by Rebel Hart
The rest of the day seemed to drag on and on because I had a reason to rush home now. Without having to worry about being seen by someone, I could actually just talk to Cherri and catch up. It was everything I’d wanted to do since I first got back. Sicily gave me a few pointers on how to show up for Tuesday’s wacky hair day and supplied me with a can of colorful spray that would wash out easily so that I could show a little more enthusiasm for the school’s spirit week. When the final school bell rang, I didn’t break stride leaving class, getting in my mom’s car, and immediately heading back home.
I spent the first part of the evening getting my schoolwork done and enjoying dinner with my mom, and when all of the responsible parts of my evening were finally over, I retired to my room, entered Cherri’s number into my phone, and pressed the button to video chat with her.
The phone rang a few times, but then it picked up, and when Cherri saw my face, her confused expression melted into a warm, excited one. “Well, hello there.”
“Hey,” I replied. “I got your number from Avery. I hope that’s okay.”
“Ordinarily, I would chew her out for giving away my phone number, but given that it’s you, I’ll make an exception.”
Behind Cherri was an expensive-looking vanity with several bottles of makeup stacked on top of it. Definitely not her bedroom of old. “Is that your bedroom?”
“Oh, yeah.” There was some movement—I imagined as Cherri stood up—and then she pulled the camera a little further back from her face and did a spin, giving me a shot of her nice bed, desk and computer, vanity, and oak dresser. “Not how things used to be, huh?”
“Not at all,” I replied. “What’s it like down it South Postings?”
“You know.” She grunted a little as she moved to sit back on her bed. “It’s a little weird. This house is huge, and sometimes, I actually miss being more cramped. It takes me a full two minutes to get down to Gus’s room. I almost liked it better when he was right next to me, you know?”
I remembered the year I spent with Nathan, my dad, and my dad’s evil wife, Alicia. Some of the things they did—all eating dinner in their own corners of the house, almost never interacting with one another, calling and texting each other when they wanted to talk instead of just walking out to where the person they wanted to talk to was—seemed so odd and cold to me. My mom and I were so close, and our place wasn’t very large, so I was used to always being close. I got what Cherri was saying exactly.
“That makes sense. You guys are all so close,” I replied to her. “Knowing your mom, though, she probably doesn’t let you guys go too long without some family activity.”
She rolled her eyes. “Ugh. You’re so right. All summer she was all, ‘Come on kids, let’s get up at five o’clock and go to the farmer’s market.’ Or she was like, ‘Come on, let’s go to a theme park.’ It would have been borderline annoying if she didn’t get so adorably excited every time.” She turned her head to the right and grinned. “Hey, bud.”
“What are you doing?” I heard a kid ask, and though I could guess who it was, the voice sounded so much older.
“Wait. Is that Gus!” I yelped.
Cherri motioned. “Come here. There’s someone I want you to see.”
“Is it Avery?” he asked with excitement, and I snickered.
“Not dumb, is he?” I asked.
Cherri giggled. “No, he is not.”
Cherri shifted a little, and then Gus popped into the frame. He was so much older than the last time I saw him. He was just a kid before, but he looked like a little person now. His blond hair had grown out, and his blue eyes had gotten even bluer.
He smiled the second he saw me. “Deon!”
My jaw dropped. “Hey! You remember me?”
“Yeah!” He laughed. “Where did you go?”
Cherri winced a little at the question but also seemed a little intrigued by the answer. “I had to go away for a little bit, but I’m back now,” I responded.
He nodded, more satisfied with that answer than Cherri seemed. “Will you come over and hang out soon? I have my own room now, with a basketball hoop in it!”
“Wow. Yeah! I promise I’ll come see it sometime,” I responded.
He smiled. “Okay. I’ll leave because Cherri keeps pinching me.”
She scoffed. “You’re… That’s not how that’s supposed to go, you brat.”
“Bye, Deon.” He didn’t even wait for my response, just bounded out of the frame and scuttled off.
