She had known the moment she felt his warm breath on her neck as he attempted to snake a soda-drenched arm around her shoulders. She'd never forget the indefinable sensations that had overwhelmed her at that moment; a mixture of mortal fear and toe-curling pleasure. Maybe she'd even known it before then. Perhaps it was the startlingly bitter tone in his voice as he announced, "I'm never nice," and offered to buy her a coke. Although she thought it cliché, it could very well have even been the instant she laid eyes on him.
He'd been carrying on, talking dirty to get a rise out of her and Marcia. His drivel had been easy enough to ignore at first, but kicking his feet up on the back of her chair was crossing a line. She'd whipped around with every intention of telling the hood off, but had nearly choked on her gum at the sight of the guilty party.
She'd seen him at a few rodeos and bumming around outside the school, but she'd never really looked at him until that very moment. It was as if her heart had finally come alive after years of indolent leisure. Where a subtle numbness once rested, a stirring and awakening then occurred. Dallas Winston had invoked something potent from within her, and it wasn't an easy feat to quiet a power like that.
Cherry lay sprawled out dramatically across the sofa in her living room, trying to quell the unfamiliar emotions that had been brewing inside of her for days. Flushing a bit, she reflected on the night she'd spent with Bob after her run in with Dallas. Their fight earlier in the night over his liquid dinner was precisely the reason she and Marcia had found themselves seated in front of the most dangerously alluring JD in Tulsa.
It wasn't until later though, when they were being escorted home by a trio of greasers, that Bob and Randy had resurfaced, full of piss and vinegar and looking for a fight. Initially, Cherry agreed to abandoning her new acquaintances and reuniting with Bob to prevent a fight. By the time he'd walked her to the front door, though, the spark of desire she'd contracted from Winston had developed into a raging lust that practically screamed to be satisfied.
Bob had never managed to stir up any of these emotions himself and the profoundly hungry aching Cherry felt was quite obviously for Dallas, but as her passions rose and the aches deepened, she decided that Bob would make a suitable substitute. If anything, she'd kept him off the streets for the night.
Unfortunately, she was left unsatisfied by Bob's drunken attempt at foreplay and the result was this lingering sense of longing for something she hardly understood.
She heaved the next installment in a series of wholehearted sighs, convinced that there would never be an acceptable way to satisfy or suppress her frantic libido.
"Okay, I'll bite," her sister declared, strolling in from the front porch. "You've been bellyaching in here for twenty minutes now. What's wrong?"
Cherry rolled her eyes. There were a total of five girls in the Valance family, which meant that Cherry still had three sisters to consult before she'd ever resort to asking Zuzu for advice. At fifteen, she was the youngest of the Valance girls and, Cherry thought, the most ridiculous. Zuzu, whose given name was Susan, had recently discovered a great joy in horrifying her parents with her awful behavior and near constant string of inappropriate comments. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Valance spent enough time at home to do much to correct the situation, though.
Cherry assumed it to be because Zuzu was the youngest, but sometimes even she couldn't believe how bratty her sister could be. She had begun the ninth grade a few months before and had developed this new attitude shortly afterwards. Cherry didn't think high school agreed with Zuzu.
"Didn't Mother tell you to practice the piano?" Cherry asked to avoid answering her sister.
"Mother went to play bridge," Zuzu said boredly. She flopped into the oversized leather armchair, blowing her bangs out of her deep gray eyes as she did. "Besides, I hate that old thing."
"You hate anything that requires hard work and dedication," Georgiana pointed out as she wandered in from the kitchen with a handful of grapes.
Georgie, at eighteen, was used to being the most outrageous of the Valance girls—a title she'd worked hard to earn over the years. Georgie was quieter about breaking the rules than Zuzu, though, and tried not to call attention to her misdeeds. She'd once explained it to Cherry that trouble just had a way of finding her. Cherry thought she could understand how that could happen sometimes, but not as often as it seemed to happen to Georgie.
Despite how much discord seemed to surround her, Georgie had always been well liked. And up until a few months ago, she had been doing a good job of keeping her nose clean. Ever since Zuzu had first encroached upon her bad-girl territory, Georgie had been working overtime to secure her wayward position, though.
"At least I didn't drop out of college," Zuzu taunted and Georgie threw one of the grapes at her.
"You're not even old enough to go to college, genius."
Zuzu scooped the grape up off the floor and rocketed it back at Georgie. From the couch, Cherry groaned again as grapes wheeled through the air. She would have much preferred to have wallowed in peace.
"Why are there grapes down the hall?" Tess wondered aloud, ambling into the living room.
Tess, who was seventeen, was very peculiar, though mostly regarded as charming and amiable. Cherry figured it was easy for people to look past her eccentricities because of how beautiful she was. She shared the same flaxen hair as Zuzu and Georgie, but her wide, innocent eyes were the most delicate shade of cerulean Cherry had ever seen. Her given name was Theresa, but Cherry couldn't remember anyone ever having called her that. She'd always just been Tess.
She looked up, holding two grapes in each hand, and then held them out to Georgie.
"Did you drop these?" she asked absently.
Georgie snatched the fruit from Tess, only to hurl them all at once at Zuzu, who promptly returned fire. The battle continued until Cherry finally yelled for them to stop.
"What's eating you?" Georgie sounded wounded.
Cherry briefly considered consulting Georgie about the apparent curse Dallas Winston had cast upon her, but thought better of it when she noticed Zuzu waiting intently for her reply.
"She's been wailing pathetically in here all morning," Zuzu really laid it on thick, catching even Tess' interest. She was usually too absorbed in her own thoughts to contribute very much to casual conversations.
"I have not been wailing, Susan," Cherry snarled. "And it's only been twenty minutes, so stop it."
"Anyway," Zuzu talked over Cherry to Georgie and Tess, "she won't say what's wrong."
"Maybe there's a problem with the squad," Tess mused. She'd never been keen on sports herself, but found it fascinating that Cherry cheered.
"Or trouble in one of her classes," Georgie offered.
"If you want to know what I think—"Zuzu never finished her speculations because just then Cherry took a swing at her with a pillow. It connected with the side of her face, stunning her for a moment.
Georgie and Tess both blinked a few times, as if they couldn't believe Cherry had done something like that. Truthfully, Cherry wasn't sure what had come over her. That goddamn Dallas Winston. Everything had been upside down since she'd seen him.
"What'd you go and do that for?" Zuzu demanded, rubbing at the side of her head.
"I told you to stop," Cherry shrugged and Georgie started laughing.
"You really are in rare form, huh?" she clucked settling herself beside Cherry on the couch. "Lucky for you, I've got the perfect cure."
Cherry highly doubted that. She watched Georgie cleverly untucked a tiny silver flask from her dress and take a swig.
"Shots of rum aren't gonna help me any," Cherry pouted and Georgie widened her dancing green eyes.
"Good thing I'm a whiskey girl," she took another swig and passed it to Cherry. "The booze wasn't the cure I meant though."
Zuzu was staring greedily at the flask in Cherry's hand. She'd developed a recent habit of wanting to do everything Cherry did. Tess wasn't interested in the liquor; she'd much rather toke up any day. Cherry forced a mouthful of liquid down her throat and raised an eyebrow to her sister expectantly.
Georgie leaned forward to heighten Cherry's anticipation. "What would you say if I told you Alice was on her way home?"