Talk:Valerie/@comment-4423292-20150120135809

Val met Lili and Marley when she was 5 and 2 monthes and 13 days old, Marley was 4 and 4 days old, and Lili was 6 and 19 days old. She knows this because it was the first thing they ever said to each other. At that age, who’s older than who is chiefly important.

They all came from more or less the same situation: Dad ran out on mum when they where babies, and mum raised them with some help from family and friends. The details vary, but they never paid attention to that. They were the kind of differences adult would see as significant, but that they never saw any importance in. Lili and Marley’s mums were less than 20, and poor, when they had them. Val's wasn’t. Lili and Marley’s mums were engaged to their dads when they left. Val's were married.

Money was an abstract concept to them. All adults were ridiculously old. Those relationship constructs were meaningless.

On that day, they accepted Lili’s seniority, and she accepted they youth, and they became friends. From that day onward.

Over the weeks and years that followed, they found differences with slight value. Marley’s mum was half Icelandic, and had been raised there, and he spoke Icelandic fluently because it was their main language at home. Lili’s mum was half French, and had also been raised there. Lili and her mum spoke some French at home - she didn’t speak French as well as Marley spoke Icelandic, but she was decent. Her French was certainly better than Val's. Val's godmother was French, and she had learned some from her. With Lili, Val's got better, and Marley learned it too. Lili's French is better than Val's, and Val's is better than Marley's, but they can all get by in it.

And then there’s Val's father. When Lili and Marley’s dads left, they left both them and their mums. But when Val's dad left her mum, and took Val with him. This lone fact is the biggest difference between them in Val’s eyes, and she keeps it close to her heart. She doesn’t talk about it, not wanting her friends to feel bad, but this single fact means a great deal to her. ''My father left my mother. He didn’t leave me.''