“Wow,” I said. “He’s huge.”
Cherri stuck out her bottom lip. “I know. I want him to stop growing.”
What followed after that were several continuous hours of talking about everything that came to us. Whether because she was afraid to know or already did, Cherri didn’t broach the subject of where I’d been, and I was glad not to have to discuss it just yet. She told me all about her father’s promotion, moving, and meeting The Royal Court, and though I couldn’t get too much into what my last four years had been like, I was perfectly happy to just sit and listen to her talk. She had that same crooked grin when things really amused her, and she snorted when she laughed. The more she carried on, the more I just wanted to listen. It was Cherri—my Cherri.
God, I’d missed her so much.
I wasn’t sure exactly when I’d fallen asleep, but when I woke up, I could see that my phone was still on, and the call was still going. A corner of Cherri’s hair and face were visible in the frame, but I could hear her snoring lightly on the other side. If I couldn’t wake up next to her, this was probably the next best thing.
“Cherri? Hey. Cherri.” She groaned a little bit and stretched, and then she realized I was still on the phone. “Hey, beautiful.”
She started to laugh. “Oh my god. We stayed on the phone all night.”
“That we did.”
She ran a hand through her hair. “I have to go get ready. Avery’s picking me up today, and she’ll be here soon.”
“Okay. I have to spray paint my hair green, apparently,” I said, disappointed, and it broke Cherri out into loud laughter.
“I can’t wait to see that.” She smiled at me. “Can we do this again soon?”
My heart soared at the question. “We can do it whenever you want.”
10
Cherri
“Oh my goodness. You look so cute!”
I did a little spin in the living room so that my mom could see my outfit. “Yeah?”
It was Thursday, which meant it was officially twins and triplets day, and I, of course, was going as a triplet with Avery and Colette. Because Colette had really short hair, we decided to go with pigtails for the hairstyle, and we’d gone shopping the night before to get three different colors of the same romper. Mine was light blue, Avery’s was dark green, and Colette’s was pink. We bought short-top converses that matched our rompers, and though none of us required glasses, we got a few pairs of cheap ones and popped out the lenses, just to add an extra accessory to the look.
“Yes! Will you allow me just one picture when they get here?” my mom begged. “I promise not to go too crazy.”
“Sorry, Mom. I’m picking them up today, but we’ll take lots of pictures, I promise. I’ll text you one during lunch.”
My mom clapped her hands. “Okay, good.” She held out a tinfoil-wrapped sandwich for me. “A breakfast sandwich. Bacon and guac, just like you like.
My stomach was already growling as I snagged the sandwich from her hands. “Thanks, Mama.” I ran over to the nook where Gus was eating his breakfast, gave him a kiss on the forehead, yelled “Bye,” and made my way out the front door.
Avery and Colette looked just as adorable as I thought they would, which was the main reason why when we got out of the car, everyone stopped to stare at us as we walked toward the school. Apart from the subtle color differences and the obvious fact that we were of three different ethnicities, we looked identical. A few people had us stop for pictures, which I asked them to text
to me, and it was difficult to keep the confidence from flooding into my body as even the teachers seemed to stop and stare at us.
“Mission success, I think,” Avery said.
I laughed. “No kidding.”
Avery and I parted ways with Colette and turned down the hallway toward our lockers. Several students stopped us to compliment our appearance, but it was far from my mind. I’d been anxiously awaiting a few minutes alone with Avery to discuss my now nightly conversations with Deon, thanks to her interference.
“Pulled another all-nighter last night,” I said to her with a smile on my face.
Avery smiled. “You’re welcome.”
“Yes, thank you, my lovely and wonderful best friend. I love you so much,” I replied.
“So when are you gonna take it to the next level?” Avery asked. “I mean, it’s cool that you guys are so tight, but obviously there’s chemistry there.”
I sighed. “There really is. It’s like these past four years never happened, and we’re picking up where we left off, but…”
Avery groaned as she opened her locker. “No buts.”
