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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Grace stuck around like a bad dream. Even after they'd migrated out of the motel room, Alice having to coax Valarie out of the mysteriously damp corner of the room she'd wedged herself into to hide from Grace, the ghost had followed them. Valarie had clung to Alice's side as she checked out at the front desk, terrified at the possibility of Grace cornering her alone. The motel attendant looked at Valarie like she might explode all over his lobby. She wasn't sure that she wouldn't explode.
Now, Valarie sat in the back of her van, anxiously played with Ithaca's ears as he rested his head in her lap, and watched Alice pace burrows into the motel parking lot's pavement.
Alice was reading aloud and marching in circles, and Valarie's brain was breaking. It was as impossible to see Grace as it was to look away.
"I know it's not even Christmas yet, but I want to make an early new year's resolution. That's what successful people do. They make promises to themselves," Alice was practically shouting into the wind. A family piling into their SUV across the lot was shooting Alice funny looks. She didn't notice. "I'm going back home next year. I don't care what I have to do to get there. I don't care about anyone here. Dad hates me, Alice hates me. I only have Jared and Mom and my old friends back home. I'll die if I stay here."
Alice threw an anxious look at Grace before sending Valarie her widest smile, cheeks red from the wind chill. Valarie's stomach twisted into a knot, and she clutched Ithaca closer.
Alice continued: "I think I can convince Jared to come with me. It'll be romantic, like something you hear about celebrities doing before they get famous. Even if I have to dump him later on at least he'll be in Toronto. That's a fuck ton better than being here. Better than dealing with his Dad. I hate going over there, but at least nobody cares about what we do. We can get high in the living room and sleep together in his bed and nobody cares. His Dad probably won't even notice he's gone when we go."
Grace lingered closer to Alice, looking like an attentive child listening to a favourite bedtime story. Her red lips were moving, clumsily attempting to shape the words spilling out from the diary. Her lips were moving, and yet Valarie could still hear that horrible, distant humming, looping the same few lines of Nonno's song. She forced her eyes down to Ithaca, who looked up at her with the widest, most disarming eyes there ever were, clearly hoping for a snack. Valarie crushed the dog to her chest.
"Jared's sister is going to be the biggest problem, I know that already. He likes her too much. I know he'll get over it eventually. I know he'll see that I'm his best option for actually doing something with his life. They both will."
Alice shut the diary with a flourish. "It's working. I can't believe it's actually fucking working. I should have brought the diary out sooner, I've wasted so much time." Her eyes were alight with opportunity and hope and Valarie suddenly felt like she wasn't going to survive this trip. Fear pressed against her from all sides. She wasn't going through all this again. She couldn't. "Valarie, she's mouthing the words. She's almost speaking!"
