“God,
what’s with the depresso club?” asked Cassie, joining the boys at their table
with Vani in tow.
“They’re
mourning the loss of Cerise,” explained Karl, who appeared to be the only sober
one among the three. “Or rather Tom is
mourning her loss and Willy is mourning the fact that he’ll never have her to
lose.”
“Understandable,”
said Vani, drinking what was left of Willy’s beer. “Cerise is pretty cute.”
“Pretty
cute?” asked Willy.
“She’s
hot!” said Tom.
“Let’s
not start this again,” groaned Karl, sounding more amused than annoyed, which
was a nice change from his usual gruffness.
“Well
she is,” said Willy.
“Yeah,”
nodded Vani. “She’s taller than me
though.”
“So? Do you care about that?” asked Cassie. “Like you won’t go out with a girl who’s
taller than you?”
“I’ll go out with
any girl who’ll have me. She can be a freakin’
Amazon for all I care.”
Cassie laughed,
which seemed to please Vani.
“Cerise was like
an Amazon,” said Tom. “Not like
particularly tall or anything but like from that Xena show, you know? She was like the sidekick on that show.”
“How so?” asked
Cassie.
“’Cause she’s
hot!” slurred Willy.
“No, I mean more
like ‘cause she’s like forceful or something.”
“Kinda dominating,
eh? I can dig that,” nodded Vani.
“But she didn’t
wear animal skins or anything,” said Tom.
“Unfortunately,”
said Willy in a rather sleazy way.
“Hey, that’s my
girlfriend you’re talking about!”
“Ex-girlfriend,
loser.”
“Shut up!” Tom
whimpered, slumping down onto the table.
His hair flopped
into a puddle of beer and Vani shooed Cassie’s hand away as she tried to warn
Tom.
“Just let it be,
Cavicassie. Let’s let this play out as
it will,” Vani smiled.
Now what? Shauna walked down the street, her feet
slopping through the slush. It probably
hadn’t been the best idea to choose to leave today, when the weather was so
foul. It was sort of snow-raining or
rain-snowing but either way it was gross and cold and wet. She wasn’t sure where she was going and just
walked aimlessly.
There was that
stupid overpass next to BHS. Fuck you,
fucking high school. She walked over the
overpass and felt the wind rip through her coat. She walked down the other side and soon found
herself at Cerise’s house.
Of course she
would come here. She was so
predictable. She and Cerise hadn’t been
friends in about a zillion years yet she still came here for what… comfort? That bitch didn’t want anything to do with
her.
Shauna leaned against
her tree, the one across from Cerise’s house, the one she always stood behind
when stalking Cerise. She dropped her
garbage bag onto the snowy sidewalk and slumped down onto it. It did nothing to keep her butt from getting
wet.
Was it Cerise’s imagination
or had Karine been reluctant to go to Cunningham’s? Cerise couldn’t blame her, bars were always
boring but Janice had insisted they join the others after rehearsal. She’d predictably run off to make out with
some guys and Karine had joined Peter but she didn’t look like she wanted to
stick around.
Cerise knew she
should join her friends but she just wanted to go home and get to bed. God, she was such a loser. It was only 10pm! She should force herself to have fun, join in
the festivities, or whatever the hell the guys were doing. Oh hell, Tom was with them. It would just be awkward.
She asked Peter
and Karine for a lift as they left the bar and Peter said yes even though he
looked a bit bugged by the request. The
ride home was a sort of weird, like there was an odd tension between Karine and
Peter. Cerise wondered if they were
annoyed with her for asking for a lift.
Driving to Karine’s house from John Abbott was quick and easy but
Cerise’s house was slightly out of the way.
Was it completely uncool of her to be so presumptuous as to ask for a
ride? Or maybe they wanted to be alone
so they could be all coupley and Cerise was ruining it. She was such a loser.
Peter pulled up to
Cerise’s house and she jumped out, saying goodbye as cheerily as possible and
that she’d see them tomorrow. Both Peter
and Karine returned the sentiment neutrally.
