Terry skipped Economics and went outside for a smoke. He was trying to quit for Cerise’s sake but for some reason being at school really made him crave cigarettes. Maybe it was being around all his friends who smoked like chimneys. Speak of the devil; Karine joined him at their wall, apparently also choosing to skip Economics.
“You look very content with yourself. If I didn’t know better I might even say you were happy,” she said with a smug smile.
“Yeah, I hear it’s the latest thing,” grinned Terry.
“You really like her, eh?”
Terry sighed. “Not another lecture about Cerise.”
“I’m not lecturing you! I’m saying she seems to make you happy. It’s nice to see. Usually you’re all like smirky and shit. Now you actually smile, just like real people.”
Terry laughed and hoped he wasn’t blushing. “Yeah well…” he trailed off.
“Erica doesn’t like her much though.”
“Like I give a shit what that cunt thinks.”
“Terry, don’t use the word cunt, ok? Even if Erica totally is one.”
“Sorry.”
“Anyway, she’s probably just jealous, right?” Karine snickered.
“Don’t gross me out.” The mere thought of hooking up with Erica was enough to make Terry’s stomach turn. Suddenly his cigarette didn’t taste so good anymore and he flicked it away in disgust.
“She and Andrew are taking bets on how long it’s gonna last.”
Terry rolled his eyes. Of course they were. Andrew probably assumed that Terry hadn’t made any headway at all with Cerise, since he wasn’t bragging about it. Andrew was a fucking moron.
“So what’s your bet?” he asked.
Karine giggled. “I figure you’ll stay with her as long as she’ll have you.”
Terry smirked but knew that Karine was right. And what if Cerise decided she didn’t want to keep going out with him? How could he convince her to stay? He’d already done everything he could think of. He’d given her an orgasm and that had pretty much exhausted his arsenal. Not that she was showing signs of disinterest, but still, she was unpredictable and she was walking to school with that stupid Jason Harris guy again. Terry’s hands involuntarily balled into fists. Every time he thought about that stupid brillo pad hair guy he wanted to punch him in the face.
At lunch, Terry went to meet Cerise at her locker and he walked with her to their picnic table outside. He nibbled at her neck while she ate her lunch and she giggled, playfully pushing him away. She looked great today, wearing a tight t-shirt with a plunging neckline. It was a nice day and they all had their jackets off, except Chrissy for some reason, who was wrapped up tightly in her coat.
“Do you still graduate if you fail Economics?” asked Andrew. “’Cause I’m totally gonna fail Economics.”
“How are you failing?” asked Erica. “I thought you were cheating.”
“Ehh, I got too lazy to cheat.”
“Well at least cheat on the final.”
“I might fail anyway though. So will I still graduate?”
“What’s your overall average?” asked Cerise.
“Well it’s not 93%,” snarked Erica. “But then we can’t all be you can we, Cherry?”
“Lay off, Erica,” Terry growled, puffing himself up to look intimidating, even though he knew Erica wasn’t really afraid of him. She knew he’d never do anything to a girl and even though Erica was a flaming harpy from hell she was still technically female.
Erica snickered and eyed Terry coolly. Cerise’s nerd friends ran past the table and Cerise waved at them, which just made Erica snicker even more.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you, Cherry, where do you get your cute little outfits? ‘Cause I hope you know shopping at second-hand stores went back from being trendy to just being gross.”
Terry sat up even straighter and was about to tell Erica to shut up but Cerise put her hand on his leg and spoke up.
“Oh I’m sorry,” she purred. “I didn’t realize this area was the GAP only section of the school. I didn’t mean to disrupt your conformity with any original thought.”
“Like I’d even shop there,” Erica snorted.
“We all know it’s the only mainstream store that carries your size,” said Cerise. Her tone was perfect; she didn’t sound sarcastic, just sweet as honey, as though she genuinely felt sorry for Erica’s fat ass.
Everyone laughed and Erica practically burst into flames.
Cerise stood up and pointed at Erica’s hair. “By the way, Kesha called and she wants her trailer trash roots back. Also, some people like to use shampoo to take care of that little grease problem you’ve got going. Just a tip. I’ll see you later, Terry. We’re gonna go work on the yearbook.”
