THE BIG DEAL: PART 5
Cherry shuffled down the hotel hallway, staring at the battered red Chuck Taylors that took step after step in front of her. She jumped as she felt something brush against her.
“Sorry, Cherry,” said Blueberry. Cherry kept walking, not wanting to accidentally get herself in a conversation with someone she didn’t want to even look at right now.
Haze said they didn’t do anything, she thought. But who knows what he considers that to be. She slid the card key into the lock and opened the door to her room. She scanned her eyes across everything she could see. It looked completely unchanged. She sighed in relief and tossed her bag onto the bed, doing the same with her body shortly after.
"Why don't you just find you some nice boy from some rival band or something? That would probably get his blood boiling." Cherry laughed to herself as she thought about it.
“Make him jealous?” she thought aloud, staring at the ceiling. “I guess I could… try it.” A million thoughts went through her head all at once, and she smirked.
Cherry sat up on her bed and grabbed her bag, pulling out the smaller bag which held her makeup. She practiced her most sultry walk on the way to the bathroom, then laughed and decided it was a no to that idea.
She put on her second-best makeup routine. She’d decided a long time ago that her best was only for Sweet. The same thing went for her pigtails- nobody saw her without them if she could help it. Taking them out felt naked… and she didn’t want anyone to see her naked but him. But she wouldn’t let him know that.
Cherry opened her suitcase and pulled out a short dress that was a slightly muted shade of fuchsia. Perfect, she thought, changing into it and looking proudly at herself. She took one of her smaller purses and put a few essentials into it, then slung it over her shoulder. Finally, she slipped on some black heels and sauntered out the door.
“Hi, Cherry!” It was Olivia- the MCB’s flautist and resident animal rights enthusiast, as well as the only girl Cherry talked to fairly regularly. She was short, and even with her mass of strawberry-blonde curls, she was still shorter than Cherry. She was wearing a light orange dress with a white floral print. “Are you trying for some action too?” Olivia’s laugh was almost infectious.
“I guess you could say that,” admitted Cherry, “But what about Haze? Did you two split?”
“We’re not into commitment much. But we still love each other, you know.”
“Cool.” Cherry shrugged. “I’d rather stick with what I’ve got… but seeing as that’s nothing, Well, we’re leaving tomorrow anyway, right? I’ll live a little.”
“I guess unless you date someone in MCB, you’d have to, huh?” Olivia smiled. Cherry laughed nervously.
Once they arrived at the club, Olivia and Cherry took separate directions.
“I’ll text you if I leave, okay?”
“Right.” Cherry wandered toward an empty cluster of chairs so she could scan the room for anything interesting and decide what to do from there.
“Miss Cherry Magic, huh?”
“My friends call me Cherry. But I don’t know your name.” A man who looked about a year or two older than her sat down.
“I’m Dev.”
“Oh, from Clockwork, right? I thought you guys hated us.”
“A little rivalry between bands doesn’t hurt. Besides, it’s that Sweet guy I don’t like.”
“Oh?” Cherry bit her lip, thinking.
“We don’t get along. I’ll put it that way.” Suddenly, Cherry had an epiphany.
“Say… you wanna help me make him really pissed?” Cherry smiled.
“I’ll do almost anything for a girl with pink hair.”
“Good. Well, you see… Him and I are sort of an item,” she lied, trying not to giggle at the thought, “But I wanna make him a little jealous. Here’s the plan…”
~~
The next morning, Cherry was so excited that she couldn’t help jumping on the bed after she’d prettied herself up and packed her bags. She was the first one on the bus. Soon, everyone was there… save for Olivia, Haze, and Sweet. She sighed and hurried back to the hotel. Olivia’s room was empty- the maid was just leaving.
She found Haze and Sweet’s room and knocked, then waited. Come on, she thought, knocking again. After the third time, she realized she had forgotten to give Sweet’s key back, and slid the key in and opened the door, her heart bouncing off her ribs.
“Haze? Sweet?” Haze’s bed, to her horror, was empty, and so was the bathroom. The only one in the room was Sweet, who was still fast asleep.
“Hey, Sweet, wake up!” she called. Oh, wait. Earplugs. Fuck!
Cherry tried flicking the lights on and off, clapping her hands, everything she could think of. She sighed.
“I can do this. It’s no big deal.” Slowly, legs shaking, hands trembling, she approached Sweet’s bed. She paused for a moment. God, I’m a creep, she thought. I could probably watch him for hours. She shuddered and slowly touched her hand to his shoulder; her heart felt like it might explode. She swallowed the lump in her throat and shook his shoulder gently.
“Hnn… Wha…” Sweet stretched out and opened his eyes. “Cherry? What’re you doing here?”
Cherry snapped back into reality. “We’re all waiting for you guys… We’re already r-running late.” She took a deep breath. “I knocked but nobody answered so I let myself in. I-I forgot to give you your key last night.”
“No prob. Haze said you had a bad night.” Sweet sat up.
“Y-Yeah… Um, I’m going to go find him and Olivia.” She paused. “Can you hold onto my phone and make sure I don’t miss anything? I really want to hurry to find them.”
“Sure, I guess.”
“T-Thanks. See you at the bus!” Cherry handed Sweet her cell phone and took off to find Haze and Olivia. Maybe they’re outside, she thought, taking the elevator to the first floor and approaching the front desk.
“S’cuse me, have you seen a guy with purple dreadlocks? Or a girl with… really big hair?”
“I think they went to the pool.”
“Thanks!” She sped off to go outside to the pool, wondering what the hell they were doing out there.
Haze and Olivia seemed too enamored with each other to notice Cherry. She sighed and cleared her throat.
“Ahem… Uh, guys, we were supposed to be out of here half an hour ago!” She put her hands on her hips and glared at Haze. “You were supposed to wake Sweet up, but I had to do it myself.”
“Don’t act like you didn’t like it.” Cherry’s face burned and she turned away.
“Get out of there and get to the bus, okay?” She stalked away, crumpling her hands into fists. She let out a sigh once she got back into the lobby, taking deep breaths to try and calm herself. She had to seem happy for the plan to work…
“Hey, I’m back!” Cherry smiled as she climbed into the tour bus. Sweet was sitting on the couch, staring at Cherry’s phone.
“You got some messages,” Sweet said, holding the phone out to her.
“D-Did you read them?” Cherry sat down beside him, taking her phone.
“You have a candy-bar phone. So… I kinda did.” He looked confused. “I didn’t know you knew the guys from Clockwork.”
“Just Dev.” She crossed her legs. “Why?”
“They’re kind of our rivals.”
“So…” She inhaled deeply. “What do you expect me to do?”