Chapter 4

That night, my heart wouldn't stop fluttering. How was it possible to be in love with someone after only having met them twice? Now that I look back on it, I must have been in love with his looks at the time. He reminded me of Ricky Nelson way. He had that superstar look to him.

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By the time I got home, Doug and my mother were already asleep, so I didn't have to deal with his bullshit until the morning. When I woke up, I was more than ecstatic that it was already the weekend. I had only had to go to school one day and I had even more time to get settled. I would've stayed in my room all day if my mother didn't come force me out. I didn't want to spend any amount of time around Doug, so I got dressed and went outside. I had no idea where anything was, so it was pretty stupid of me to just head out, but at least I knew where my house was. I ended up at the gas station we had stopped at to get gas before. Unfortunately, Soda wasn't there and it occurred that I had no real reason to be there. I had no money, so I couldn't buy anything. I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Steve staring at me as if I was a pile of trash. He looked straight up disgusted.

"What're you doin' here?"

"Oh, I was uh, I was just-"

"She was here to meet us." A girl with bright red hair interrupted. She walked up to me and placed her hand on my shoulder. "C'mon, let's get going." I followed the red haired girl, who was accompanied by another girl with a short brown bob, out of the gas station. We all stopped just outside of the gas station. The red haired girl rolled her eyes. "He is such a pain. If Sodapop didn't there, they'd be out of business. I'm Cherry, by the way." she told me with a sweet smile. "And this is Marcia."

"Hiya." Marcia said, stepping forward and shaking my hand.

"My name is Arie." I said to the both of them. "You didn't have to do that."

"Yeah we did." Marcia said. "He's the definition of dirt." She shuddered. I wanted to defend Steve, but based on the reaction he had to me, I doubt he'd ever defend me, so I just nodded.

"Hey, Arie, I'm having a party at my house next Friday night, you should totally come!"

"Really?" I asked, probably sounding more confused than I should've.

"Of course! You seem like such a sweet girl and I'm sure our friends would love you, right Marcia?"

"Oh, yeah, totally. They'd love you, Arie." Marcia agreed, nodding aggressively. I couldn't tell if she legitimately meant that, or just wanted to please Cherry.

"Thank you, Cherry." I said, smiling. I had been invited to my first party.

"I'll give you my address later. Wanna meet up back here on Tuesday?"

"Sure!" I agreed, feeling ecstatic.

"Alright, it was lovely meeting you, Shelby!" Cherry said, walking past me.

"Yeah!" Marcia added.

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Fast forward to Friday. I had been spending the majority of my time with Cherry and Marcia. I was so excited for Cherry's party, I don't think I have ever been that excited in my life, well, maybe when I had my daughter, but we'll get to that later.

I think I spent about three hours trying to decide what to wear until I finally decided on something. Before I left, Cherry called to inform me that her boyfriend, Bob, would be picking me up from my house.

"Where do you live?" she asked. My heart skipped a beat. I couldn't tell her where I lived, she'd definitely stop hanging out with me.

"Just get Bob to meet me at the DX." I told her.

"Alright, I'll let him know. See you soon!"

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I didn't wait at the DX for very long. Bob showed up in a blue mustang, which didn't surprise me at all. I got in the car and was assaulted by the smell of alcohol.

"Hi, I'm Arie." I told him.

"Name's Bob." he said, pulling out of the parking lot. "Before you ask, I haven't been drinking, I spilled a bunch of beer in the car before I came and got you."

"Oh, alright." I kept my eyes glued to the road, feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

"Fuck, you'd think Cherry would come pick up her own friends." he complained. "I mean, she has her little Stingray, but of course, she can't take five fucking minutes to do something for someone else." I didn't say anything. "I can't tell you how many times I've had to do shit for her. And you know what I get?" I stayed silent. "Huh?"

"What do you get?" I stuttered.

"Nothing. Nothing at all, not even a 'thank you, Bob.' You thank your boyfriend when he goes out of his way to do stuff for you, right?"

"I, um, don't have a boyfriend." I responded.

"Shit! Really?" Bob's eyes kept going from the road, then back to me.

"Yep." I said.

"You know, the only reason I'm still with Cherry is because everyone thinks she's fucking hot. She won't even put out and we've been together for six months. It's ridiculous." Bob bitched as we pulled into Cherry's drive way. There were people entering her extravagant home. I reached for the handle. "Wait," Bob said, reaching out his hand. "Arie, was it?"

"Yeah."

"Tell Cherry I'll be in in a minute."

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Walking into the house, I automatically felt out of place. Her house was gorgeous. Not only that, but there were tons of people. And of course, they were all drinking and smoking. I made my way through the crowd, trying to find Cherry when I finally ran into her.

"Oh hey!" she shouted over the loud music. "Where's Bob?"

"He said he'd be in in a minute." I shouted back.

"Oh, alright. Go introduce yourself to people!" she demanded, turning me around and shoving me back into the crowd.

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The events that happened after are still extremely foggy, but I can remember that that night was the first time I had ever drank and smoked. What I do remember clearly, however, is what happened towards the end of the night. I was walking through the crowd of heavily intoxicated people, trying to find the bathroom, but I was having trouble, saying as I was a heavily intoxicated person. Suddenly, a hand firmly grasped my wrist and led me upstairs. I was brought into what I'm assuming was Cherry's parent's room. The person shut the door behind us. I turned around to see who had brought me here.

"Bob?" I asked, grabbing the wall to keep myself balanced. He bent over so that he was at eye level with me, held his finger in front of my face and moved it back and forth. I remember having a hard time following it.

"Perfect." Bob grabbed my waist and walked towards me until the back of my knees hit the bed and I fell. When I fell on the bed, Bob got on top of me and held my arms down.

"Bob... stop..." I said, turning away from him, but no matter how many times I said no or stop or that I was a virgin, he didn't stop. He never did.