The Great Pretender

34.2: Ain't That a Shame

"Yeah."

"Then again, we kind of all did the same thing to him and Deals, didn't we?"

"This is kind of different, Cherry," Seven reminded her softly.

There was a flush that flitted across her face and she nodded. "Pass me that last plate."

"Here. So are you going to talk to Hypothetical Pat today?"

"Maybe."

"If you need..."

"Thanks but I don't need emotional support to give emotional support."

"Fair."

Cherish watched as he dried the last plate and put it away, "I should head out..."

"Do you need a ride? I've got work in a bit, so I could drop you off on the way."

"I bought my car," she reminded him as she traipsed back into his room.

"Right," he muttered as he rummaged for a fresh t-shirt. He pulled out an old sweater of Ian's; it looked small enough for her, and tossed it at Cherish, "Here."

"Thanks."

He didn't stick around in the room long enough to hear her, having taken off down the hallway towards the washroom. Cherish changed into the sweater and rolled her t-shirt into her bag before settling down on the bed with a book.

It was ten long minutes before Seven sauntered back into the room, and she raised an eyebrow at him without removing her eye from the page she read. "I could give you a ride to work if you want?"

Seven looked up at her in confusion, "You're still here? I thought you had to leave?"

"I said I should head out soon, not that I was leaving right away. Anyways, I remembered I need to get some things at the mall."

Seven smirked teasingly, "I thought you were done Christmas shopping?"

"I am, but I forgot some stuff I need for the trip," Cherish made a face. "No matter how hard I try to avoid the shopping crowds, I still manage to get stuck in them."

"At least you're not working in them."

It was her turn to smirk, "Yeah, sucks to be you. So, you gonna ride with me or what?"

"Sure. I guess I'll call E when I'm done."

-.-

She'd dropped Seven off hours ago. She'd finished her shopping, though it had taken much longer than it should have, and had called Ian to let him know that she'd pick Seven up later, so Ian could go on his date with Delia. With all that done, and quite long ago at that, she couldn't figure out why she was still driving up and down the street adjacent to Juss' like some crazy stalker girl.

Allie had texted while she was at the mall. She'd talked to Juss. Would Rish go over and make sure he was ok?

Her reasons for not going right over were all stupid. Juss was sleeping, Juss was busy, Juss' parent's didn't like his friends, there was an ongoing alien war in another galaxy and Juss' home was the key to winning the battle and had been spirited away in the middle of the night with Juss still tucked inside of it.

It's not like she didn't know how silly she was being. But she'd never had to deal with mending a broken heart (unless she counted her own, and she didn't). How did she even begin to tell him she'd know it was coming? Hi Juss, I was just driving by and I thought I'd tell you I've been lying to you and I knew Allie was going to ditch you. How are you doing??