Author's Note: Hey, guys! Sorry for the lack of updates, but I had a good reason. For the past two months or so, I have been trying to essentially do a full semester's worth of work in about seven weeks, in order to graduate on time. As such, I did not have a lot of free time to update. However, the good news is, I just finished my last day of internship, and in a couple of weeks, I will officially have my M.Ed. in Counseling! The anniversary lagniappe will be a bit late, but it will be very awesome. I've been putting a lot of work into it, and I hope you guys like it. So, without further ado, the update!


Emily stared at the pair for several seconds, then looked back to Cy. “So, what’s going on, exactly? Valo’s being friendly with a guy. Big deal. I mean, she’s allowed to start dating again eventually, right?”

Cy paused, thinking. Finally, she said, without taking her eyes off of Valo, “Em, what do you know about Valo?”

“Well,” Emily responded slowly. “She studied psychology and counseling. She dated Grant Veneto, older brother of S, and eventually married him.”

“Personality. What do you know about her personality?”

“Kind of quiet, sort of a snarky sense of humor. A little weird.”

“Exactly.”

“I don’t follow.”

Cy finally looked at Emily. “What if I were to tell you that everything you think you know about Valo, with regard to personality, is either wrong or very incomplete?”

“Huh?”


“You didn’t know Valo as long as I did. She and I had several classes together. Back when I first met her, she was kind of quiet and kept to herself. She hadn’t been out of high school very long, and she was still in that awkward ‘trying to figure myself out’ stage people go through. Not very confident.”

“Okay…”

“At some point, when she was working in the campus gameroom, she met a guy. There was a bit of an age difference, but they clicked pretty well. Let’s face it, a lot of people thought he was a loser at the time. Kinda chubby, bad skin, big nerdy glasses. You’d see those two hanging out, people would pretty much think they were making a new Revenge of the Nerds.”

“So, what changed?”

“I can’t really say. But at some point, Valo seriously grew a spine and became a lot more outspoken. More assertive. She stopped taking crap from people unless she absolutely had to. Even started going out to clubs occasionally and doing crazy stuff. And as for the guy… well, he lost weight and started dressing better. Started networking, too.”

“What’s all that got to do with anything?”


“I’m not finished. So, here’s where it gets good. The dude started becoming pretty popular. Getting a bunch of leadership positions and stuff. Valo basically became sort of the equivalent of the First Lady for a bunch of major campus organizations.”

“Valo? Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

Emily’s forehead furrowed. “So, what happened? I mean, if things were going along that well, why didn’t they stay together?”

“Grant.”

“What? Seriously?”


“See, your boy there, he wasn’t interested in anything that serious at the time. Wanted to keep things casual with Valo. Meanwhile, Valo had met Grant a few months earlier, and they got along well. Grant was keeping his hands off because, well, first of all, Valo was a student, even if she wasn’t taking any of his classes. Plus, second, he figured she was spoken for. Well, Valo figured since Mr. President-of-a-Million-Clubs wasn’t interested in anything long-term, she’d look elsewhere. So, basically, they had an amicable breakup.”

“And then?”

“What do you mean, ‘and then?’ Valo and Grant got together. The end.”

Emily tilted her head. “But you said Valo did all kinds of crazy stuff. Valo doesn’t do that kind of stuff. She didn’t even do that stuff back when I first met her.”


Cy smiled slightly. “Grant kept her sane. Gave her a reason not to screw around. Without him… well, maybe she would have eventually messed up, ruined everything that she had been working for. Whereas…” Here, she nodded in the direction of the man. “Whereas, he’d have maybe been… I don’t know... maybe less of a positive influence.”

“Even though he was a student leader and all?”

“He was also a player and a bit of a partier.”

“Well, I’m sure he’s probably grown out of all that by now.”

“Maybe.”