THE BIG DEAL: PART 10
Finally :)
As Dev and Cherry walked down the block toward the lot where the bus was parked, Dev rattled on about his band. Cherry didn’t care. As long as she was not required to talk, and as long as the conversation stayed away from the topic of Sweet or anything else that was currently causing her life to be chaotic, she was fine.
When they were nearly halfway to their destination they were spotted by a few girls who recognized both the singer and the trombonist. If Cherry had been the less noticeable blonde of a few years back, she knew she would not have been recognized behind Dev’s massive shades that covered half her face. Her vibrant pink pigtails instantly gave her away. She wondered too how these girls identified Dev without them. They were one of his trademarks. Though she was upset, she still managed to notice how attractive Dev really was when they weren’t hiding his face. She could not help trying to mold him into someone she could love, in her mind, instead of Sweet. She pictured him dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt with his brown shaggy hair and his sunglasses no longer covering his attractive, unusually kind eyes. She pictured them together, embracing, spending every second doing nothing but laughing and talking and being in love. She imagined Dev as a sweet, witty, caring guy, which he really was when he was not being the arrogant bastard that was his more prominent character.
Suddenly she snapped back to reality when the girls approached them. She felt like running or ducking behind a dumpster but she knew there was no chance of escaping.
“Dev Pierpont and Cherry Magic fraternizing? I thought Clockwork and MCB were archenemies?” mused one of the nameless fans.
Dev gave one of his winning smirks, which he was almost known for as much as his sunglasses and he once again became that guy. “Ah, yes, this has been true since the dawn of time. However, Miss Cherry and myself are only together because we are in the midst of working out a peace treaty. We are both stating the terms of our nations. We feel times of love and brotherhood may be on the horizon for both our people if only we give peace a chance! Y’know… that’s all we are saying. Any of you ladies up for a love-in?”
The girls giggled and whispered to one another. Cherry couldn’t bring herself to join in on his speech. She was getting uncomfortable, however. She knew the image in her head was nothing but a dream.
“Well, I think it’s past my bedtime.” Cherry moaned, unamused and wanting to get back to her home and away from these girls and away from Dev. She took off his sunglasses and lightly smacked them against his chest.
With a fake grin he clutched both the shades and her hand and glanced down at her from the corner of his eye. “Yeah, right. We really should be going. Forgive us for being so brief. Maybe next time, girls.”
Retracting her hand she faked her own smile, “Don’t be silly, Dev. I don’t need an escort. I am fully capable of finding my own way back to the bus. Surely someone who can be trusted to be a representative of her nation in peace talks can walk herself home.” Cherry excused herself and walked around the girls and began to cross the street, rolling her eyes.
Dev looked over the heads of the fans, blinking unbelievably in Cherry’s direction. “Um, ladies, if you’ll excuse me. I’m sorry. I gotta go.” He half ran to catch up to Cherry, tucking the oversized, white shades in his pocket as he neared her side, “Wait a second!”
“Dev, I’m tired. It’s been possibly the longest night of my life. I just want to go to bed. No games. No boys. No acts. I just want to sleep. The faster I go to bed, the faster this day can unexist.” She never missed a step, nor did she even bother to look at him. She watched her feet, left, right, left, right, making her stride as big as her small body could stretch.
“Ok. Fine. No games. No acts. I get it, but what I don’t get is what just happened. You don’t think I was serious about the love-in thing do you? Or is it that I lied about why we were together?”
“None of the above. For starters, I know if you had the chance you would be completely serious about the love-in, and I could care less. And why should it bother me that you lied about why we are together. We are together because you won’t go away, and we always lie about why we’re together, remember? That is all this is - us pretending to like one another so that I can piss Sweet off, because in reality we all know you are a complete, undateable jackass!”
She was now facing Dev, fuming. Dev was standing approximately four feet away from her looking completely baffled. Cherry knew that this outrage was not really directed at, nor caused by Dev. She knew this was just another example of her trying to convince herself of something. She secretly wanted Dev to be her white knight and replace Sweet as the person who constantly tugged at her heartstrings, but part of her didn’t want to let Sweet go, and another was unconvinced Dev could change. She was confused. She was starting to grow fonder and fonder of the person she chose to act out this charade with simply because she knew he was the one person Sweet loathed most of all. Olivia’s words began to ring in her hears. She feared she had been right. Perhaps she was addicted to the wrong kind of man.
“You had a bad day. You should rest. I think I should too. For a second there I forgot to stop pretending and started to give a damn. You have my number. Let me know when I should make my next appearance,” and without breaking his gaze, he grabbed the shades from his pocket, slipped them onto his slender face and his look of what Cherry was shocked to note might have actually been offence turned to his signature smirk. He put his hands in his pockets and turned his back to leave.
Before she could even begin to process what had just happened, “Are you planning on taking up a permanent residence here, Cherry, or would you like to tell your date goodnight and join the rest of us at the hotel?” A voice suddenly came from behind along with the sound of two sets of feet shuffling on gravel. Dev stopped and turned back toward Cherry and the voice. Cherry knew it well and turned her head to meet the body it belonged to. Sweet, cigarette in hand, and Haze, his pipe sticking out from his face like a dark-skinned snowman were making their way to where moments ago Cherry had allowed herself to blow up at the somewhat innocent Dev.
