Val, When the Walls Fell

“Jesus Christ what did that man do to you?” Aanya bellowed as Val entered their cabana that morning.

Val was in ruins: red-eyed, red faced, hair a mess. She had left the night before promising to talk to Martin about what Aanya had done. The plan was to see how angry he was about Aanya spilling his secrets to strangers.

She was gone all night. Aanya was left imagining what terrible things Martin might be doing, what Val might have given up in order to broker peace between the two of them. Val returning looking like she’d seen war enraged Aanya. “I’ll fucking **** him,” she screamed.

“I see why you hate him so much,” Val said, but not with rage or malice. “He doesn’t play fair.” Tears started to flow and she wiped them away, trying to reclaim her tough, carefree persona.

“What the hell happened?” demanded Aanya, preparing to avenge her friend.

Val pulled Aanya in for a hug, and pressed the shorter woman’s heat against her chest. She just held her there, wrapped in a warm strong embrace, stroking her head with gentle compassion. “This, just this, all fucking night.”

“I went to talk to him about you, and yeah he’s pissed. But we got talking, and all the shit that’s happened to me started pouring out, and he just held me. He was that idiot kid whose closet I’d hide in when I ran away from home, but all grown up. Strong and safe and he smells like his mom’s baking and spring rain on the sidewalk. It was like he climbed out of my teenage fantasies when I imagined he’d come and save me from my shitty life. He listened and held me and I just fucking sobbed. Asshole.”

Aanya didn’t know what to think. Val didn’t cry. Val was who she went to when she needed someone to cry on. Val was a rock. “Are you okay?”

“No I’m not fucking okay,” Val snapped. “I’ve been up all night crying. I feel like shit. I haven’t slept. I’ve a runny nose and a splitting headache. And my t-shirt is caked with dried tears and snot.”

She released Aanya from her embrace to hunt down some aspirin. “Would you believe that asshole didn’t once try to cop a feel? Who does he think he is Prince Fucking Charming?”

Aanya was justifiably confused. “Did you want him to?”

“No! Yes! Fuck! I don’t know.” Explained Val, very coherently. “At least I understand a guy pretending to care about me just to get into my pants. Is it weird that him not trying to get his dick wet made me want him to? Goddammit I’m a mess. You tell anyone at home about this and I swear they’ll never find the body.”

Aanya put her arms around her friend and held Val’s head against her shoulder.

“Don’t you fucking start,” Val protested, but didn’t fight back.

“What do you need from me,” Aanya asked.

“Either you find a way to make amends with him, or we dump him in the ocean. I can't decide.”