౨ৎ.   good morning, sleeping beauty
real life.

VALERIE WAS WOKEN UP BY A SUDDEN
presence that she felt in the room. valerie had this weird feeling ever since she was a child, that even in the deepest sleep she can always sense when someone walks into a room while she's sleeping.

though the idea of fully getting up wasn't really on her list, so she pretended as if she was still asleep.

then she heard someone whisper-yell, "nick!" valerie couldn't immediately put a name to the voice, but through the process of elimination, she could tell that it was matt.

she then felt another presence in the room and one of them said, "damn, i guess it did work." it was still impossible to distinguish the two voices especially when she wasn't looking at them. she could finally somewhat tell them apart, but no one mentioned that there would be other aspects she'd have to learn too. i.e. their voices.

chris, on the other hand, immediately woke up at the sound of his brothers' voices.

"what the fuck are you guys talking about?" he questioned rubbing his eyes. he wasn't asking because he didn't hear what they were saying. it was more of a stab at how their conversation woke him up.

nick took the question literally and gestured to valerie on the other end of the couch. chris turned to see the back of her head as she was facing the wall. as he looked at her he was reminded of all the unusual talking they had done last night.

"and? what about it?" chris really didn't see a problem with valerie and him falling asleep on the couch together. they were on completely different parts of it for fucks sake. it's not like they liked each other now or anything.

"you and her just happen to fall asleep down here after going to bed in two different places?" nick wasn't buying it. he could sense there was something up, and he wondered if matt was catching on to it as well. but when he went to check, he was buttering a piece of toast that he just pulled out of the toaster.

"uhh... yeah?" chris stated the obvious, as there wasn't anything else that would have happened between them, was he crazy?

"okay..." nick muttered in disbelief, giving up on trying to get anything out of him.

the way nick said it made chris feel like he truly didn't believe him, even though what he was saying was the truth. so he decided to add a bit more truth to it, "i'm serious, she's only down here because she couldn't stand your damn fan sounds."

"then why are you down here?" matt asked instead, clearly listening to their conversation this whole time.

"i couldn't sleep." chris quickly defended, knowing that his brothers were aware of the troubles he had trying to sleep on some occasions.

"mhmm..."

"you two irritate the fuck out of me." chris rolled his eyes before giving up, then going back on his phone.

valerie faked her awakening, stretching her arms into the air before actually yawning. it seemed as though everything, or everyone, in the room had stopped. it felt like all three of them were staring at her.

"good morning, sleeping beauty," one of them said, who she could only assume was nick. her parents used to say that all the time and it always pissed her off.

"don't start that, please." she rolled over to look at nick with an apologetic face since he didn't know how much she hated to be called that. except instead of the smug look she was anticipating, he looked at her with pure confusion.

"too early?" the voice came from somewhere closer to her, and when nick's mouth didn't move to make the sounds, the pieces started falling together.

she looked over at chris who was still lying on his side of the couch. he was looking at her like he was waiting for an answer. it made her even more mad that it wasn't nick who said it, but chris. of course, it had to be him because why wouldn't he try annoying the fuck out of her at the crack ass of dawn?

her gaze wandered back over to where nick and matt were standing by the kitchen. but now they were doing their own things, getting ready for breakfast.

"you know just how to push my buttons, don't you?" she spoke lowly as she pushed the blanket off of her and stood up to join nick and matt in the kitchen.

"it's kinda my job at this point." he shrugged and got up and followed her into the kitchen. couldn't he get away from her for like two seconds? she felt like she had gotten a newfound disease called "chris won't leave me alone" disease. she was just hoping that someone, anyone, would know the cure.

"hey, matt?" chris called from behind valerie, and then he walked right past her to stand across the kitchen island from matt.

"yes?" he took one of his final bites of his toast before giving chris his full attention.

"aren't mom and dad supposed to be coming home today?"

"uhh..." he had to take a quick look at the calendar they had on one of their walls before he could answer, "yeah, actually." the thought of still being here when their parents got back, made valerie's skin crawl. she couldn't meet their parents yet, so she was going to have to get back home before they got here.

"wait you're serious?" nick added, not realizing how fast their trip had ended. he quickly looked at valerie like he couldn't believe it, but she couldn't either.

"i can't wait to see trev, bro." a huge smile spread across chris's face at the thought of this so-called "trev".

"who's trev?" valerie asked, directed more towards chris, but she kept eye contact with nick, hoping he would answer instead. but he didn't.

chris's eyes went wide as if the answer was obvious. how did she not know trevor? was one of the first thoughts to pop into his head. he was filled with disbelief. "trevor? the best dog on planet earth?"

"oh— sorry, how the fuck was i supposed to know?" valerie was offended because there was no way chris thought she could read minds. how was she supposed to know who trev was if she was never told? she just refused to look at him again.

"forget that, valerie." nick pretended to ignore chris, knowing he had to stop, whatever this was, before it got worse. "but on a more serious note, our parents are coming home. no pressure, but they are very nice, and i'm sure they'd be more than happy to meet you."

matt chimed in, deciding that she needed someone to tell her that she didn't exactly have to. "or you can go home, you really don't have to stay if you don't want to."

"i agree with matt," chris said typing something up on his phone. was he texting someone? or what? there was this overwhelming sense of curiosity that crept into valerie's mind. she just wanted to know who he was texting, or even what he was simply typing would suffice.

matt rolled his eyes at chris's comment, going further to verbally acknowledge it as well, "shut the hell up, chris." his comments were just getting more and more irritating. why did he have to make valerie feel so unwelcome?

"i'm probably going to leave now. i've stayed a lot longer than planned." valerie ignored the comment, heading towards the chair she set her purse on last night. the chair she was walking up to was unfortunately also right next to chris's so the first person she locked eyes with was him when she realized the item was missing. of course, she immediately blamed it on him mentally, but he looked like he had no idea what was going on. it pissed her off, knowing he knew where it was and not telling her.

she was about to ask anyone else where it could have gone, but nick was already pulling it out of the closet next to him. he handed it to her saying, "i didn't want to risk leaving it just dangling on the chair, you never know. but it was fun having you over though! we should hang out like this more often!"

"yeah, for sure!" matt agreed.

"i'll think about it," she said, looking in chris's direction, knowing her answer to the offer depended solely on him. he was already staring at her, only making her feel like she wasn't getting out of the house fast enough. so she said her bye's to nick and matt, then walked right out the door. hopefully, that would be fast enough for him

౨ৎ
nat's notes !

this chapter really is just me making up for the fact that i forgot this takes place in boston so ofc their parents would have been there and trevor??! so yeah me making excuses for my mistake 😭

ALSO totally not on purpose but i found out that i actually talked about this "sleeping beauty" thing before when her mother said it in like chapter 6?!! LMAO
#unintentional planning core