Cherry - S01 E14

Story 1 year ago

Cherry - S01 E14

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 14

Chief continued, "You're not ready. Come back when you are ready and not before. I don't need you putting your life and the lives of anyone else at risk because you're not 100%. I'm sure your head is telling you that you are ready. But if your heart starts taking over at the wrong time and makes decisions for you, then it's bad for everyone. Coming here for a social visit just makes it take longer. Understand?"

I knew he was right and nodded my head-slightly embarrassed that I hadn't thought of that myself. I asked, "How will know for sure when I'm ready?"

Chief said matter-of-factly, "You'll just know. You won't wonder if you are ready: you will KNOW that you are ready."

I put my hand out to shake hands and thank Chief for always giving me good advice. To my surprise, he took my hand and pulled me in for one of those 'manly hug/slaps on the back". Luckily for me it was the other shoulder with the stitches!

Before I turned to leave, Chief said, "We look forward to you coming back, but until then, get the fuck out of here." I smiled and said, "Roger that, Chief. Thanks."

I left the station and, for lack of much else to do, I went for a drive. I considered going to watch Cherry practice, but figured her mom might be picking her up afterwards and it would not be good to have her catch me there after our talk earlier. Thoughts drifted back and forth between Cherry and Katie; the girl on the back of my mind at all times it seemed. After driving for a while, I suddenly realized that I was at the intersection of the accident and I pulled over to the side of the road to look at the scene. The car and debris had been removed, of course. There were still small pieces of glass all over the road, evidenced by the sunlight glinting off of them. I noticed for the first time that the truck's tires didn't start to make skid marks until it was at least 25 yards past the point of impact and I just shook my head in disbelief-he must have been going at the truck's top speed. There were gouges in the pavement leading away from the intersection, no doubt from the engine block/transmission as it tumbled down the road. Cars were zipping along the road as if nothing significant had ever happened here. Life goes on, as they say.

Sitting at the intersection wasn't doing me much good mentally,

and it occurred to me that was 'still on the job', Understanding

Chief's advice to 'get the fuck out of here' a little more thoroughly, I

decided to just go back home and get some sleep. I figured Cherry

wouldn't be able to call after practice because she'd be getting

picked up by her mom and receiving the riot act from her. After

stripping down do my boxers, I plopped down in bed but figured I'd be awake for hours because I didn't feel tired. Ironically, I was fast asleep within moments.

I slept deeply, thankfully, I clearly needed it. As I awoke, I was dimly aware of someone lightly, and with rhythm, tapping on my shoulder-the injured one. Knowing I SHOULD be alone in the apartment, I shot upright in surprise. Eyes now fully open and all senses on high alert, I saw I was just as alone as I was supposed to be. The tapping was my own heartbeat pulsing against my wounds. A few minutes later, I got a text from Cherry.

"Good morning <31 R U Up?"

I texted back, "Good morning! Yeah-just woke up. How'd it go last night?"

She responded, "Gr8. If U like being in prison 'til UR 85! LOL!"

I texted back, "I'm sorry!"

She replied, "JK. Two weeks."

"Could have been worse..." I responded.

Instead of texting back, Cherry opted to call me and filled me in on the details of what happened with her mom. She said her mom wasn't really mad at her but just really 'disappointed'. Cherry didn't try to defend her actions or make excuses and that helped to defuse the situation-which is probably why she was only grounded for two weeks. It was going to be a long two weeks, but neither of us intended to go two weeks without seeing each other.

Cherry arrived at school and had to go; leaving me to my own devices. Not sure what to do with myself, I turned on my computer to go online. After staring at my default search engine's home screen for about 5 minutes without a shred of inspiration of what to surf, I turned the computer off and set about doing busy work around the apartment. It's amazing what you find when you have nothing better to do than clean your home. While dusting the tops of the kitchen cabinets (something I'd NEVER done since moving in) I found a one hundred dollar bill up there covered in god knows how many layers of dust! I certainly didn't put it up there and I wondered how many tenants had moved in/out without having discovered it.

Growing tired of cleaning and not having much else to clean anyway, I decided to take a nap.

I was sound asleep when I felt someone tapping on my shoulder

again. I opened my eyes and looked over my shoulder, knowing

that it was just my heart beat and nothing more. To my utter

shock, there was someone there this time, it was little Katie

tapping at my shoulder. She looked just like she had in the car,

eyes wide with pupils dilated and her body a bloody mess. I sat up to look at her and saw she was standing in a streak of blood and human flesh on the road.

