The next morning, Sunday, Val woke up; her parents were at church, so she went into the kitchen and fixed herself a salad. She ate about half of it before breaking down crying, but she was proud of herself for eating what she did. She put the salad in the fridge then went to take a shower.
Ethan walked to Val's house to make sure she was okay. He let himself in since he had a key. They have matching necklaces with each other's house keys on it. He heard the shower running, so he walked into the bathroom very quietly. He got undressed and slowly got in the shower, "Hey baby."
Val went wide eyed and grabbed a shampoo bottle and turned around and whacked Ethan not knowing it was him, so when she realized, she went wide eyed.
"Ow shit! Okay I'll get out!" Ethan said as he held his head in pain.
"Fuck I'm sorry! I didn't know it was you," Val said as she tried to look at Ethan's head.
"Kiss me and it'll be better?" Ethan asked.
Val smiled and kissed him on the lips.
Not there, baby," Ethan said, looking her in the eyes. Val went bright red.
An hour later, they finally finished, literally, in the shower, literally. They were sitting in Val's bedroom getting dressed when she told him, "Two things. I ate half of a salad earlier. An-"
Ethan cut her off by hugging her tightly, "I'm so proud of you, love."
"Thank you, darling," Val said smiling. "The other thing is that, I uh. I stood up to my dad last night. I wasn't scared or anything, I was just really fucking mad and I snapped."
That next weekend, Ethan and Val were hanging out with Ethan's friends from the other high school in town. Their names were Max, Sara, Yaz, and Dylan. Ethan grew up with Dylan, they went to the same elementary school, so they were like best friends. Dylan was the stereotypical country boy; everyone assumed he was transphobic, homophobic, racist, etc., but he wasn't; he just said some out of pocket shit. Max grew up in the same neighborhood as Ethan. Max was nonbinary, so they went by they/them pronouns, but they weren't out to their parents. Max was homeschooled ever since they moved to that neighborhood in 1998. Ethan was the first one to welcome them to the neighborhood. Dylan was second. Yaz and Sara were dating. Yaz moved to the neighborhood in 2002 after her parents split up. She met the group by going to the park one day while they were there getting crossfaded, so she asked to join. Sara was the last to join the group; she had joined six months prior, but her and Yaz fucked the first night after getting drunk and that ended with them dating. Sara had always lived there, but she mainly kept to herself until Dylan talked to her about how she looked like a lesbian. Dylan got a broken nose that day.
"Be warned. Dylan, my friend since forever, says the most outrageous shit, so don't mind that," Ethan told Val.
Once Val and Ethan got to the park, Yaz, Max, Sara, and Dylan ran up to them. "So when are we bringing the gun to school?" Dylan asked Ethan.
"Don't scare off his girlfriend the first night with us," Sara said, "I'll break your nose again."
That was one fucking time!" Dylan laughed.
"I need to hear this story," Val said, laughing.
"Oh god. There's two sides to it, be warned," Ethan told her as he picked her up and sat on the slide with her in between his legs.
Dylan started, "I was just trying to be nice, so I walked up to Sara and was like 'Oh you look cool. Are you a lesbian?' And that bitch punched me in the nose."
"Okay first of all, that's not how it happened," Sara began as she looked at Val, "He walked up to me and was like 'Oh you look like a lesbian' without any context, so I clocked that motherfucker."
Dylan glared at her, "I do not sound that country!"
Max just looked at Dylan, "Don't lie." They looked at Val, "I'm Max. The bitch is Sara, the motherfucker is Dylan, and the one who can't keep her hands off of Sara is Yaz."
Dylan looked at Val, "Let me just say, you are so far out of Ethan's league. I can stick it in you better."
Ethan glared at Dylan, "Bitch I will fuck you up. Actually I'll get Sara to break your nose again."
"Gladly," Sara pitched in.
"What'd I do?" Dylan asked.
"What the fuck do you have that I don't?" Ethan asked, still glaring at Dylan.
Dylan just looked at him confused.
"An eight inch dick dumbass," Yaz chimed in.
"How the fuck do you know his size?" Sara asked.
Yaz went wide eyed and looked at Val, "It's so nice to meet you. I would ask your name, but that one can't stop talking about you, so I don't need to."
"Don't change the subject, Yaz," Max said, laughing as they got the weed out from Ethan's jacket. They passed a joint to everyone except Dylan.
"Where's my joint dickface?" Dylan asked defensively.
"You get none until you apologize to my girlfriend," Ethan said.
Dylan glanced at Val then Ethan, "Apologize for what? I could apologize after I beat the shit out of you," he said before yanking Ethan up and pinning him to the pole of the slide.
"This is kind of kinky. Technically, if you beat me up, you could get charged with assault. It does still say female on my birth certificate," Ethan said.
Oh fuck you," Dylan said, letting go of Ethan.
"I don't consent," Ethan jokingly said.
"Oh right, you only consent to Val," Dylan grinned, "So tell us, Val," he looked at Val, "Who's top and who's bottom?"
Val choked on the smoke she was exhaling as she turned bright red and Ethan just punched Dylan's arm playfully, but also hard.
"I mean clearly Val. Have you seen Ethan?" Max snorted.
Ethan glared at Max, "It's switches so fuck you."
Val looked at Ethan, "I thought only I could fuck you."
"Give us a demonstration," Dylan said as he was already drunk from drinking with Max.
Max took Dylan's moonshine from his hand, "I'm taking away your alcohol along with your weed."
"Wait where'd Sara and Yaz go?" Val asked as she looked around only to hear moaning, "Okay I'm gonna shut the fuck up."
The group bursts out laughing as Dylan yells, "Get it! OW OW!"
That night was spent with them getting high as fuck to the point where they couldn't walk, so they just laid on the grass. Val met the love of her life's friends and she felt included, truly included for the first time in her life.
When Val and Ethan got back to Ethan's house, they realized his mom wasn't home, so they shut his bedroom door, but not before clothes were in the living room. They were both crossfaded, so it was kind of sloppy and messy, but very passionate and loving.
