Chapter 27 – Love for Pretend – Erica Henson

Now that Holly had stopped trying to walk away from me we could finally talk. My plan to get Lilith to slip up crashed and burned. My backup plan was still going strong. Holly and I sat down to talk on a bench in the shade. Now I had her where I wanted her.

We sitting were just a stone’s throw away from the Taft Memorial Statue. She was wearing a poker face expression, trying to hide her interest. Her interest was obvious when she decided to hear me out. This was what she wanted. This was what she came for. More importantly, her relationship with Val was one that I wanted to exploit.

“Get on with it. I’ve got other election posters to help with.” She said flatly.

She was still trying to hide her interest, but I could see right through her. This girl was bright-eyed and naïve, just like Val was.

“I met Val during our freshmen year. Val had a serious problem that many others had at our school. She had a crush on the absolute worst person to have a crush on. That girl’s name was Iris.”

“Who’s Iris?”

“Iris is… Well… Iris was my best friend. She was the top student academically for years. She was an incredible beauty and impressive athlete. These days she isn’t so impressive. She took damage to the head and now she tends to be… forgetful, to put it simply.”

“What did Val do to her?”

“To say she beat the crap out of her with a bat leaves too much to the imagination. How about we start with a different question? Why did Val do it to her?”

Holly sat straight up in her seat and waited for me to continue anxiously. I had her complete and undivided attention.

“It all started with a little prank. Iris wasn’t like a typical achiever, people such as yourself. She is like Val is now. On the outside she was like a perfect little princess, the kind of girl that attracted attention. On the inside, however…”

I made horn shapes with my fingers above my head.

“Iris had thick black horns. This was bad for everyone that took an interest in her, but in different ways. On a day she was feeling nice she’d give these admirers a brutal or humiliating rejection. Other times she’d take things much further.”

“What do you mean?” Holly asked.

“I’ll give you a couple of examples. There were these two guys that asked Iris out on separate occasions. She didn’t just say no to them. Instead, she decided to play a game with them. She accepted both of their offers and asked them to meet her at the movie theater on a Saturday morning. When they both showed up Iris sent them a text saying their blind date had officially been arranged.”

“Why would she do that?”

“What do you mean ‘why’? She did it for the laughs of course! It was hilarious at the time.”

“I don’t think so.”

“The next person to ask her out was a girl. Iris said she’d accept so as long as the girl agreed to take her out to a restaurant every day after school. The girl agreed and the two began ‘dating’, if you can call it that. Iris used this girl for weeks before she cut things off. The girl was so happy to be close to Iris that she was oblivious to the fact that she was being played.”

“That’s cruel.”

“That isn’t even the worst of it. This is the part where Valentina comes in. Iris had gone on toying with people like that throughout the school year. Rumors about Iris started popping up and the number of people asking her out dwindled.”

“That’s to be expected. Everyone learned her game.”

“However, there was this one girl that transferred in from overseas that was naïve as a child. She had noticed Iris from afar and took a liking to her. You see, Iris was ‘nice’ to everyone she met. It was easy for someone to mistake that fake kindness for genuine caring.”

“I know that all too well.”

“When this girl approached me privately I thought it was because she was interested in me personally. It turned out that she just wanted someone to talk to about Iris, typical. I thought she was too cute to be another one of Iris’s toys so I warned her. I told her exactly what Iris was and she didn’t believe me.”

“I see freshmen treat Val with the same regard.”

“It’s hard to change your mental image of someone when you are projecting your desires on them. This transfer student thought that somehow she’d be different and have a normal relationship with Iris. So when I told Iris about all this she was ecstatic to meet with this girl. The two were a match made in heaven.”

“You mean they were a match made in hell.”

“Haha! You’ve got that right. The way Iris played with Valentina was more sadistic than the way she toyed with the others. She was always having Val ‘prove her love’ to her by having her do whatever she asked.”

“You mean she had Val take her to restaurants after school?”

“Unlike that other girl I mentioned Val didn’t have much money. She couldn’t afford to take Iris out. So Iris had her do other things. She’d have Val vandalize school grounds. She used Val to sabotage classrooms. Iris basically used her to do things that she wanted to do, but didn’t want to risk.”

“That way if Val was caught then Iris’s skin wouldn’t be on the line?”

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“Exactly, that was her line of thinking. However, one day she took it to the next level. There was this girl at our school that Iris had beef with. Iris was especially furious at this girl when she snitched on her for having cheated on an exam.”

“What’d she do to her?”

“Well, it isn’t what Iris did that matters. Iris, Kate, Val, and I were hanging out in our usual place after school that day when Iris flew into a tantrum about the whole situation. Iris went home frustrated over it. That’s not what Val did apparently.”

“What did Val do then?”

“I don’t know the exact details but that girl Iris complained about came to school the next day with a black eye, a broken nose, and bruises on her face. The girl told everyone she was jumped by a gang of girls from another school, but Val told us another story. Val said she intercepted the girl on her way home and taught her a lesson.”

“So this is where the story of current Val really begins then.”

“You could say that. When Iris learned that she could use Val to carry out violence for her she truly started falling in love with Val. From there on Iris would go on to use Val to get back at people she had problems with.”

“So what changed? What caused Dr. Frankenstein’s monster to turn on her creator?”

“She learned something important about the structure of our group. She had made the mistake of considering herself an equal with me, Iris, and Kate, who all had history together. You see, I was Iris’s closest friend since childhood. That put me in a unique spot with her. I knew the secret that was being kept from Val.”

“What was this secret?”