“There is a but,” I said. “It’s that I have a boyfriend.”
“Yeah, a shitty one,” Avery responded. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that you and Deon are the better match. I know Colette sold you all that bullshit about not throwing away the benefits of The Royal Court, and blah, blah, blah, but The Royal Court is really just a glorified social club. At the end of the day, you should do what makes you happy, and that’s going for it with Deon.”
I couldn’t deny that thinking about getting to be with Deon gave me butterflies in my stomach. There was so much we never got to do when he disappeared, and it’d be really amazing to seize the opportunity to do those things, but breaking up with Nathan just seemed like so much drama, and I was hoping to get through my senior year without much of that.
“Nathan would make a huge stink if I tried to break up with him right now. I don’t know.” I grabbed the couple of books I needed from my locker and then shut it. “Besides, I’d have to step down from The Royal Court, too, and I don’t want to lose you and Alistair.”
Avery slammed her locker shut and glared at me. “You think we’d stop hanging out with you just because you weren’t the queen anymore? I’m offended. Seriously.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I wouldn’t want to drag you guys down with me,” I said. “It’s not like you’d have much of a choice.”
“We always have choices, Cherri. Ali and I, we love you. We’re always going to be by your side. Nathan’s just a guy. He can’t force us to do anything.” She put her hands on my shoulders. “Right now, you’re at a fork in the road, and you could continue down this very vapid path with this artificial relationship and this title that doesn’t really mean anything, or you could break up with Nathan, go for Deon, not ever lose Ali and me, and be happy.” She pulled away after that and shrugged. “But, it’s up to you.”
I couldn’t drag those thoughts from my brain, no matter how hard I tried. The idea that I could have my best friends, be with Deon, not have to deal with the stress of holding up The Royal Court, and never have to talk to Nathan again? There was no way I could lose in that scenario. Maybe Nathan would be a brat about it and make my life a little difficult, but if I had my friends and a boyfriend who actually loved me, I could get through it.
Right?
Not much of what I learned throughout the day took hold. I was way too distracted. To make matters worse, Deon decided to send me our first ever text, a simple, “You look amazing, today,” with a winking emoji and a heart. Just getting a text from Deon sent my heart into overdrive, and considering the fact that Nathan gave me about as much excitement as watching paint dry, there was a clear choice. The real question then became, how would I go about it? Should I step down first, then break up with Nathan? Should I break up with him first and hope that his kicking me out fulfills the temper tantrum he’d throw about it?
I walked out of the last class of the day, still not entirely sure how to deal with the problem I’d been presented with. For a really long time, I’d sacrificed my happiness in the interest of something else, but now I had a real chance to go for something I wanted, so why shouldn’t I?
“Cherri!” I looked over my shoulder, and Brayden was rushing toward me. I nearly threw up at how much he looked exactly like a mini Nathan, down to his restyled hair to match. Last I’d spoken to Nathan, he and Kyle were planning on being twins for the day, so Brayden most likely decided to dress on his own as Nathan and pass it off as a twin thing. “How’s your day been?”
It was difficult not to puke. “It’s gone pretty well. Um, is everything okay?”
“Yeah.” He put his hands on his hips. “Are you excited for the party tomorrow?”
Shit.
I’d totally forgotten about the party. Every year, the final day of Spirit Week was Spirit Day. All the students dress up in the school colors to show their school pride. There was a huge pep rally, endorsed and hosted by Nathan’s dad, Connor, and then after school, everyone showed up at the school’s first home football game to support the team. The school always hosted a homecoming dance after that, but Nathan always invited our entire school to a party at his house, which he called Anti-Spirit, and everyone would wear all black or white. It doubled as a birthday party for Nathan, as the day always fell on or near his birthday.
Breaking up with him before the Anti-Spirit party would be a huge mistake.
“Yeah, it should be fun,” I responded.
