we're just kids

I never meant to make her cry

TW: IMPLIED ARFID/OCD + FIGHTING + SEMI-GRAPHIC PANIC ATTACK

"Taycie," Cherry mumbles tugging at my hand, I pause and glance back to her, "Taycie I'm tired and it's lunch time and you forgot to eat breakfast."
"Let's stop in the park then, you can rest and we'll have lunch," I lead an increasingly fussy Cherry towards the park, she pulls at my hand again, "What's up buttercup?" I ask, not bothering to turn back this time,
"Never mind," She mumbles, continuing to walk with me to the park. We find and empty bench and sit down. I rummage through my bag and pass her a sandwich and a small yoghurt. "This isn't..." She starts to whisper before I cut her off.
"I know sweetheart, we ran out of the normal things you have for lunch. Sorry,"
"Don't worry about it." She mumbles, handing the yoghurt back to me and starting to pick the crust off of her sandwich. "Where's yours?"
"Right here," I smile, grabbing my own lunch from my bag. She smiles contentedly, continuing to pick at her sandwich with her nails. I glance down at what I've packed for myself for lunch, it's not what I had planned to eat today, I counted wrong when I was grocery shopping so we ran out of everything a day early. It's stupid really, how much it bothers me, it feels like the end of the world, or might as well be because, at least then I'd have a reason to get upset.
"Taycie it doesn't count to just hold lunch, you've got to eat it too."
"Same goes to you buttercup, I'm gonna eat but you've gotta as well." We've reached a sort of stalemate neither of us wanting to take the first bite almost entirely out of spite.
"I hate you sometimes." Cherry finally caves, ripping off a tiny piece of the bread and placing it in her mouth.
"If you hate me you can go get on a bus back to the house and I'll do the rest of the grocery shopping alone." It's not a nice things to say and I know that, Cherry hates taking the bus alone and even more so hates being by herself because our house is old and creaky.
"Tayce that's mean," She mumbles, looking away from me and towards the ground. "I don't like to take the bus alone."
"Well then you've got two things you don't like huh?" I prompt, taking a small bite of my lunch.
"Tayce why're you being like this?"
"Because I can't fucking stand you," I snap, Cherry flinches back at my words but it's too late to take anything back. "I do so much for you and you're such a brat I hate it, quite honestly it would be hilarious to me for all of you to try and do anything for yourselves. You can't, none of you can. Ellie's too strung out to do anything, Awhora's always fussing over something irrelevant, and there's not a moment you aren't whining about one thing or another." Cherry has tears starting to well up in her eyes.
"I'm going home." She drops her sandwich onto the ground, grabbing her bus card and walking away from me. I know full well I've really fucked up, I shouldn't let her go home on the bus alone. I ought to run after her and stop her, but I'd just say something I'm going to regret in the next ten minutes. I stand up, putting my lunch back in my bag to eat later, I need to finish our shopping for the week.

-like an hour later-
I'm almost all the way to the house when my phone rings in my pocket. I pick up the call and immediately hear Cherry crying. Fuck.
"Taycie," She cries, her breathing quick and sporadic.
"Hey hey shh, you're okay buttercup, are you at the house?"
"I'm near Bimini's and I would've gone to them but they're at work, and Taycie I wanna go home," She sobs, I turn around and start walking in the direction of Bimini's house.
"How did you end up in Bimini's neighborhood sweetheart? That's not on the way home,"
"I didn't wanna take the bus so I was gonna walk home but I took a wrong turn and I wasn't paying attention to the street signs 'acause I was upset and I realized I'd been walking for too long and still wasn't at the house." I manage to make out through the hysterics.
"I'll be right there buttercup, right there I promise I'm at the corner to Bimini's." I reassure her, walking a bit faster to try and find her.
"Taycie I wanna go home," She sobs, "I wanna go see Rory." I wish I was more surprised that the first person she asks for is Awhora, she's the only one of us who isn't the slightest bit annoyed by Cherry.
"Where are you buttercup?" I ask, not saying anything about her previous comment. She doesn't reply and I sigh softly. "Sweetheart I can't come get you and bring you home unless you let me know where you are,"
"Taycie," She wails, I just keep walking in the general direction of Bimini's house, silently praying I'll find her.
"Bubba I'm right across from Bim's, can you come to me?" She hangs up and I watch as her figure comes round the corner, walking towards me. She reaches me, resting her head against my chest. "Hey buttercup,"
"I wanna go home," She tells me, through soft hiccupy sobs.
"I know baby, I know, we're gonna go home right now, okay?" I take her hand to try and lead her home, but she stands still, refusing to walk. "Come on bubba,"
"Taycie up," She pleads, yanking at my hand.
"Sweetheart I'm not going to carry you, we're in public." She whines softly, yanking at my hand again. "Fine, piggyback, but that's it." I turn around and pull her up onto my back. I walk home as quickly as I can with Cherry on my back. We manage to reach the house rather quickly and I see Awhora's car is curiously still in the driveway. I set Cherry down and we walk in through the kitchen door, I immediately notice a few droplets of blood on the ground near the table. Cherry doesn't notice, walking towards the stairs.
"Rory? Are you home?" She calls up them tearfully. I hear crashing from upstairs before Awhora practically tumbles down the stairs.
"Hi little one," She starts with a smile before she notices Cherry's upset. "Oh no what happened my love?" Cherry opens her mouth to start to explain before she bursts into another round of hysterical tears.
"I yelled at her," I explain, "And then she got lost walking home." If looks could kill I figure I'd be dead six times over.
"Cherry let's go upstairs, yeah little one? Tayce we're going to talk later." I nod, I have a feeling she's going to scream at me later. She's so incredibly protective over Cherry, anytime one of us makes Cherry cry it's a nightmare. She scoops Cherry up and brings the petite girl upstairs. I never meant to make her cry.