Page 26 of My Sweet Cherry
I hit him again, ignoring the sting in my fist. The ache I felt in my muscles didn’t compare to the pain I’d felt when Beth gave me my tape back. “Some chick?” I hit him again, sending him backward onto the couch. I hovered over him while he glared up at me, looking less threatening when he was below me. “She’s not just some chick. She’smychick, and you stay the fuck away from her.”
“Well by the sounds of it, she’s not your chick anymore. Isn’t that why you’re so upset?” His voice sounded more nasally, and a trickle of blood ran past his lip. That didn’t stop me from hitting him again—neither did the cut that split open on my knuckle.
“Stay. Away. From. Beth.” I emphasized each word like its own sentence, punctuating it with another punch. Then I grabbed his shirt, pulling him up until my face was close to his. “And figure out somewhere else to live. Your name isn’t on this lease, and you no longer live here.”
“Dude, fuck you.” Benny started to stand up, ready to fight back even though he looked less threatening with the cuts on his cheek and lip.
I lunged for him just as the door behind us opened, and Anthony rushed in. “Whoa, whoa. What the hell is going on here?” He grabbed my shoulders, pulling me back off Benny and looking between us. My breathing was heavy. It felt like the room was spinning, and the only way to get it to stop would be to leave.
“Ask him,” I snarled, clenching and unclenching my fists. If I didn’t leave now, I was going to have a bigger mess on my hands than I was willing to deal with. “I gotta go.”
“Where are you going?” Anthony narrowed his brow, twisting his face in an effort to figure out what he had walked in on.
“I’m going to find Beth,” I said, opening the door. “Get him out of here before I get back. I don’t want to see him again.”
Now I just had to hope Beth would talk to me.
Chapter 24
Beth
“Oh, come on, Beth. You can’t just stay home and mope all night.” Amy held another dress out to me.
I shook my head. “I’m not going to mope. I’m going to read my book and not walk around in shoes that hurt my feet, pretending like they don’t.” She huffed when I shrugged, tossing the dress on my bed.
“It’s a Friday night! Just come out with us.” She looked willing to beg. For a moment, I thought I might let her, but I wasn’t going to go anywhere even if she did. I held my book against my chest like I had been dying to spend a night reading, but we both knew that I was avoiding Carter—and Benny too.
Isabella sat down next to me, taking the book and setting it on the nightstand. She was about to take a gentler approach. “Honey, we’re just worried about you.” She looked at Amy, shooting her a warning glance. “I know this guy who will be at the party tonight, and he wants to meet you. Maybe he can take your mind off Carter.”
“I don’t think so.” I reached around her, snatching my book back.
“What? Why not?” She looked at my book, scrunching her nose when I flipped it open. “It would be good for you to have some distraction.”
I was grateful for the interruption when the phone rang. “I’ll get it,” I said, jumping up and keeping my book in my arm as a shield. “Hello?”
“Hey, cherry. It’s really good to hear your voice.” It was good to hear his too, but it was almost enough to make me consider taking Isabella up on her offer to set me up with some barely-more-than-a-stranger guy in one of her classes. I hung up the phone, and both of my friends met me with wide-eyed stares.
“Who was that?” Amy asked. I cocked my head to the side.As if she really had to ask.
I shook my head. “Nobody. It was a wrong number.” They shared a look of disbelief with matching pursed lips. Then the phone rang again, and Amy jumped for it faster than I could grab it.
“Hello?” she said, already cocking her head in anI told you somanner. “Oh, hi, Carter. Beth hung up on you? Oh. Let me see if she’s free to chat.” I shook my head hard enough to knock a few curls loose from the crooked ponytail on my head. “She’s shaking her head. You want me to tell her you’re sorry? And that you just want to talk? None of it was true.”
“Tell him I don’t want to talk to him right now,” I whispered, even though I was sure he could hear me.
Amy put her hand over the phone and tried to hand it to me, but I put my hands up. “Take the phone and tell him yourself,” she said. Then she smirked. “Either you take the phone and talk to him, or you come out with us. Take your pick.”
She held out the phone to me, and Isabella smirked next to me. I groaned. “Okay fine. I’ll go to the stupid party. Just tell him to stop calling.”
“Thankyou,” Amy said, bringing the phone back to her ear. “Sorry, Carter. I guess she just can’t come to the phone. She said for you to stop calling.” I heard him start to argue with her when she hung the phone back up, and my stomach sank with the click. “Now I guess it’s time for you to get dressed.” Amy picked the dress up off the bed, holding it out to me before deciding against it and dropping it again to return to the closet for a different option.
I dropped back onto the bed and opened my book, wishing I could disappear into the pages where I didn’t have to go to a party—and where the girl got the happily ever after. “There’s plenty of time. The party isn’t until way later.”
“Comeon!Let’sgo!”Amy was being as patient as ever while Isabella checked her hair in the mirror one more time. “The party already started, and I don’t want them to run out of jungle juice.”
My stomach lurched at the thought of the cheap, liquor-heavy punch served in giant coolers. “Do I really have to do this?” I asked, following them down the stairs and out of the dorm.
“Yes, you do.” Isabella hooked her arm through mine while Amy took hold of the other. “It will be fun.”
