Page 78 of To Love or to Lose
She pulls away from me again, looking at me with a confused expression. “How do you know my middle name?”
I shrug. “It was on your student ID around your neck the day we met.”
“Oh, the good ole days!” She exasperates, throwing her arms in the air, finally detaching herself from around my shoulders. “You need to visit more. Before you know it we’re going to be using walking canes and box dyeing our hair because we’re too embarrassed of our gray locks.”
“Shut up, I just visited a couple months ago! And we’re still spring chickens!”
“Yeah, except for the fact that I spend my Friday nights with bacteria cultures in a lab.”
“That doesn’t make you old.” I ruffle her hair playfully, finally shutting the door to my hotel room. “That makes you smart.”
“I feel like I’m draining my youth down a chem lab sink.” She frowns, flopping onto my bed.
“Sure, make yourself right at home,” I joke, lying next to her. “And you’re not washing away your youth, you're saving it. Think about it, Val. You’re going to be done with grad school at the same time most people are done with their bachelor’s degree. You’re ahead of the game.”
“Yeah, but those people are getting an actual college experience. Meanwhile, I’m not even twenty-one yet. I don’t get to experience frat parties or keg stands because I’m viewed as a child.”
“I’ll take you to a frat party when we’re both twenty-one, Val. I swear they’re not as cool as what you’re doing in that fancy lab of yours.”
“It’s notmine,” she mumbles, making me smile.
“It sounds like it is. You spend every waking moment there.” That makes her scoff.
“I’m here now, aren’t I?” This is why I love Val. She pretends she doesn’t know when I’m joking and then makes her own joke about it. “Are we going to play chess, or what?”
“Well, I don’t see a chessboard anywhere. Did you forget it in your cab?” This time, she thinks I’m being serious.
“You never told meIwas bringing the board!” She looks around the room for any sign I’m messing with her. “Where’s yours?”
I couldn’t hold in my laughter any longer. Valerie realizes I was kidding, and her face goes stoic.
“You asshole.” She sighs as I stand from the bed, retrieving the chessboard from my suitcase.
Sometimes I feel like I nevertrulyconnected with kids my age. That was until I met Valerie when we were almost adults. Sure, I have Eloise and Winnie, but I’ve never had the type of friend that understands me on an intellectual level.
Eloise and Winnie are smart, but they also have other things to focus on. For Valerie and I, our entire lives have revolved around school, and our intelligence, which is what they could never relate to.
“Why are you even in New York for a ski trip? The city isn’t exactly known for its mountains of snow,” Val asks as I set the chessboard up on a small TV tray that sits on the bed between us.
“Because we don’t actually do a lot of skiing while we’re here. We gomaybetwo days, and all the other days we do things the school wants us to do, like college fairs and tours. Really, they call it a ski trip to con us into coming.”
“Remind me to never go to a private school,” she says, sounding serious.
“You already went to one, Val.”
She laughs and places the last king on the chessboard. “Okay, you ready?” She asks from the opposite side of the bed.
“Yup, let’s get going.” I move one of my white pawns forward.
With light conversation and casual bickering, we are now on the third game of chess. We both won once, and I was now losing the tie breaker.It’s been hours since we’ve moved from our positions on the hotel bed.
Sometimes I forget how much longer chess games take when you’re playing against someone whoreallyknows how to play, in comparison to when I usually play with Logan or Luke, who both understand chess, but not nearly as well as Val.
“Oh, I have a question for you,” Val says as if she just remembered her question. “Do you know someone named Luke Shepard?”
“Yeah... Why?” I didn’t want to take the time to explain how I know Luke until Val confesses why shewantsto know him.
“He barged into my lab last night at like ten thirty. I’d never seen him there before, but I saw his visitor pass said he was from Fairwood.”
