The Great Pretender

8: Ain't Gonna Bring Me Down

He reached out to tap her shoulder, his hand hovering above it while he wondered if he should say anything to her. Whatever, he thought as he pulled his hand away; she's not Cherish anymore anyways. He opened his textbook, sighing as he pulled his notebook from his bag. It was only Tuesday; there was still the rest of the week. He wondered if her mood would last.

Turning in her seat, Cherish grinned at him, "Hey Harp, how was the rest of your weekend?"

He stared blankly at her.

"My party was kind of a disaster, huh?"

He nodded after a minute, "You think?"

Her face was tinged pink as she nodded, "So, I've decided I can't be mad at you forever. And yeah, I've been a total bitch lately. If you don't really want to talk to me, that's fine- but I just wanted to say thanks for being there on Saturday. I completely forgot it was my birthday. Weird, huh?"

Pausing as he flipped open a notebook, he looked at her. Cherish was almost never apologetic, and most definitely never apprehensive and uncomfortable when it came to people. "You forgot it was your birthday?"

Laughing, she nodded, and pulled his notebook from him, correcting a wrong answer he had jotted down.

"And, you can thank Deals and Ari for the party. I really had nothing to do with it." he admitted blankly. With a nod, Cherish turned around in her seat,

"Thanks for the gift, Harp."

He didn't have the heart to admit to her that the gift had been from Delia, who got it when Harper said he was not planning on attending or send a gift. He knew well what it was, as he had pointed it out to Delia a while ago knowing Cherish would have loved it. It was a lamp, a B-movie horror lamp, with a scantily clad pin-up screaming under a streetlamp as a monster approached. He smiled, happy that she liked it.

-.-

Music class let out and Cherish was happy to leave the room, slinging her bag over her shoulder. As she stepped out, two girls brushed past her, "Sev!" one of them latched onto him. "Haven't seen you in a while!"

She didn't hear his answer, her only mission to get away as soon as possible; the events of the weekend embarrassing her greatly. He hadn't said anything to her in class, in fact he hadn't even acknowledged her, but she couldn't help feeling as if he laughed at her when she wasn't looking. As she slammed the door of her car shut, she smiled, feeling safe in its belly. Pulling her lunch from her bag, she began to eat, only to wrap it back up quickly and exit her car again. There was no way she was losing her lunch spot because they ate there too. She wasn't so willing to let them ruin her mood either.

Tucking her bag under her arm she crossed the parking lot again and made her way through the hallways. As she pushed the door open, emerging onto the cool shaded veranda, she blinked, surprised to hear the laughter of girls. Without looking, she passed them and settled comfortably in her spot, chewing her sandwich thoughtfully as she dug in her bag. Pulling her sketchbook out she flipped the cover open and began scrawling a picture on it.

"Who's that?"

Like I'm not sitting right here, she thought, as one of the girls asked loudly. She heard Ian's reply, "That's Cherry."

"Oh. Oh! The one who passed out at the party?"

Inwardly cringing, she forcibly kept her expression blank and continued to draw.

"Really? She passed out? Tanya said she got so loaded, she was stripping!" the second girl laughed.

"It's not funny," the first girl whispered, "I heard that her friends ditched her, and then she got drunk, and then some guy was all over. I wouldn't want to go home after that, either."