Cerise walked away with her head held high and the Green Girls all followed her without missing a beat. Terry grinned at Erica, silently daring her to say something.
“God, whatever,” she snarked. “Bitch. Like she should talk. Her haircut is totally Chloe from Smallville.”
“Chloe from Smallville is hot,” offered Steven and for once Terry was grateful for his ability to speak.
“Shut up, Steven!” Erica snapped.
Mel, Steph and Sarah all laughed their asses off as they caught up with Cerise.
“That was so awesome!”
“Totally!”
“Oh my god!”
“I know!”
“That was pretty intense, Cerise,” Sarah giggled.
“She’s such a bitch,” smirked Cerise.
“You totally put her in her place.”
“Totally!”
“So…” Mel frowned. “Is the GAP not cool anymore?”
Cerise shrugged apologetically as they reached student union. The boys were sitting at their wall.
“Hey, you guys should have been there,” said Sarah.
“It was hilarious!”
“Totally!”
“What?” asked Karl.
“Cerise just told off Erica Mackey.”
“Right in front of everyone!” Mel giggled.
“It was classic,” laughed Steph.
“What’d you say?” asked Vani.
“Nothing,” shrugged Cerise nonchalantly.
“She made fun of her clothes, her weight and her hair,” smiled Sarah.
“She said she was trailer trash!”
“She said she was like Kesha!”
“She is hideous,” nodded Karl.
“I think she’s hot,” mused Willy.
“She’s evil,” nodded Vani.
“My point is proven,” smiled Willy.
“Does that mean you’re finally gonna stop hanging out with those assholes?” asked Jay.
“Well, no,” said Cerise.
“We’re still gonna hang out with them,” said Steph.
“I mean, right?” asked Mel, obviously worried.
“Terry’s still my boyfriend,” explained Cerise.
“Well thank god for that!” said Jay sarcastically.
Jay obviously had no love for Terry and Cerise wanted to flatter herself into believing it was because he was jealous but she knew that wasn’t the case. Or rather it was jealousy but over Karine, not Cerise. He hated Steven just as much. He hated anyone who got to hang out with Karine on a regular basis. If Cerise didn’t watch out he’d start hating her too.
After school, Cerise gave Terry a quick goodbye kiss and caught up with Jay on his way home.
“Ahh, I see the surgery was successful,” he smirked.
“I don’t think I wanna know where you’re going with this,” she said.
“They managed to pry your lips off of Terry Trebishitsky’s.”
“Shut up,” laughed Cerise. “Jealous?”
She’d said it jokingly and without thinking but Jay looked really insulted. Really hurt. Was it possible he did like her after all? Maybe he really was jealous, like because of her, not because of Karine.
“Do you wanna come over for dinner tonight?” she asked suddenly, trying not to sound too eager.
“On a school night?”
“Yeah well, it’s my birthday. My mom’s having a little thing. She said I could invite someone.”
“Oh ok. Yeah sure I guess.”
“What’d you wish for?” asked Cerise’s little sister when Cerise blew out the candles on her cake.
It was weird having dinner with her family. They were all so… female.
“If I tell it won’t come true,” replied Cerise.
“I bet I can guess. Eh, Jay?” said Julie.
What the hell did that mean? Jay shrugged in confusion and Cerise’s sisters giggled.
“Anyway,” said Cerise, annoyed.
“So what exciting things happened at school today?” asked Cerise’s mom.
“Nothing exciting ever happens at school, mom,” Cerise sighed.
“That’s not true,” smiled Jay, happy to contribute to the conversation. “Cerise told off a girl today. That was pretty exciting. I mean, I wasn’t there but I heard about it so it must have been pretty exciting.”
“Would you shut up?” said Cerise in exasperation.
“You told off a chick?” asked her older sister. “Cool.”
“Cerise is really good at that,” smirked Jay.
“Shut up.”
“Was it Shauna?” asked Simone.
“No, she’s branching out. This time it was this girl Erica who’s a total bit… not nice person. So she deserved it.”
“What’d she do to piss you off?” asked Simone.
