Thanks for the reviews, and sorry it took me so long on this one. Thanks to HyperPixiexoxo for reviewing because you helped with the inspiration here...
Sunny
I stood transfixed in the doorway, not bothering to turn around and watch him leave. I heard the car we used to get here start and drive away. My first thought was how I was going to get anywhere now, but figured I could just tag along with Jasper, because our schedules were mainly the same. See Alice, go home, sleep, see Alice. And repeat. And repeat. I sighed and walked into the door. Cherry was sitting on the couch watching TV, pretending I wasn't entering the room.
"Hey there, Cherry." I said.
"Oh, hi Sunny." She replied. I sighed and sat on the chair that was near her. She looked at me then turned the TV off.
"What." She said. I think it was meant to be a question but it didn't sound like one.
"Oh, nothing, just that my boyfriend of 5 years just dumped me." I said.
"Sunny!" Cherry exclaimed. I wasn't sure what it meant. I felt so numb, and everything was unfamiliar. She jumped off the couch and grabbed me, hugging me tight. The last person I hugged was Aaron. My parents hadn't even hugged me before! They hated me. I let Cherry hold me as I sat there, confused.
"Life was so much easier in second grade." Cherry muttered into my shoulder.
"Yes... when guys had cooties!" I smiled a bit. Cherry laughed, and let me go.
"Are you going to be alright?" She asked, looking at me, concerned.
"Yeah, I guess so. But I wish I had my best friend here with me." I said. I heard a car door open and close and then another one open and close. Cherry watched with a confused look on her face.
"Who could that be?" She asked. Jasper was at the hospital with Alice, and Cherry's parents had disappeared to some foreign country. The front door opened and with a grunt Jasper carried Alice up the steps to the first floor.
"Alice!" Cherry and I both exclaimed.
"Hey!" She said back, and Jasper made his way to the couch and set her on it. "I heard," she started, "that someone wanted me here?" She asked, looking at us. I glanced at Cherry, with a sure question mark on my face.
"I've mastered the sport of hug and text." She said.
"What is hug and text?" Jasper asked. All the girls laughed.
"Jasper – hug and text is where you have your cell phone in your hand and then you hug your friend and text behind their back. Literally." I explained.
"Oh, okay." Jasper said.
"Well, I'm not going to sit here for three hours while you explain everything girl to Mr. Clueless over here so tell me what happened." Alice said, growing impatient. We all narrowed our eyes at Jasper.
"Oh. I'm leaving." He said, and he backed up the stairs carefully, and winked at Alice before he disappeared all together.
"Okay." Alice said, shifting slightly to get more comfortable. You think that looking at your bald black and blue best friend would be awkward. She was still wearing her wig that I had made, and I was slowly growing my hair back, and it wasn't really awkward. Nothing was between us, because we shared everything.
"Tell me!" She whined, obviously impatient. I sighed and began my story.
"I swear – as soon as I get better, I'll kill him!" Alice said, Jasper had come back downstairs to the sound of Alice's yelling. She was pacing and he was following her back and forth.
"I'm not going to just drop dead, Jasper. You can stop following me." She said. I'm sure everyone flinched a bit. She was the only one who thought she wasn't going to drop dead. We were all worried, me and Jasper especially. She raised her hand as if to run her fingers through her hair then dropped it again. She sat on the table and sighed.
"I just – ugh. I am so stressed out!" She shouted.
"Alice, it's okay. You can calm down." I said.
"No! Sunny, I can't! Me being sick is ruining everyone else's lives! This is my problem, do you hear me? My problem!" She screamed.
"We're here to help though." Cherry said.
"How old are you Cherry?" Alice asked suddenly.
"Fourteen..."
"Exactly! Your only fourteen. You shouldn't be worrying about your brothers girlfriend. You should be worrying about the boys you want to date. You should worry about what clothes your going to wear, you should worry about what your going to do this weekend. You should not worry about me, understand?!" She exclaimed. Cherry sighed.
"I suppose." She said, making a face.
"Cherry!" Jasper and I yelled.
"It's not her god damn problem!" Alice screamed. Everyone stared at her, shocked. "I swear to fricken' god! If you can't stop worrying about me, I'll commit suicide so there's nothing to worry about!" She smacked her forehead and sat back down.
