Page 81 of The Pretender

“I rarely win.”

She looks to the sky. “Okay, school.”

“Maverick tutors me every Wednesday after poker.”

I can keep going with this all night.

“You’re still successful, though,” she adds, “just because you have to work harder than others doesn’t mean you aren’t successful.”

I try to move my arm, but she catches it and secures it to her side. “Talk to me like you used to.”

I used to not feel like I was baring my soul to someone.

“I have mommy issues. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

It’s shitty and I’d like to say I’m better than that, but it’s a sore spot in my life.

“What kind of mommy issues?”

Ugh. “I don’t want to talk about it,” I say after a long pause.

“Okay,” she says, patting my hand patiently and turning the volume up on the movie.

The girl in the movie finally makes it to the road and has her hand up trying to hitch a ride to safety when I finally decide to just blurt it out. “I’m a disappointment to my family. In your story, you still added value and fun to the party. I do neither. My sister, whom I love dearly, is the star of my family. She can do anything. She was the Valedictorian in high school. Captain of the cheerleading team. Went to college on a scholarship. I could go on, but it’s nauseating. The point is my parents pay out the ass for my tuition because I can’t maintain a high enough GPA to keep a scholarship. I didn’t go to a college in California because I couldn’t get into one. Both of my parents are successful real estate agents in my hometown. They are the ‘it couple’ with the precious daughter and then there’s me.”

Vee chimes in, “You, who has over a million subscribers and doesn’t have to work a day job to support himself because he has such a successful MyView page.”

She just doesn’t get it.

“My sister is ten years older than me.” I take a breath. “When she was nine, she got cancer. The doctors tried everything. Nothing worked. The last possibility was a stem cell transplant from a sibling.”

Vee’s arm grabs onto mine like a mini hug. “I was born to save her.”

“Sebastian,” she scolds. “You were born to be her hero.”

Not quite. “Her body rejected the cells. A stranger matched and ended up being her hero.”

“Is that why you give blood every month? So you can be someone’s hero?”

I grunt. “No. That’s not why I do it.”

Vee squeezes me and I know she’s smiling when she says, “It’s okay. You don’t have to admit it. I know you’re a hero.”

CHAPTEREIGHTEEN

Valentina

University CamFlix Competition Submission

Entry Number: 75

Sebastian and Valentina

Second Interview Continued, also known as the time Tom became suspicious for good reason

“Day by day,” Tom muses with a stupid grin on his face. “I get it. I was young once.”

I have a hard time believing Tom was once young. The collared shirt and khakis make me think before he was Tom, the annoying interview guy, he was Jake from State Farm.

---