have things been?"

"Pretty good," I replied, "Though, admittedly, I haven't focused on much else."

"Wow, you have it bad."

"What was your first clue?" I grinned.

"You are summoned!" I heard from somewhere on Whisp's end.

"Guess I have to let you go for now," said Whisp, "I'll talk to you later. Bye, KV."

"Bye," I replied, and the call ended. Having no homework, I decided to go for a walk. It wasn't bad weather for a December afternoon, and while I was walking I was stopped by Holt, Heath and Deuce, who happened to be driving by in Holt's car.

"Hey, Kieran," called Holt, "Didn't think I'd run into you. Glad I did, though—we're all going to GameStop, you wanna come?"

I smiled. "Sure," I said. I'd only recently started getting into video games, but I found the ones I'd played so far to be fun. It was actually Jackson and Holt who'd gotten me into them, in fact.

I got into the back of the car with Deuce, since Heath had already claimed the front seat. Just as I did, however, my phone went off. I pulled it out to see who it was and immediately put it back away before I could read it.

It was another message from him, but I couldn't think about that right now. I refused to let myself.

"What's up?" asked Deuce.

I shook my head. "Nothing. Just family stuff."

He seemed to accept this answer, and the mood lightened back up as we all listened to the radio, which was currently blasting pop music. Whenever a song came on that we all knew, we'd all start singing along instantly.

And none of us could help but laugh hysterically at Holt's road rage. That road rage was justified since there were a lot of idiot drivers out there today, who insisted on either going way too slow or trying to cut in front of us at the wrong time, or both. No matter the reason, though, Holt's road rage typically included a lot of swearing.

Anyway, when we got to GameStop Deuce and Heath went off to check out PlayStation 4 games, while Holt and I went to look at NES games. While we looked through them, I thought back to what he'd told me in Study Howl today, about knowing for sure that Jackson wouldn't have a problem with us. Did that mean...?

I felt it wouldn't hurt to ask. "Hey...Holt?"

"Yeah?"

"Earlier today...you said Jackson would be okay with us being together. Does...does that mean he's interested in me as well?"

Holt turned to me and grinned. "Knew you'd figure it out sooner or later. I wanted to let him be the one to tell you though, 'cause the boy is way too awkward for his own good. Why, are you into him, too?"

"I...yeah," I replied, a bit nervously. "Is—is that okay with you? I mean—the three of us—"

He cut me off with a kiss, and I knew I had my answer. "It's more than okay. With both of us."

"Thank God," I said, relieved.

"Hey, you're not the only one who was afraid of that bein' an issue," said Holt, "Jackson was, too. He was freaking out because he didn't even know if you'd wanna be with one of us, let alone both."

"Understandable," I nodded.

"Tell you what, though," continued Holt, "I'm not gonna say anything to him about this conversation right away. I still want him to tell you how he feels himself, ya know?"

I smiled. "Sounds good to me."

Holt turned back to the games after that, and spotted something that made his eyes widen. "Oh, my Ghoul!"

I looked at the games to see what he meant, and immediately spotted a game with cover art featuring a guy with half his face painted green, the words 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' scrawled across the picture.

Holt started laughing. "They didn't! Did they actually think this was a good idea? Man—I've gotta check this out now, just to see what the hell they did." He picked the game up off the shelf and we met up with Heath and Deuce at the checkout counter, allowing them to go ahead of us.

Deuce noticed the game Holt was holding. "Dude, you've got to be the only person I know, Normie or monster, who owns an NES."

"Well, hey, I got it from my old man," said Holt. He then showed Deuce the game he was holding. "I wanna see how bad they fucked up with this game. I'm gonna make Jackson try it out, too."

Deuce snickered. "I'd get a copy of the manual, too, bro—you'll need it."

A few minutes later, Holt and I were on the way to his house after dropping off the other two. I was honestly curious about the game too, and was looking forward to watching Holt play it.

"I feel like we should record this," commented Holt as he plugged in the Nintendo, "I also think it'd be funny to see Jackson react to this game."

"Well, I'll record yours, for sure," I agreed, "I'll ask Jackson before recording him, though, obviously."

"Well, yeah," said Holt, putting the game cartridge in. He handed me his iCoffin, and as soon as I hit 'record' he started playing the game.

"The music's not bad," commented Holt, and about two seconds later a little kid with a slingshot pelted him. Then, when he tried to hit one of the enemies, he discovered that Dr. Jekyll's cane did absolutely nothing. "Wait...come on, why can't I hit—why put a weapon in a game and make it fucking useless? That's just stupid!"

And then came the guy with the bombs, who quickly killed him. Or rather, transformed him into Mr. Hyde.

"Can't walk backward...Hey, I can punch, though! Sweet!" Before he could get far, though, a bolt of lightning struck Hyde and he fell to the ground, dead. "Are you serious?"

"I think I'm starting to see why Deuce recommended the manual," I said.

"Yeah, so do I! I'm trying my hardest not to lose my shit this early on in the game, but that was messed up," replied Holt, picking up the manual.

After flipping through it a couple of times, he started playing the game again, actually getting a bit further and figuring out how to avoid the bombs. "I can't avoid Billy Pones, though, which is annoying as hell..."

"Try ducking," I suggested. Next time the kid appeared on screen, he did, and it actually worked. By the time he got to level 2, a lot of time had passed and I knew my mom would freak out if I didn't get home soon. That was because I hadn't told her I'd be gone this long.

"I should probably get going," I said, after he'd shut off the game.

Holt nodded. "I can drive you, if you want."

I smiled. "Thank you."

So he did, and just before I went inside, he kissed me one last time.

Words could not express the sheer joy I felt in that moment, as the text message from earlier was altogether forgotten.