"We can't not worry about you." I mentioned.
"Yes you can." Alice argued.
"No, we can't. Listen, if you want us to stop worrying about you, let us stay at the hospital with you." Jasper said. She sat down and thought.
"Uh – fine." Alice agreed.
"I'm coming!" Cherry shouted.
"No!" We all turned and yelled.
"Jeez, fine." Cherry said, jerking back. "Why not?" She asked.
"Because, you wouldn't like it." I told her.
"Who cares?!" She asked.
"We do, so stay here and watch the cat!" Jasper yelled.
"We don't have a cat!"
"That's the point!" Jasper yelled back at her. Cherry groaned and headed upstairs.
"When you get back, we're buying a cat." So we left Cherry home alone.
Cherry's Journal
So with everyone's lives falling apart you'd think I'd forget about writing in my journal. Well, apparently not. So you'll never believe this, but Aaron broke up with Sunny. Seriously. She said that he said it was because she was always so miserable. But, on the other hand, why would he do that? Isn't he supposed to be there for her? Right? Well, I've only had one boyfriend, which is lame, and it was Austen Hallaway. He was always there for me, and we didn't even date for that long! And then you have Aaron and Sunny who have apparently been dating for 5 years, and Aaron just dumps her on the spot because she's having trouble dealing with her best friend dying in front of her eyes? Really? I think that Aaron dumped Sunny for a different reason... I'll keep you updated, just because when I'm 30 I want to look back and remember these people and what happened.
Journal,
So it's been a week since my last entry and I've been asking Aaron questions, because, the boy has nerve. He came back. He said it was because he wanted to make sure I was safe while Jasper and Sunny were at the hospital with Alice. But one night, Sunny came back and he left. He went in the direction of the hospital in his stupid retro car from the 1900's. Sunny left again when Jasper came to pick her up. He looked really angry, so I think I might know why Aaron dumped Sunny. But I'm not writing it down or asking anyone about it yet, because frankly, I'm pretty sure that I'm right. And it scares me.
Journal,
3 days ago, Sunny and Aaron were in the kitchen, making me lunch like I was 5 and they were my parents that were going to go and get a divorce. I think that they though I couldn't hear them so they started talking. I heard some of the conversation but not all of it. This is what they said...
"Aaron, she's going soon." Sunny said.
"I don't care."
"She's already got him."
"I'll get him out of the way myself, Sunny. I don't need your help."
"Why would I help you in the first place? Why would I risk her happiness, her life so you can be happy? Why would I do that?" Sunny shouted.
"Because you still love me." Aaron concluded.
"Don't be an ass hole now, Aaron. Just finish making Cherry her sandwich, and I will tell Alice."
I have no idea what they were talking about.
At least I know that lying is wrong. Doesn't mean I'm not going to lie.
Journal,
Aaron went to the hospital again tonight. Sunny had come home to look after me. I told her she didn't need to, that I would be fine, but she refused to let me stay home alone. I think it's from all the shit that's been going on lately. I wonder how Alice is doing though, haven't heard from her in a while. Sunny says she's been doing fine, she's just nervous because she has to go in for surgery in two months or so. I would be worried to, I mean, really. Sometimes I wonder why my parents combined their names to make mine. Cherry. I used to like cherries. Now I find them appalling. I always hate it when parents say 'oh, you used to like those so much' and you hate them now and they keep giving/making them for you. It's really annoying. I'm going to visit Alice tomorrow. Maybe since she's pretty much dead already she'll think I deserve to know what's going on. Jasper just came in, so now Aaron is the only one at the hospital. I think. I haven't seen Jasper yet, but I can hear his uneven footsteps. He's limping... I think I was right all along.
Journal,
Jasper was beat up bad! He had bruises all over his face and his nose was bleeding and so was his leg. I went to the hospital without permission. I drove their. I stole Sunny's car that she rented. They haven't caught me yet. Because I'm still here. Alice was crying so hard. Aaron was the one who beat up Jasper, telling him to leave Alice alone. She was screaming and shouting when Aaron started throwing punches. She was thrashing around but couldn't get up because while she was still asleep Aaron had strapped her to the bed. He is so, ugh. Indescribable. That's the word. When I got to the hospital Alice still was crying and shaking while Aaron (the bitch) was stroking her hair and telling her it was all okay, that they could be together now. I think he might be a rapist or a stalker or SOMETHING I don't know. He scares me, which is why I can't really write down what I did to him or what he did to me, but I'll try...