“Cool. Cool. Cool.” Brayden nodded his head and continued to idle by me. Given that Brayden was Nathan’s mini-me and a general skeeze, I didn’t like him a whole lot. We almost never spoke when Nathan wasn’t around.
“What’s up, Brayden?” I asked. “Did you need something, because if not, I’m gonna go.” Leaving school always had the added benefit of knowing I could head home and talk to Deon.
“No, just wanted to chat,” Brayden replied.
“Okay. Well, see you later, then.” I turned to head back toward my locker, but Brayden reached out and grabbed me. “What?”
“Uh. Are you gonna dress up for Spirit Day tomorrow?” he asked.
“Brayden, what the hell is going on?”
“We don’t talk a lot. I just wanted to get to know you.”
I winced. “Okay. Well, no offense, but I don’t. So I’m gonna go.”
I turned around and started to walk down the hallway back toward my locker when a quick glance over to my right stopped me in my tracks. I saw the classroom belonging to Miss Abrams, the teacher with whom Nathan had an affair. The door to her room was closed, despite the fact that classes were all done for the day, and all the students were roaming the halls, preparing to go home.
I glared over at Brayden. “Are you covering for him?”
“What?” Brayden asked in a high-pitched voice. “Oh, you know what? I forgot that I have to, um… See ya.” With that, Brayden turned and scurried away.
Rage boiled through my blood, and I stormed past the classroom, hearing it open just as I passed it by. I knew what I would see if I turned around, so I didn’t risk it, and instead, I just continued for my locker. As quickly as I could, I packed up all of my stuff, threw my backpack over my shoulder, and slammed my locker closed. Just as I was turning to head back toward the door, Nathan turned and walked down the hallway, headed straight for me.
“Hey, beautiful!” he greeted.
Part of me wanted to take a stand against him, but without having caught him in the act, I didn’t have much of a leg to stand on. Nathan reached out and pulled my backpack from around my shoulder, kissing me as he leaned forward, and then flung it over his shoulder and grabbed my hand. He pulled toward the door, and I relented, allowing him to pull me along.
“What do you think? Should we go get some dinner tonight?”
As much as I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself the second we turned th
e corner, we came face to face with Deon, hand-in-hand. He was standing next to Sicily, and they were both dressed in leather jackets, gray t-shirts under their jackets, black jeans, black combat boots, and a gray newsboy hat. I had to fight back a laugh at how silly they looked, given their insane difference in size and stature.
“Oh,” Nathan said, holding out a hand toward Deon. “Deon, right?”
Deon’s somewhat neutral expression turned sour as he took Deon’s hand and shook it. “Right.”
“Nice to meet you, man. I’m Nathan.” He dropped Deon’s hand and pulled me a little closer to him. “I think you’ve already met my beautiful girlfriend, Cherri.”
Deon looked at me, and the disappointment in his eyes was almost too much to bear. “I have.”
“Well, we have a date to get to, so have a nice night.” With that, Nathan pulled me past Deon. Deon stared after me sadly, until we were through the front doors and out of sight. “Well, where would you like to go?” Nathan asked.
Knowing that I wouldn’t be spending my night falling asleep with Deon on the phone was a hard pill to swallow. “I don’t care.”
11
Deon
All I could do was stare out the window at the collection of stars in the sky and lament the fact that after just a few days of talking to Cherri every night on the phone, not getting to speak with her that night left me unable to fall asleep. That quickly, I’d grown attached to her face being the last thing I saw and her voice being the last thing I heard. If I didn’t fall asleep so hard that I didn’t dream at all, my dreams would often bring me to her, where we could be together without restrictions or my dumbass brother getting in the way. Not only did I not get that tonight, but it was worse because she was out with Nathan, which made me sick to my stomach.
“Deon?” I looked over toward my door, and my mom was walking in, just getting home from her job, which was a night shift job. I hadn’t been staring at my phone, but if she was home, it was nearly three in the morning. “Why aren’t you asleep?”
