Runaway ✔

151 • Cherry

Cherry had barely slept the past days, but tonight she hadn't slept at all. 

Today was the day. 

The day she would betray Dana and Juice. 

The thought alone was enough to make her surroundings spin. 

During the week she had been around here, the two had done everything a person could wish for. It had made her feel horrible, and more than once she had been on the verge of confessing everything. 

But that would have been Kip's death sentence. 

Maddox had made that very clear, with pictures of Kip's face, beaten to pulp, with videos where he was crying in a corner and before she went to bed last night, Maddox had even sent her a picture of a bloody pinky. 

She had thrown up her stomach contents and since then she had no longer been able to look Dana in the eye, who kept handing her tea with honey, assuring her that everything would be fine. 

But it wouldn't. 

Not with her, not with Juice and not with Kip. 

Not even with Cherry herself. Even if she got Kip back, she would lose him. He would hate her for saving him, he would rather have died than watching how Dana returned to her rapist. 

But Cherry couldn't abandon him. Kip had nothing to do with all of this. 

Dana didn't deserve this, but she might find a way to escape again. Maddox wouldn't kill her, he wouldn't get into all this trouble just to end her life. 

The cracking steps of the stairs pulled her out of her thoughts. Quickly she blanked her face. Looking over her shoulder, she greeted Juice with all the enthusiasm she could gather.

"You feelin' better?" he asked as he walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge. 

"Yeah, I do. Must've been something I ate." She stood up from the couch and walked to the kitchen, where she leaned against the counter top. "Had expected a little more romance from you," Cherry said as she watched how Juice made breakfast for himself. 

With a frown he turned towards her. 

"You ain't gonna tell me you forgot about it, right?" Cherry asked with raised eyebrows, even though that was exactly what she had counted on. There had been too many problems on the guy's mind to think about something like that.

The color was drained from his face. "What do you mean?"

"You're kiddin' me, right?" she said, shaking her head. "Your very first Valentine's Day and you forgot about it?"

Juice's eyes widened. "Oh shit. Totally forgot about that." He ran a hand across his head. "You think she'll mind?"

Cherry shrugged her shoulders. "She won't admit it, but no woman likes to be forgotten on the most romantic day of the year."

Agitated, his eyes shot from left to right. Cherry felt bad for guilting him, for she knew Dana couldn't care less. That guy had been willing to live in the boonies just to protect her, she couldn't think of anything more romantic. But Juice had always been insecure when it came down to Dana and Cherry had known she could take advantage of that.

"Relax," she said. "It's still early, you got plenty of time to get her something." She stood up straight and faked an enthusiast grin. "I know exactly with what you can make her happy. Let's go!" She grasped his lower arm and dragged him to the door. 

Her heart was jamming in her chest, so wildly she was afraid he would be able to feel it. This had to work, it had to. 

Juice pulled back his arm and gave her a suspicious look. Cherry had the feeling her cheeks were flaming red. Did he know? 

"What's that?" he asked. His gaze was a little absent, as if he was considering what was best: leaving Dana at home on her own or leaving her at home together with her. He still distrusted her, Cherry had felt that from the beginning. 

And with good reason. 

"Chocolate in a too cute packaging. And when we were shopping the other day, she was lyrical with a cologne she found too extensive. I'll know which one it was as soon as I smell it!" She smiled the sweetest smile she could get on her face. "Come on man, if we take the car we are gone for what, half an hour? Just write a note you're carrying out step one of your fabulous Valentine plan. We'll come up with the rest on the way." She winked. 

Slowly he nodded, and he finally seemed to relax a bit. He sat down on the table and wrote a short note, his breakfast forgotten. 

. . .

Cherry stared out of the window as they drove to town. She didn't dare to look at Juice. Even though it was hot outside, she was wearing a hoodie with a pocket on the belly. She was squeezing her hand around an injection needle Maddox had hidden in the bushes next to the car last night. 

If Juice and Dana had known he had been so close all this time... She squeezed her eyes as the tears filled them again. It was almost over. Just a little longer.

Juice slowed down. "Should I park here? Or will it still be a long walk?"

Cherry looked into the street. It was quiet. 

"Maybe over there?" She pointed to the left. 

As Juice turned his head to the side, she slammed the needle in his thigh, injecting the liquid in his body. He whacked with his arm to the side, hitting her so her head banged against the window. 

But it was too late.

The liquid worked really fast and Juice collapsed. 

Shakily, Cherry breathed in. With trembling fingers she reached for her pocket, pulling out the phone she had been hiding from Juice and Dana all along and called the only number that was in it. 

Her words "I did it" were inaudible because of the sobs rolling over her lips. She cringed, wishing the tears would drown her.