"It's okay now, Alice, we can be together, it's okay now." Aaron said.
"Why...?" She was shaking so hard, it was scary. Why would they fight over her? She's sick as hell! She can't HANDLE this. Hell, someone healthy wouldn't be able to handle this!
"What are you doing to her!?" I screamed. I was extremely surprised that no nurses had come at all yet. The night nurses usually came, right? Guess not. But I don't know. They just didn't, which made it so much more easy for Aaron.
"Cherry.." Alice choked.
"What the hell are you doing here, kid?" Aaron asked.
"I'm here to see my friend." I said.
"Oh well. You've seen her, now I think you should go home before Sunny and Jasper get worried." Aaron said. Could Alice tell how fake he was? I think so.
"No." The word came out of my mouth without reason.
"Excuse me?"
"I said no. I. Am. Not. Going. Home."
"Well, we'll just have to send you home then, won't we?" He got up and walked over to me. He pulled back his fist and swung it at my face. I grabbed his wrist before his hand made contact and I pulled his arm down so he fell to the ground. Unfortunately, he pulled me down with him by twisting his hand around to grab my arm. I landed awkwardly on top of him, and he flipped over so he was on top of me and I was underneath. "The end comes for everyone..." He murmured.
"No! No! No!" Alice shouted. He had a knife in his hand from god-knows-where and he pulled it up. "No!" Alice yelled one more time, he turned to smile at her, and she thrashed her arms so hard that they ripped through the cloth that was holding them to the hospital bed, and she jumped at him. He shifted at the last moment to see her, and the knife went into her arm, and she fell limp next to him, and he pulled the knife out of her arm and stuck it into my leg. I screamed so loud it hurt. Then I blacked out.
Journal,
Alice is going in for surgery tomorrow. I have to go to trauma therapy. I shake during the night and scream because I have such bad nightmares. I'm not allowed to go to school. If I think about it, I've pretty much missed half the school year anyways. My grade 8 year is screwed, I figure. My person thing that helps with my therapy, Juana, told me to keep a journal. I told her I already had one and she asked if she could read it. I was so fucking freaked out at the time, I just handed this to her. She read my entries from first grade where it was just basically 'hi journal it's cherry ok bye.' To my grade 6 entries where they got longer and more detailed about the changes I was going through all the way to my torturous down-hill ride from the 14 year old Cherry Whitlock. Juana said that she will have to check my journal every visit and that I should pretend she wasn't. Haha, that's funny, Juana. It's impossible to pretend you don't read this. I'll just try then. And don't tell anyone what I write, or I'll stab you.
Journal,
Hi Juana!!!!!!!
-Cherry
Journal,
Juana got really pissed at my last entry. I laughed my head off and she told me to fine a different psychiatrist thing. I was glad. I'm sure, after all, that she just wanted to get all up in my business. My new psychiatrist, Aylin, is really nice. She doesn't read my journal, and she's always ready to listen. She's really helping me now. My leg has just begun to heal. Alice has been in surgery for three days. Has there ever been a surgery that long? Is everything with my family/friends retarded? I think so. Aylin is only 20, just graduated from college with her degree. She's coming over to meet my family. I hate to admit this, but I don't think my parents are coming back. The funny thing is that I don't miss them that much. I love Jasper, Sunny and Alice. I know Alice is going to stick around if she's still here, because I know she loves Jasper with all her heart. Sunny might, too. I hope. Aaron actually went to jail because I told Aylin what happened and luckily, Sunny had a recent photo of him so the police could catch him. Everything is starting to get better, but it was before everything got worse, to. Aylin told me to sign my journal entries because then when I get older I'll remember how to personalize everything I do. I didn't really understand, but Aylin seems to be right about everything so...
Love,
Cher.
Reviews, please. Next chapter will be up when it's finished! I've been really busy because I have at least projects due next Friday. Wednesday is my birthday, just in case you wanted to know. Ha. Of course you didn't want to know. I won't have time next Saturday or Wednesday to work on the next chapter so don't bite me.