Karine woke up with her music still playing, but the ear buds had fallen out at some point in the night. She could still hear it faintly as it played softly next to her. She reached for the phone and turned off the music, checking the time. It was early, 8 in the morning. Fuck that shit, she could sleep longer.
Slowly, the doorknob to her bedroom door turned and her stomach rose up to her throat. What if it was Brady coming to attack her?!
But no, it was Terry, and he was half naked. He carefully stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. Being super quiet, facing the door, he zipped up his jeans and buckled his belt, then pulled on his t-shirt and hoodie. He turned around, presumably to sit on Karine’s bed so he could put on his socks, but he jumped when he saw her and even yelped like a kid.
Karine laughed out loud. “Hey, loser.”
“Fuck, Karine! You scared the shit out of me!”
“This is my room, Terry! Didn’t you think I’d be in here?”
“Fuck, I dunno. I wasn’t thinking, I guess. I just had to get out of there, and get dressed.”
“Let me guess: in the sewing room, with Christina, hopefully with a condom.”
Terry sighed heavily and sat on the edge of the bed. “Fuck, I really fucked up. Again.”
“Yep,” Karine grinned.
“Now she’s gonna get all obsessed again! Why do I keep doing this?!”
Karine didn’t know the answer to that question. Why did he keep doing it? Because he was horny and Chrissy was such an easy target? Because no matter how much he shit on her she’d always come back for more? Because he was a guy, and guys were all assholes driven by their dicks? “Dunno dude,” she shrugged as she crawled out of bed. “You’re a fucking idiot I guess.”
“Nick, you’re still here?” asked Terry as he walked into Karine’s kitchen.
“You’re my ride, ass-wipe,” replied Nick as he sipped a cup of coffee at the kitchen table.
“Oh right, sorry,” said Terry as Karine poured herself a cup and offered one to Terry.
He nodded and took the cup, sitting down across from Nick and taking a swig. “Shit, this is strong.”
“You want some cream for that, you pussy?” asked Nick, grabbing his junk.
“So Terry totally hooked up with Christina last night. Let’s discuss all the ways in which that was the worst possible choice he could have made,” smiled Karine as she dropped a box of pop tarts on the table.
Nick simply grinned at Terry as he admitted he was an idiot.
“But on the plus side I got to see Terry half naked as he snuck into my room this morning to escape her,” Karine smiled.
“Shit, that’s nothing,” chuckled Nick. “I get to see Terry naked all the time in the locker room!” He wiggled his eyebrows comically.
“You should take pictures,” Karine giggled.
“I could sell them to Christina,” Nick snickered.
“Oh, fucking hell,” groaned Terry. “We gotta get out of here before she wakes up. Karine, I’ll come back later to help clean up. Text me when she’s gone.”
“So I have to deal with her alone?!” Karine whined.
“Well fuck! I don’t know what to say to her!”
“You’re such a dick!” complained Karine as Terry took another swig of his coffee and left the kitchen with Nick in tow.
“Karine!”
Oh god, here we go. Karine braced herself and went to the hallway where Christina was bounding down the stairs, asking her to guess what. “You hooked up with Terry.”
“Yeah! He told you? We’re back together!” said Christina, clapping her hands and hovering on the first step of the staircase.
“Chrissy,” Karine said evenly. “You hooked up. That doesn’t mean you’re back together.”
“But he said!”
“He said you were back together?” asked Karine skeptically.
“Well he apologized. Last night. He said he was sorry for all the shit he ever did to me. He was super sweet and then we talked and then hooked up. I mean obviously…” she trailed off, gripping the hand rail of the staircase.
“Obviously what? I mean this is Terry we’re talking about. This is his pattern. He means well, he really does. He doesn’t want to hurt you. But he’s not your boyfriend. He never was. He never will be.”
Christina’s lip quivered and Karine wondered if she’d been too harsh.
“No, he’s changed,” Chrissy insisted. He’s not a player anymore. He was with Cerise for ages. He can commit.”
“Yeah, to Cerise, not to you,” said Karine with just a touch of bitterness.
“What the hell do you know about it? You weren’t there. You didn’t hear what he said to me.”
“Yeah, but I know Terry. I know him better than you do. And I really think you should get over him.”
“Screw you, Karine! What the hell? I thought we were friends again, why are you going all Erica on me?!”
Karine took a deep breath in order to steady herself. She calmly explained that she wasn’t being Erica, she was simply being honest. Terry was still a player, besides which, they were supposed to be single for a while, to recover from what happened to them.
“What happened to us? What are you talking about? Nothing fucking happened to anyone!”
“Andrew raped us!” Karine practically yelled.
“Oh, whatever. What are you, a fucking Degrassi episode? That happened like two years ago. Fucking move on. You accuse me of not being able to get over shit? Look at yourself.”
“Are you being fucking serious?” asked Karine in shock. “I can’t believe you. You are so deeply in denial it’s fucking pathetic.”
