By her twentieth birthday, there are a few things Valarie Ricci knows for certain.
She knows that her waitressing job barely covers the costs of living out of a beat up old van. She knows she's stuck in the dead end hometown her high school friends...
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It took another two weeks before the opportunity presented itself to properly begin Bad Boy Movie Club (official name pending). The stars aligned one Monday when the school was closed for a PD day and Nonno was at daycare, leaving Valarie free to anxiously invite Alice over for a movie.
They started with Casablanca because Valarie googled a list of Bad Boy movies and the lead character apparently qualified. She'd seen the movie a long time ago with Nonno before. Alice hadn't, but she was still able to clarify the plot whenever Valarie asked questions.
Valarie was pretty shit at watching movies, but Alice never got frustrated when she needed something repeated because her attention had strayed or when she inevitably started fidgeting atop the couch cushions. They sat at opposite ends of the couch, which Valarie had finally cleared of pillows and blankets, and the space between them was increasingly distracting as the movie went on. She wished she could offer Alice proper food beyond microwave popcorn and boxed mac and cheese, but it was all there was in the house.
They were both able to rattle off the famous quotes in time with the characters on screen. Alice liked the one about gin joints. Valarie's favourite was we'll always have Paris. They debated the merits of both lines and whether or not the lead actually counted as a Bad Boy, which, they decided, he definitely didn't. Alice very passionately argued that he wasn't enough of an emotional mess.
"You know what this means, right?" Alice looked over at Valarie, the side of her face pressed against the couch cushion as grey light from the TV illuminated the hazel in her eyes.
Valarie leaned closer. "What?"
"Means we gotta make our own list. No more getting tricked by Buzzfeed articles. We have to find the best Bad Boy." Her voice was deadly serious.
"We do?"
Alice nodded, eyes locked onto Valarie's. "Yes. It's like a quest."
"Okay."
"Okay."
Neither of them looked away, and Alice's serious expression only lasted a couple seconds longer before she was smiling with her dimples on full display. She'd been doing that a lot more often lately and it was basically killing Valarie–but, like, in a good way. The look was so different from the polite half-smiles Alice offered to everybody else, and, every time she really smiled, it felt like they were sharing something secret.
The two of them had fallen into a tentative routine at school over the past two weeks. In class, they'd pushed their desks together so Alice could help her stay focused on doing work. Whenever Valarie zoned out, Alice would nudge her shoulder or ask her about what she was working on. She actually started looking forward to class and, aside from the days Nonno wasn't in daycare, hadn't missed a single one. Between Alice and Ms. Izida's help, Shakespeare seemed less like gibberish and the frustrated knot her brain turned into whenever she opened a book gradually relaxed.
