I gave her a tight-lipped smile in return and my fingers trailed up to clutch the charm resting against my chest. “I was also hoping you might let me see Cherry. I know she’s grounded but—”
Their mom frowned and cut me off. “Cherry’s not grounded anymore. She didn’t tell you?”
The charm dug into my palm as I clutched it tighter. “We haven’t been talking, so...”
The frown smoothed and her eyes softened. “She’s in her room.” She backed up to open the door wider for me. “Go on.”
Upstairs, my footsteps halted a few feet from Cherry’s open door. I’d almost turned around and left when her mom told me Cherry was no longer grounded. That meant she could have tried to call me or at least text me to say she was sorry. But she hadn’t. Which meant maybe she wasn’t. My foot inched back from her door. Maybe all these weeks she’d been avoiding me as much as I’d been avoiding her.
But then I thought about Shelly and what I’d agreed to do the next day and realized that I’d never get through it if I backed away from this situation now.
Cherry’s eyes widened when she saw me. She clicked the TV off and swung her legs off the bed.
“Hey,” I said. “Your mom let me up.”
She nodded. “Gabe’s not here.”
“I know. I came by to see you. I mean, I did drop off the music video, too, but—”
“You finished it?”
I nodded. “A while ago. I just—”
“—didn’t want to come over.” I saw her swallow and her hands made fists in the comforter on either side of her. “Jo, I—”
“Wait, okay?” I took a step into her room, still clutching my necklace. There weren’t enough deep breaths in the world for what I had to say but I took one anyway. And when it wasn’t enough I took another. I was mad at her. More than mad, I was broken by her. But standing in her room with its hand-me-down furniture and the collection of stuffed animals nearly crowding her off the bed some of that fell away, not all, but a lot.
I took a few more steps and then lowered myself to sit on the opposite corner of the bed from her so I could pluck up a flamingo—her favorite animal—that I’d given her for her last birthday. I’d sewn a soccer ball to its hand and used markers to recreate our school’s mascot on its belly. It turned out awful, and I’d wanted to chuck it but Cherry had insisted it take a place of honor on her bed.
And it was still there.
My heart ached as I looked at the flamingo, and it ached more when I glanced at Cherry.
“I know you’re not grounded anymore. You could’ve tried to talk to me.”
Her head slumped further.
“I don’t get it. I thought eventually you’d come over and we’d fight it out and be okay again. But you didn’t.” My voice broke. “And I know you don’t want me to talk about Meneik—Idon’t want to talk about Meneik, but I’m going to because I don’t care if you hate me for it. I don’t like him. I don’t like the way he treats you or the way he forces you to act to keep him happy. Whether you want me in your life or not, and whether I’m mad at you or not, I care about you. I don’t want you to look back in five years and regret your life.” My heart lodged itself in my throat when I remembered Shelly telling me that she’d lost everything because of my dad. “I’ve seen that, and I don’t want that for you.”
Cherry glanced down at her knees, her shoulders hunching as though she was bracing herself. “Are you done?”
“No.” I tossed the flamingo down. “I’m not done. Cherry, I—I’ve been going through some stuff.” My throat closed off so my words came out choked. “I could’ve used a friend to tell me the truth when I was lying to myself.” I thought about all warning signs with Guy and how maybe if I’d told someone, they’d have helped me see him for what he was long before that final night in his apartment. “Because it turns out it’s a lot easier to point out somebody else’s mistakes than recognize your own.” My eyes were threatening to start swimming, so I bounced my gaze all over her room, her closet, her window, her dresser.
And I stopped.
Standing, I walked to the dresser and stared at the mirror hanging above it, the one that had been so crammed with photos, concert tickets, and notes she and Gabe always left for each other. I’d been in her room enough times to have them memorized, but even if I hadn’t, I’d have noticed the glaring gaps.
All the photos of Meneik were gone. Whenever they’d broken up before, she’d never get around to taking them down before they were on again.
I spun to face her and didn’t need to ask the question when the answer had been staring me in the face.
“Turns out I didn’t need you to see Meneik,” Cherry said, her voice less flat and more empty. “Do you know what he said when I showed up at his door?”
My stomach turned over.
“It was my fault for getting grounded, that if I really loved him, I’d have figured out a way to be with him sooner, even if that meant leaving my family. And I don’t know if it was all the time I’d spent away from him or thinking about the horrible things I’d said to you and everyone else—things he was yelling at me—” I heard her voice thicken. “But I finally realized that you were right, all of you.”
I pressed my lips together to steady them. “It’s over?”