"David?" she asked me weakly. "Where's Momma? I can't find her."

I bolted awake from the nightmare with the war cry of a Marine in hand to hand combat. "GOD DAMN IT," screamed to my empty apartment once my pulse slowed a few beats. I had been doing really well with staying away from the alcohol since the accident, but that was a bit much for me to take-I grabbed a beer from the fridge and popped it open while turning on ESPN. I didn't pay much attention to the TV, nor did think about Katie or even Cherry-I just sat there with a blank mind. For lack of a better term: a meditative state.

About 20 minutes later, my cell phone rang and the sound snapped me back to reality. I answered it to hear the most beautiful voice on the other end.

Cherry said with no small amount of bounce in her voice, "Hey! How was your day? What are you doing?!"

I said, "I'm literally doing nothing right now," opting to spare her the details of my crappy day.

She said, "Then why don't you come and watch me practice?!" Uncertain that would be a wise thing to do, I asked, "Won't your

mom be picking you up?" Cherry answered, "Not today, I'm getting a ride from Olivia."

I picked up my open beer and noticed I'd had only a few sips from it. "I'm on the way!" I said.

Before leaving, I quickly washed up and put on a clean shirt so I wouldn't look or smell like a homeless man. The drive to her school seemed to take forever, I simply couldn't wait to see her. My heart seemed to slowly increase in rate the closer I came to seeing my Cherry; the anticipation was almost unbearable.

Pulling into the school parking lot, I felt like the kid in grade school that was about to hand the first girl he ever liked the note that said "will you go out with me' with an option boxed marked 'yes' and another box marked 'no'. It was silly, of course, but that was the effect she had on me. I parked a respectable distance from the main building and saw a group of girls warming up near what was clearly the football practice field. I was able to pick Cherry out of

the bunch from a distance easily; her red hair gave her away. She

had it pulled up in a ponytail that sat high on the crown of her

head. I'd never seen her with a ponytail before and it was

absolutely adorable on her. She had not seen me yet and I watched

from afar for a few minutes as though watching a wild animal in its natural environment.

The girls were going through their routines; making sure they had their choreography right. If anyone made a misstep or was out of time, they would reset and start over until they had it right. While a few of the girls seemed bored and others were clearly putting on false smiles, Cherry beamed a genuine smile that could be seen from half way across the expansive parking lot. She truly loved cheerleading-even practice. I was watching as they assumed a position that was somewhere in the middle of a routine to practice a particular move. Cherry had a girl with a frame similar to hers standing right in front of her. Cherry put her hands on the girls' waist and the girl jumped up as Cherry tossed her straight up in the air. Almost in the same movement, Cherry moved under the girl as she landed in Cherry's hands; standing on Cherry's up-turned palms-at chest level. To my complete astonishment, Cherry then effortlessly pressed the girl up, extending her arms over her head! The girl was at least a hundred pounds and Cherry just tossed her over head and held her there like she was a blow-up doll! The girl stood on one leg and the other leg went over her head; toe in hand.

"Holly shit," I caught myself saying out loud. I knew she was strong but I didn't know she could lift someone over her head like that! After a few moments, she let the girl fall and caught her on the way down. That was just as impressive as tossing her in the air in the first place the girl has momentum on the way down (and therefore effectively heavier)!

Seeing Cherry practice while unaware of my presence was for some reason therapeutic. She was so energetic and full of life while around me that wasn't sure if it was simply a show for my benefit. But I could see now that it was just her natural personality and I loved that about her. Before I realized it, I had walked towards (or perhaps drawn like a magnet to) where they were practicing and Cherry spotted me. Her already wide smile became even wider and she waved to me enthusiastically. She motioned me over to her but I resisted; not wanting to disturb them. She came bounding over to me like she was Impersonating Tigger, grabbed my hand, and pulled me over to meet the others.

Cherry said, "Guys: this is David," and then pointed out each of the girls by name. They were all wearing a variation of the same thing: skin tight yoga shorts, a tight tank top of varying colors, and white sneakers. Olivia was the only one I would remember and that was because I knew her from before. A few of the girls eyed me either knowingly or suspiciously-which one it was, I wasn't certain-and I wondered how much information Cherry had shared with her friends.