Cherish woke up feeling a lot of things at once; cold, warm, hard, soft, no- hard, no- soft-ish. She could easily identify most of the feelings in order; no blanket, blanket, floor, and....? She wasn't confused about where she was waking up. She'd been out before the movie ended and vaguely recalled Seven answering her phone and telling Ari that she'd fallen asleep.
She still wasn't sure what her head resting on though. Whatever it was, it came with the comfort of a smell that had become familiar to her, and one she hadn't woken up to in a while. And though it was so far removed, it wasn't too long before she placed it. With a deep breath, she realised that some part of her mind was enjoying this a little too much.
It wasn't Seven's pillow that was for sure, the smell was much too solid to be something lingering in fabric. But she wasn't waking up with her face pressed into Seven's chest; she already knew what that felt like. Since his arm and shoulder looked to be about as hard as his chest, she knew it wasn't either of those, especially since there was a hand in her hair.
Taking another deep breath, Cherish opened her eyes and found herself staring at knees. With a sleepy sigh, she closed her eyes again, deciding she didn't care.
"Ow," there was an uncomfortable grunt and suddenly the blankets shifted. There was a weight lifted off her head, and another one promptly returned when the rest of the blanket dropped onto her. "Fuck, man! That's my head," Seven slurred sleepily as he rubbed the place Ian had kicked him.
Ian chuckled and looked over the edge of the bed to where Seven was sitting in the same position he'd been in the night before. He'd still been holding the remote control and the T.V. was giving them the news in Chinese.
"Sorry man, I didn't think you were still there." He eyed the lump of blanket in Seven's lap and the torso and legs that protruded from it at an angle that seemed impossible given the way Seven was sitting. "Is Cherish still under there?"
Seven stretched as he yawned and clamped a hand down on Cherish's head again.
"Yeah, I'm still down here. Sev, get your hand off my face."
"Oh, sorry."
When Cherish fumbled her way out of the blanket, Ian was eyeing her, "What?"
"Nothing," he smirked and bounced off his bed.
It's not like she didn't know exactly what he was thinking, and she wanted to strangle those thoughts from his head with her own hair. "No seriously, Ian, what?"
Ian grinned, "Isn't it Saturday, Cherry?"
Cherish narrowed her eyes at him, "Yes, but what does that have to do..?"
"Didn't we have a deal about breakfast?"
She wouldn't have dropped the subject but her stomach had conveniently chosen that time to agree with him and so she conceded to putting her anger aside till after breakfast. The meal did not much differ from the last breakfast she had shared with the Raymond family, only this time Seven sat beside her and Joana was so drowsy she didn't bother anyone.
-.-
"So, I think Ian thinks..." Seven dried a plate and put it into a cupboard. Breakfast was long over and Seven had volunteered to help Cherish clean up. The smirk on Ian's face at that had been ridiculous.
Cherish rolled her eyes as she scrubbed the plate in her hands, "Yeah, I know. Honestly, you'd think he's never seen friends hanging out before."
"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??
With a sigh, she decided that maybe Juss wouldn't respond as well to her barging in as Seven had. Pulling into a random driveway, she put her head down and growled into her steering wheel before digging in her bag for her cellphone. It took her another minute to work herself into a better mood and dial his number.
"Hey Juss! What's up?" He sounded ok, "Good so you're not busy right now?" Of course the suspicion in his voice was inevitable. "I wanted to talk to you. Is it okay if I come by your place? I'm kind of in the area."
It wasn't long before Cherish's car appeared in his driveway, in fact it was barely two minutes and he wondered how close she'd been when she called. But when she got out of her car she didn't look like her normal self, she looked just a little bit miserable.
"Hey Juss," she said quietly as she crunched her way over the hardened snow in his driveway to the open front door.
"Hurry up," he joked, "it's fucking cold!"
She laughed and ran the rest of the way, barrelling in the door and slamming it behind her. She took her time ridding herself of her jacket and boots.
"What's wrong, Rish?" She made some form of noncommittal noise and he led her into the living room, or what passed for a living room in the tiny house of his. "Sorry about the mess. Mom left for work early." The distasteful look on his face said the rest of his sentence; and didn't bother to touch the mess she and her girlfriends made last night.
Cherish smiled as she picked up a few things and moved them on to the small coffee table, "I know how it is. Girls' night?"
"Yeah," he said with some bitterness and Cherish knew it was one of many girls' nights.
Juss kicked an empty wine bottle off the couch and landed with a heavy thump beside Cherish. "You okay, Rish?"
"Me? Yeah. Well, not completely." She didn't elaborate, silently wishing she didn't have to, and hoping that he'd not ask. But he looked at her with a very pointed expectancy. "So I, uh-"
"She told you didn't she?"
Cherish nodded, not sure how to read Juss tone.
"Did you know before?"
Cherish didn't know if she should say yes or not, so she settled on a version of the truth that hopefully wouldn't hurt as much.
"Allie's ex moved back a while ago and he asked her out again, since they only broke up because of the long distance thing. She said she was only hanging out with him as friends, but then she said she wasn't sure if she should tell you or what to tell you. I'm so sorry I didn't mention him before, but it really wasn't any of my business. That's really all I knew."
He nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets. "When we started, uh... we said if there was anyone else, we'd stop. You know, like another friend, or a boyfriend or girlfriend... It would have been nice of her to tell me before... Does anyone else know?"
Cherish was startled by his question, but confidently answered, "No." But as she rethought, she flinched, "Well, I kind of went on rant yesterday with Seven, but I did mention names. Sorry, Juss."
He looked a little unsure, but not angry, "Okay."
"Is it?" Cherish asked carefully.
"I guess." He shrugged again, "I'm ok, Rish. It just would have been nice to know about him earlier."
Cherish out of extreme awkwardness started organizing the empty bottles at one end of the table and food containers at the other. She was thankful for the noise of movement, at least, when Juss finally launched himself off the couch and into taking the empties and garbage into the kitchen.
They had righted a majority of the living room when Juss paused in the middle of removing a stubborn red stain from the carpet, "Cherish?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't tell anyone..."
She nodded despite feeling like it was a somewhat silly request. They'd all know when Allie stopped hanging around. But maybe if nothing was said, then he could pretend there hadn't been any feelings involved.
Juss went back to scrubbing the stain so vigorously that Cherish feared he'd leave a hole in the carpet. He was angry, she knew, though she didn't know him well enough to know how he'd deal with it.
She didn't know whether she should stay longer to offer some kind of comfort or leave him to his anger. But her phone rang soon enough and a late lunch request from her sister gave her some kind of escape from the limbo her feelings were doing. "I've got to head out, Juss."
Before she could ask him if he'd be okay, he answered with a nonchalant, "Yeah, k, see you later."
She jabbed her feet into her boots, pulled on her jacket, and righted an overturned vase of artificial flowers by the door. "Rish?"
"Yeah?" she stopped halfway out the door to see Juss behind her with a broom in one hand and the dust pan in the other. She did have to admit she was a little bit surprised at being crushed into his arms for the lingering hug.
"Thanks."
*Title song by Fats Domino