“The secret was that, even though she served Iris like a loyal dog, it would never be enough. Iris had a girlfriend. She had a girlfriend all along, even while she was ‘dating’ other people.”

“Who was it? It couldn’t possibly Kate, could it?”

“Iris and Kate had been a couple since middle school and although they loved to toy with other people they always put each other above everyone else.”

“That’s painful… I could see how this would cause Val to snap. She missed something that was right in front of her.”

“Val had confided in me the day before she found out. She wondered how she could get closer to Iris and finally get the chance to kiss her. Even after all the shitty things she had done for Iris she still had the heart of a young girl in love. It hurt me to hear her wish, knowing the truth and all. I never expected she’d find out so soon.”

“How did she find out?”

“Typically Iris would send Val out on some fool’s errand while she and Kate disappeared somewhere private. However, that particular day Val was unable to carry out her task and was looking for where Iris had gone off to.”

“So Val ended up walking in on something she wasn’t meant to see, right?”

“Imagine Val’s rage when she found the two of them making out in the gym equipment storage shed. What a horrible place for their secret to be found out. Val picked up a bat from the rack that was kept by the door and took her anger out on them. She gave them a beating of a lifetime.”

“Did she attack you next?”

“Surprisingly, no, no she didn’t. I was looking for Iris when I found the three of them in that gym shed. Iris and Kate were lying motionless on the ground. They were both painted in their own blood. Val turned towards me when I opened the door. She stumbled over towards me with her bat like a zombie. I froze up. The listless gaze of her eyes made me feel like I was next. Instead, she wordlessly bumped my shoulder as she stormed right past me.”

“Why didn’t she attack you? Weren’t you part of the deception? I mean, she must’ve known that you would know about Iris and Kate.”

“That’s something that I’ve been wondering myself. I’ve never had a full conversation with her ever since then, even though I’ve tried. I’ve honestly and earnestly tried.”

“I saw how she reacted to you before. It’s best that you give up on finding out.”

“Yet, I feel like I can’t. Am I crazy for still wanting to talk to her? There’s still so much I need to say to her. I know Val would rather pretend like I don’t exist, but I can’t move on.”

“You’re not the only one. I wouldn’t say Val has ‘moved on’. Rather, she’s suppressing everything inside her. She’s internalized all that emotional scarring and let it change her at her core. There are times when I’m talking to Val that I feel like I’m dealing with two different people. Sometimes she is Dr. Jekyll, other times she is Mr. Hyde. All I’ve ever wanted since I met her was to talk to the real Valentina Ivanovich and to be on amiable terms with her.”

I took Holly by her hands and held them firmly. I slid closer to her on the bench and brought her hands nearer to my heart. Holly blinked at the suddenness of my approach. I lowered my head to her submissively.

“Then you and I have similar goals. Holly, I need your help. I want to be able to talk to Valentina again. You’ve got to help me make this possible.”

Upon hearing my request Holly immediately pulled away from me and stood up. She shook her head and backed away from me as though I had come down with the plague.

“No way, that’s asking way too much of me. Besides, the fact that we met like this needs to be kept secret.”

“Do you think Val would do something to you if she found out?”

“Rather than that, you should be far more worried about yourself. I only barely managed to keep her from attacking you before. Don’t risk your luck.”

Now that she was mentioning this important detail I stood up from the bench and approached her again. She started to back away more but I took her by the hand before she could retreat. She pulled away almost childishly, as if I were going to pull her into the woods to harm her.

“I don’t think luck has anything to do with it.” I said, to try to keep her from walking away, “She likes you. I’ve never seen her respond to someone the way she responded to you yesterday in the gym. The only person she ever listened to was Iris. You can be her new Iris. Holly, you can become Val’s guiding light.”

Holly broke free of me, slapping my hand away in the process.

“What makes you think I’m fit to be anyone’s guiding light? If you haven’t noticed I’m a student at this delinquent school too. Tell me that you know for a fact that I can be someone’s guiding light.”

I smiled.

“Of course I know for a fact. I see the type of person you are, even if you try to hide it.”

“Oh really…?” She asked.

This actually seemed to tick Holly off. Her entire body language and expression changed. Before she looked like she wanted to run away. Now she faced her entire body towards me. The look on her face wasn’t anger, but something more like agitation.

She was probably used to people assuming her character based off her looks. She was easily offended by it. To be at this school was one thing, but she still maintained an upright persona. Did she doubt the goodness of her own character? Her type always struggled at this school.

“You may have been sent here for some reason but I don’t think that reason is important. What I think is important is how you act while you are here. You, from the very beginning, have remained an upstanding student with great grades and a great personality. It isn’t your fault that the people around you might not be able to appreciate that, but I do. I appreciate you Holly, because I know what it takes to do that and maintain your sanity in this sort of place. I’ve been trying to turn over a new leaf while I’m here.”

“Yet you just can’t stop your lies and deception.” Holly said.

That was an unexpected punch below the belt. Whatever I said to piss her off really flipped the switch. She was bearing her fangs now. Still, I couldn’t let her see through me. I kept on smiling at her, even after her attack.

“You seem to have a decent understanding of me despite meeting me so recently. Is it all that surprising that I have a decent reading of you? Let’s cooperate, Holly. If for nothing else, let’s cooperate for Val. You don’t want to see her going on with this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act, do you? Where will that path lead her? She needs closure. I need closure. Will you help us?”

Holly raised her head and looked down on me in a look that seemed like pity.

“I’ll help you, but you need to tell me something in exchange.”

“What?”

“Which is more important to you, getting a chance to talk to Val or winning the student council race?”