Cerise seriously couldn’t tell if they were pissed at her or annoyed
with each other or what. So awkward.
She walked up to
her house and turned to wave to them as they drove off. Holy shit!
Was that Shauna?! It totally
was! She was just sitting there in the
snow across the street, staring at Cerise.
Was she crying? Oh my god!
Cerise fumbled
with her keys and rushed inside, pulling off her boots as quickly as she could
and running upstairs.
“You could have
been a little nicer to Cerise,” said Karine.
“Me? You’re the one being all ice-queen,” said
Peter bitterly. He always sounded bitter
lately.
“Whatever,”
replied Karine as he pulled up to her house.
She leaned over to
give him a kiss and he took hold of her hand.
“Aren’t you gonna invite me in?”
“I should really
get some sleep, Pete. We have rehearsal
tomorrow.”
“We have rehearsal
every day, Karine. What does that
matter?”
She was honestly
the worst girlfriend ever. Peter was a
perfectly nice guy, why didn’t she like him more? She acquiesced and soon enough they were
having sex in her bedroom. And it was
fine. She didn’t think about the Asshole
anymore when she had sex, or at least not really. Not in a scary way. More in an intellectual way, like comparing
Peter to him, like how Peter was nice and gentle and maybe kind of boring but
at least not rough or anything. Terry
would be nice too, he’d be gentle and… goddammit! She had to stop thinking about Terry all the
time, that stupid Cherry obsessed jerk!
“How come we got
the wide load?” asked Vani as he and Cassie dragged a semi-conscious Willy out
of the bar.
It was seriously
dumb that they had to carry the big guy since they were both tiny! But Karl was busy supporting Tom, who was
almost as drunk as Willy. They only got
half way to Karl’s car when they lost their grip and Willy went tumbling down
to the snow below. They couldn’t help
but burst into fits of laughter. Willy
mumbled something or other and Tom kept ranting about how Cerise hated
him. She’d come in to Cunningham’s with
Karine and Janice and then left like literally two seconds later. Tom assumed it was because she was avoiding
him but Willy supposed it was because she was a total bitch cow. Willy was seriously an ass. How come Cassie always ended up hanging out
with such lame guys? Maybe all guys were
lame. Maybe she should break up with
Jonah again. Maybe she should give Vani
a chance. He was sweet in his own way,
even though he was also extremely weird.
As if on cue, Vani
picked up a wet snowball and rubbed it into Willy’s face, then cackled like a
hyena and accused him of crying for his mommy when Willy protested. Vani was kind of a jerk, wasn’t he? Cassie supposed Jonah wasn’t so bad after
all.
Oh god. What if Shauna was still out there? What if she was going to stay out there all
night? So creepy! Or was it?
Maybe Shauna was just tired and cold.
Maybe Cerise should have invited her into the house and given her hot
chocolate or something. Cerise couldn’t
help thinking of what Terry would say.
He’d be all freaked out and accuse Shauna of being a crazed
stalker. But she wasn’t dangerous. She was just lonely.
With great
trepidation, Cerise peeked out of her bedroom window, careful to keep the light
off so Shauna wouldn’t see inside the house.
But Shauna wasn’t there anymore.
Cerise opened the curtains wider and looked up and down the street. No sign of her. She must have given up and gone home. Poor Shauna.
Cerise was so mean to her.
Everyone was.
Karine tried to
text as quietly as possible so as not to wake Peter. Finally she crept out of bed and slunk out of
the room. A moment later Terry was at
the door and she let him in before he could ring the bell.
“Sorry to come by
so late,” he said as he came in and kicked off his slushy shoes. “Is that Peter’s car out there? I can go,” he said, making no motions to
leave.
“No, it’s
fine. What’s up?”
They walked to the
den, where she was pretty sure they could talk without sound travelling
upstairs.
“I’m at my dad’s
this week but I didn’t feel like being there.
It feels weird there without Britt.”
Oh right, his
sister and step-mom had moved out recently.