“Well it’s ‘cause she’s the friend of…” Jay tried to go on but Cerise interrupted him.
“Would you? Nothing. She’s just a bitch. She insulted my clothes so I insulted hers. End of story. Eat your fucking cake.”
“Excuse me! Language!” exclaimed Cerise’s mom.
“Oh, sorry,” sighed Cerise. “Eat your fucking baked good.”
Cerise and her sisters all snickered and Cerise’s mom rolled her eyes. What a weird family.
It was pretty good cake and Jay had about a zillion pieces but the Raspberries didn’t seem to mind. After putting their dishes in the dishwasher, Cerise and Jay went out to his driveway to shoot some hoops.
“God, why didn’t you just tell them my whole life story?” snapped Cerise.
“What?” said Jay, taken aback.
“Don’t tell my family about my life.”
“Why not? They’re your family. Don’t you tell them stuff?”
“Not if I can help it.”
“You’re so weird.”
“You’re weird. What, do you give your parents a play by play of each day? That’s messed up.”
“Whatever,” shrugged Jay.
Cerise didn’t need to know that his mom practically made him recount each minute of his life in excruciating detail.
“So what are you these days, seventeen?”
“Yep. When’s your b-day?”
“July 29th.”
“I’m gonna be in Quebec City
“So?”
“So you should respect your elders,” said Cerise, bouncing the basketball off of Jay’s head.
He grabbed the ball and acted like he would throw it at Cerise. She flinched and he laughed.
“So how come your boyfriend isn’t here?” he asked, shooting the ball and missing the hoop by a mile.
“Terry?”
“You got another boyfriend I don’t know about? How come you didn’t invite him?”
“I haven’t told my family about him.”
“How come?”
“I dunno.”
“You’re so secretive.”
She shrugged.
“You didn’t even tell us. You know, me and the guys. About you and Terry. We just had to like, figure it out.”
“It wasn’t a secret. I just didn’t change my status on facebook. It’s not that big of a deal.”
“So if it’s not a big deal does that mean it’s not serious?”
He avoided looking at Cerise while he asked the question so he didn’t know how she was reacting. But she didn’t answer so eventually he looked at her. She was holding the ball and staring at it.
“I dunno,” she finally answered.
“Well you eat lunch with him everyday. That’s pretty serious.”
“Oh yeah,” she snarked. “Lunch, it really defines your day.”
“Well yeah, Cerise. It kinda does.”
“Ok fine. So it’s serious then. I mean, I dunno. I don’t really know what I’m doing here, Jay. I’m just going with the flow. It’s not like I have a plan.”
“Well do you like him?”
“Of course I do! I wouldn’t go out with him if I didn’t.”
“I bet plenty of girls would,” said Jay perhaps a bit more harshly than he’d intended.
“He’s nice,” she insisted.
“Oh yeah, really nice.”
“He’s nice to me.”
“Yeah?” Jay looked at her skeptically.
“Yeah! He is. And he’s cute and… fun and stuff. And he asked me out. It’s not like I had a line of guys beating down my door. I mean, who else am I supposed to go out with?” Cerise stared at Jay defiantly. God, what was her damage?
“Why do you have to go out with anyone?”
“Why the hell shouldn’t I? Like I’m just supposed to sit at home being lonely? Like if you can’t go out with Karine then nobody can go out with anybody?”
“I am so sick of everyone throwing Karine in my face all the time!” snapped Jay. “God, I’m just saying it’s gross, Cerise. Terry’s a jerk!”
“No he’s not!” she snapped. “Not with me. He’s super sweet to me. We watch spy shows together and then joke about working for Section. He makes us grill cheese sandwiches and always remembers that I like it with ketchup on the side. He buys me Jolly Rancher jellybeans off the internet because you can’t get them in Canada
“Ok, ok!” Jay exclaimed, throwing his hands over his ears. “Don’t make me puke! I get it. He’s a dreamboat.”
“Yeah, he is. He really, actually is. So stop trying to make me feel bad about having a life!”
She tossed the ball aside and purposefully strode back to her house. God, she was so dramatic. Chicks! Whatever.
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