“Says the kettle to the pot. Whatever, Karine. You’re a liar. This isn’t even about Andrew. It’s about Terry. You think I don’t know that you’ve always been into him? You’re not as subtle as you think, Karine. You’re just jealous that Terry is into me again and he’s never been into you.”
“Actually, Christina, that shows how much you know ‘cause back in Sec 5, when he was supposedly dating you, he was actually trying to get with me the whole time! And I said no, ‘cause um, he’s my friend and I’m not into him. And if I were, I’d be with him.”
“Bullshit! He wasn’t trying to get with you, you’ve been trying to get with him since Sec 5! Like I didn’t notice the way you were flirting with him at prom?”
“Oh my god! You’re fucking delusional!” insisted Karine as she stomped into the kitchen, just to force Christina to step off the stairs and be shorter than her again.
Christina stood in the doorway of the kitchen with her arms crossed. “I’m not a fucking idiot, Karine.”
Karine snorted in derision. “Yeah, actually, you kind of are. You know what, even if I was into Terry, it wouldn’t matter, ‘cause he’s not into you. Just wait and see, Chrissy. See if he calls you. Since if he answers when you call him.”
“Yeah, we’ll see!”
“I already know he won’t. ‘Cause I already spoke to him this morning and he couldn’t fucking get out of here fast enough. He couldn’t wait to get away from you. And he told me that, ‘cause we’re friends. We’re like, best friends, which, by the way, is a shit load more than you have ever or will ever have with him.”
Christina stared at Karine. “Fuck you,” she finally said with tears in her eyes, turning around and leaving the house, slamming the door behind her.
Shit. Karine knew she’d gone too far. She’d been too cruel. Whatever harm Terry had done to Christina, Karine just made it a million times worse. She seriously was a terrible friend.
Cerise was getting pretty excited now that they were actually looking for an apartment. She’d let Simone take the lead, finding ads and whatnot. Their mom went with them to check out the places and now that they’d seen a couple, Cerise was really starting to get into the apartment hunting mood.
“So what do you think?” asked Simone as they walked through a fifth floor, two bedroom.
“It’s ok,” said Cerise. It wasn’t the nicest place they’d seen but it was the one with the best location. Literally five minutes from Concordia.
“No balcony,” said Angela.
“I don’t care about that,” said Simone. “I mean, the kitchen’s huge, relatively speaking. Apartments with big kitchens are practically non-existent around here.”
The concierge agreed with Simone, though he clearly wasn’t trying very hard to sell them the place. He was old and tired looking, thoroughly disinterested.
“The bathroom isn’t much,” noted Cerise.
“But the location,” shrugged Simone.
“I know,” agreed Cerise.
Once they were done for the day they went back home to discuss their options over dinner. Their mother wanted the big place with the balcony, but it was an hour long walk from school, and it wasn’t even near a metro station; you had to take a bus. Neither Cerise nor Simone liked that idea. The whole point of moving downtown was to be close to school.
“It’s no fair. How come I can’t move out too?” sulked Julie as she poked at her spaghetti.
“Why are you all in such a rush to leave me?” asked Angela sadly.
“We’re not leaving you,” said Simone. “We’re leaving the West Island.”
“It’s just about being close to school,” said Cerise.
“Seriously, I’m so sick of it taking like four years to get home every night,” sighed Simone. “If we lived in that place on Guy we’d be right next to school. I mean we could see the Hall building from the roof!”
“Yeah, that was pretty cool,” nodded Cerise.
“I know, it makes sense,” agreed Angela. “You’re all so grown up. I don’t know where the time went,” she said as she stroked Julie’s hair.
“Ugh, get off!” whined Julie.
“I don’t know what your damage is, Julie,” said Cerise. “Once we’re gone you’ll have this whole place to yourself.”
“Yeah, now if only I could get rid of mom,” she smirked and they all laughed.
“Yeah, it was like, totally insane. She totally lost her shit. And I guess I did too. I was pretty mean.”
“You, mean? Shocking,” smirked Nick.
Karine sighed and smirked back. They were sharing a smoke outside of school and she was telling him all about the fight she’d had with Christina. She had to get it all in as soon as possible, before Terry joined them.
“God, poor Christina. She sounds like such a fool,” he mused.
“Yeah, but I guess we’ve all been there. Acting like an idiot because we like someone who doesn’t like us back.”
“I’ve never done that,” scoffed Nick. “I don’t think you have either.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. We’ve both kept pretty good tabs on our Terry crushes.”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “Not that I have a crush on Terry. I mean, I’m totally fine with us just being friends.”
“Oh yeah, me too, of course,” she smiled and they laughed awkwardly.
“What’s funny?” asked Terry as he joined them and took the cigarette from Karine’s outstretched hand.
“Nothing, we were just talking about your hook up with Christina, Don Juan,” smiled Nick knowingly.
“Oh god, don’t remind me. What am I gonna do?”
“Dunno, but she totally thinks you guys are a couple, and I tried to tell her you weren’t and she wasn’t hearing it.”
“Fuck,” Terry sighed.
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