“I’m used to
reading her a bedtime story. It’s not
the same over Skype. I guess I should
visit on the weekend. But I’ve got a
game.”
“Yeah.”
“But anyway, I
wanted to talk to you about something.”
“What’d Cerise do
this time?”
“I did something.”
“You talked to
her?”
“No. That’s the thing. We haven’t been together in like four months
and yet I still feel guilty.”
“For what?”
“I hooked up with
a chick.”
Karine tried not
to react. There was no reason for her to
be jealous. Terry slept with girls all
the time; it was his thing. And she had a
boyfriend who was sleeping in her bed right now. There was certainly no reason whatsoever to
be annoyed by this news.
“It was like a
month ago I guess. But I’m still
dwelling on it. I feel like I cheated on
Cerise.”
“That’s insane.”
“I know.”
“Who was the
girl?”
“Some chick I met
downtown. Nick and I, you know from
hockey?”
“Yes, I know who
Nick is.”
“We went to Newtown
“You slept with an
old lady?” Karine smirked.
Terry gave her a
wry look. “But seriously, I feel all
weird about it.”
“You have nothing
to feel guilty about.” She chose not to
mention that she completely understood his irrational emotions since she
herself was rather irrationally affected by this turn of events.
“Yeah I
guess. So what should I do to get over
it?”
“Think about the
fact that Cerise is the one who cheated on you!”
“What?”
“Hello?! She went out with Tom like two days after you
guys broke up and popped her cherry all over him!”
Terry remained
stone-faced but his cheeks were turning red.
“Well it’s not like I had a patent on her virginity.”
“Well I’m just
saying.”
“I don’t even care
about all that!” Terry exclaimed. “Who cares about the past? I still love her and I want her back.”
He looked so sad,
so dejected. For about the millionth
time Karine wondered why Cerise had such a hold over him and how she could get
herself some of that strange elixir.
“You wanna stay
over?” she asked, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“Nah, I should
go. Peter’s here and everything.”
“Hey don’t worry
about that,” said Peter.
Karine whirled
around to find him standing in the doorway.
How long had he been there? Had
she said anything incriminating? No, she
didn’t think so. Unless being entirely
too sympathetic to Terry’s stupid problems was incriminating.
“I should go,”
said Terry, getting up.
“No, stay!” said
Peter sarcastically. “I’ll go ‘cause
Karine obviously cares a lot more about you than she does about me.”
“Pete, get over it. We’re just friends, ok?” Karine replied with
exasperation.
“Gimme a break,
Karine! He’s obviously more! You spend every waking moment with him. You’re always with him at school, you go out
with him all the time, he’s always here!”
“Chill, dude,”
advised Terry. “There’s nothing going on
with Karine and me. We’re just good
friends. Have been since Sec 1.”
“Don’t insult my
intelligence.”
“Dude,
seriously. I don’t even think of Karine
like that.”
Once again Karine
tried not to react.
“I only care about
one chick,” Terry went on. “Everyone
knows I’m way into Cerise. That’s why
I’m here. I was crying on Karine’s
shoulder. That’s all I ever do with her.”
“Well that’s
true,” said Karine while rolling her eyes.
“Yeah well,” Peter
sputtered, still looking annoyed.
“Anyway, I gotta
go,” Terry shrugged, walking past Peter towards the front hall.
Karine and Peter
watched as he put on his coat and shoes.
“Well drive
safely,” Karine advised awkwardly. “It
looks pretty gross out there.”
Terry nodded and
left. Peter stared at Karine and then
went back upstairs. She considered
making an excuse and sleeping on the couch but after a beat she followed
him. No excuse was necessary as he seemed
to be getting dressed.
“You’re leaving?”
she asked.
“I don’t care what
you guys say. It’s fucking obvious as
hell that you’re into him.”
“Oh come on!”
“Karine, if you can’t
admit it to me at least admit it to yourself.”
“Ok, thanks
Oprah.”
“Whatever,” Peter grumbled,
pushing past Karine to leave.
So did this mean
they were broken up?
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