THE BIG DEAL: PART 11!
Cherry’s heart melted away any positive thoughts of Dev as soon as Sweet’s arm touched her. There wasn’t a thing Dev could do to make her feel like this- Sweet took her breath away, and he didn’t have to force surprise kisses on her to do it. Sweet was magic, magic like he’d called her on the night they met. Too bad it was only because she could play the trombone. Anyone could tell her that. She’d prefer it was because she had fantastic eyes or was so utterly charming he couldn’t describe her any other way, but she’d take the trombone compliment over nothing.
“Cher? You listening?” Sweet looked at her. Cherry snapped out of her dream world and looked back at him.
“Wha?” Her face burned a little. He just laughed and patted her shoulder.
“I said… What am I gonna do with you?” Cherry could think of a million things she’d love him to do to her. She wanted him to hold her tightly, to run his fingers down her scars and tell her they were beautiful, to never let anyone hurt her ever again. The butterflies in her stomach had wings like razorblades.
“I don’t know, Sweet. That’s your call, I suppose.” She stepped a little closer to him and felt a bit dizzy from the smoke.
“Yeah?” He shrugged. “I just don’t know how good that bastard is for you. Well, I do. He’s a terror to mankind, and he’s no good at all.” Sweet laughed again and Cherry smiled weakly.
“When you can’t get the best, you settle for the rest.” She paused. “I’m lonely, Sweet. I don’t think you could quite understand… You’ve been surrounded by people who love you all your life.” She kicked a stray stone onto the street. Sweet’s arm lifted off of her shoulder and she felt even worse. Haze, sensing too much tension in what he wanted to be a peaceful drug-induced walk to the hotel, immediately changed the subject.
“Good show tonight,” he blurted. Cherry sighed and smiled at Haze.
“Yeah, it was…” She put her hands in her pockets. “Good crowd, too.” Sweet was quiet as the two talked about the concert. The hotel was close by, to their relief.
“I’ve gotta talk to you, Cherry.” Haze mumbled. “Come by my room in a while.”
“Mmhmm.” Cherry was still slightly miffed about the spat she’d had with Dev, and particularly Sweet’s comments. She dragged her things to her room, relieved to have some well-anticipated personal space.
She ran a bath and buried herself in waves of hot water. When she wasn’t sure of how she wanted to feel, she did that. It was all she could think to do.
After soaking for probably what was too long, Cherry dragged herself out of the now-pink bathwater, put on her pajamas, and trotted down the hall to Haze’s room, which he shared with Olivia. She was reading some folk music magazine, and Haze was napping.
Olivia looked up at Cherry and scrunched up her nose, still annoyed with what had happened earlier. She took her magazine, slipped on her sandals and left the room. Cherry sighed and shook Haze’s shoulder.
“Ngmph… Hi.”
“What’d you want?” Cherry sat cross-legged on the bed beside Haze, leaning her head on her hand. Haze stretched his arms and legs, groaning and yawning. He sat up slowly and looked Cherry in the eyes. She frowned and looked away, but he held the side of her face with one of his hands.
“Look at me.”
“Haze, what do you want?”
“You are going to stop this. This is getting way out of hand, Cher.” Cherry moved his hand and grumbled.
“What’re you talking about?” Cherry crossed her arms, biting her lip.
“Dev. You’re going to stop this charade.” Cherry hadn’t seen Haze looking this serious in a long time. Usually with his advice, his attention wandered sleepily as he rambled. But this time, his near-black eyes stared directly at her with no underlying jest. “This is getting to be stupid. You’re not getting anywhere and…” Haze sighed, rubbing his forehead. “I wasn’t being entirely serious when I told you to find some rival guy, y’know. And I sure didn’t mean bitter rivals.”
“Why are you all so concerned with what I do? Jesus, it’s not like it affects YOU! It’s an entirely fabricated relationship and we both know it. It’s not hurting us. It doesn’t seem to hurt Sweet too much either. Just annoys him.” Cherry turned away from Haze.
“How does this make you any better than someone like Blueberry?”
“Haze, what the hell’s with you?” Cherry looked at the bassist, confused. “You’re acting all uptight and… concerned.” Haze’s seriousness broke and he laughed for a few moments before coughing painfully a few times.
“Someone’s gotta make sure you stay out of trouble.”
“I can manage.” Cherry stood and stalked out of the room. Just because she was the youngest didn’t mean she was still seventeen. She wasn’t still going to do the things she did then and it frustrated her more than anything. Olivia treated her like a kid. Haze treated her like a kid. Even Sweet was treating her like a fool. She opened the door to her room and heard her phone buzzing on the counter. 1 new voicemail. She sighed and played the message.
“Cherry? Cherie? Look, I was being stupid. I was just trying to lighten the mood and you obviously weren’t up for it. I’m sorry. Just in a weird mood, y’know?” There was a long pause. “Just call me sometime. If you don’t totally hate me or whatever… We could go for coffee or something. Real coffee, I swear. Like Starbucks. Not metaphor coffee. Or whatever, if you don’t like coffee. Just friends stuff, y’know?” There was another long pause in the message and a cough. “You’re a cool girl. You’re tough. I’d better go. See ya.” The message ended. Cherry stared at her phone a long time, confused and frustrated. Why couldn’t Sweet send her messages or call her cool or ask her for coffee? Why did this rival of the man she loved care about her when they both knew the whole thing was a sham?
Cherry flung herself on her bed and wailed into her pillow. For most people, this was something people had trouble growing out of, but she grew into it. As a teenager, she threw her emotions into substances and never felt a thing. Now, she had nothing. She kicked and screamed into the pillow until her throat hurt too much to go on. Grabbing her cell phone, she dialed Dev’s number frantically, trying to calm herself down so she wouldn’t be screaming at him…
“Hey,” the smooth voice from the other end lulled. “You called. I thought you wouldn’t.”
When she went to say hello, she burst into tears. She heard Dev sigh on the other end.
“Dev, I don’t-I don’t have nobody to talk to-and-and…”
“Aw, Cherie!” He chuckled, “Come on, I’ll take you for a late night coffee.”
“Only real, just friends coffee.” Cherry rolled her eyes.
“Right. I’m staying at the hotel down the block. I’ll get a cab.”
“You don’t have to do this…”
“You’re heartbreaking when you’re all broken up. I’ll see you.” The phone clicked.