“Olivia said you weren’t in the room, so we went by the bus and you weren’t there. We were worried you’d gotten yourself lost and that we’d have to go buy some paper and crayons and post some Have You Seen This Horn-Blower posters all over the city.” Sweet smiled behind his cigarette. His eyes moved to Dev, “Don’t you have some tail to chase, Pierpont?”
Dev, resilient as they come, was quick to arrange his priorities. He was, first and foremost, Sweet’s enemy. He was decidedly unfazed by Cherry’s outburst, and Sweet’s comment was turned into fuel for his own.
“The only tail I feel like chasing is standing right here between us and, like the generous lover I am, I am returning her for a rest. Sorry for keeping her out past curfew, Pops.” As if Cherry’s words had never existed, he put his arm around her, cocking his head to the side and narrowing his eyes (though this detail could not be seen behind the white-rimmed sunglasses).
Doing his best fatherly impression Sweet replied, “Oh, that’s alright, Sonny, I’ve been informed that your, shall we say, shortcomings are no threat to anyone,” He slipped out of character and ended his sentence in a scathing, cynical tone. “No harm done. Our dear Cherry is just being taken hostage by her hormones.”
Cherry was offended that the comments had turned to include her. Still confused about her feelings for Dev, and made even more so by the fact that she had insulted him, and by the fact that despite this he stayed to play his role in their little game, she turned to face him and only him. “I should go before I get grounded,” she hissed, turning to glare at Sweet.
“Okie dokie, Pumpkin,” Dev grinned a sickening grin as he laid the act on thick. He leaned in and kissed Cherry on the lips. Still angry at the remark from Sweet, she kissed him back.
Dev quickly brought his heels together, stood up as straight as a pole and gave a convincing salute to Sweet. He let out a chuckle, and turned to leave. Once again he returned his hands to his pockets and strutted away into the darkness.
Cherry stared off in his direction for another moment before turning to schlep over to her bandmates. She felt a little guilty about being so angry at Sweet because only a few hours ago he had refrained from ending her career and her source of happiness, but at the same time she longed to punch him in the nose as she had done to Blueberry.
“I’ll reiterate what I said earlier, Cher. You really are becoming quite the troublemaker. What do you see in that walking, talking penis? Or do you do this just to get under my skin?” He snorted looking at Haze to join in his amusement.
Haze let out a light laugh and, when Sweet’s attention had turned from them, gave Cherry a look that she knew meant something along the lines of, What the hell are you doing? Stop this crazy shit at once! While Sweet really thought he himself was kidding about Cherry taking up with Dev to annoy him, Haze was beginning to think he might be on to something.
“Go get your shit off the bus so we can go to the hotel and drink ourselves into oblivion. And by we, I mean Haze and I, you should get some rest. You look like hell.”
Cherry couldn’t agree more with Sweet’s last remarks. She climbed up the steps of the bus and grabbed her overnight bag from her bunk. When she returned to the parking lot Haze was packing his pipe with fresh herb while Sweet extinguished yet another cigarette only to light a new one. She took her place to his right to make the journey up the block to the hotel.
Sweet shook his head and put his arm around her shoulders, “What am I gonna do with you, Cherry? Whatever will I do?”
As Dev and Cherry walked down the block toward the lot where the bus was parked, Dev rattled on about his band. Cherry didn’t care. As long as she was not required to talk, and as long as the conversation stayed away from the topic of Sweet or anything else that was currently causing her life to be chaotic, she was fine.
When they were nearly halfway to their destination they were spotted by a few girls who recognized both the singer and the trombonist. If Cherry had been the less noticeable blonde of a few years back, she knew she would not have been recognized behind Dev’s massive shades that covered half her face. Her vibrant pink pigtails instantly gave her away. She wondered too how these girls identified Dev without them. They were one of his trademarks. Though she was upset, she still managed to notice how attractive Dev really was when they weren’t hiding his face. She could not help trying to mold him into someone she could love, in her mind, instead of Sweet. She pictured him dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt with his brown shaggy hair and his sunglasses no longer covering his attractive, unusually kind eyes. She pictured them together, embracing, spending every second doing nothing but laughing and talking and being in love. She imagined Dev as a sweet, witty, caring guy, which he really was when he was not being the arrogant bastard that was his more prominent character.
Suddenly she snapped back to reality when the girls approached them. She felt like running or ducking behind a dumpster but she knew there was no chance of escaping.
“Dev Pierpont and Cherry Magic fraternizing? I thought Clockwork and MCB were archenemies?” mused one of the nameless fans.
Dev gave one of his winning smirks, which he was almost known for as much as his sunglasses and he once again became that guy. “Ah, yes, this has been true since the dawn of time. However, Miss Cherry and myself are only together because we are in the midst of working out a peace treaty. We are both stating the terms of our nations. We feel times of love and brotherhood may be on the horizon for both our people if only we give peace a chance! Y’know… that’s all we are saying. Any of you ladies up for a love-in?”
The girls giggled and whispered to one another. Cherry couldn’t bring herself to join in on his speech. She was getting uncomfortable, however. She knew the image in her head was nothing but a dream.
“Well, I think it’s past my bedtime.” Cherry moaned, unamused and wanting to get back to her home and away from these girls and away from Dev. She took off his sunglasses and lightly smacked them against his chest.
With a fake grin he clutched both the shades and her hand and glanced down at her from the corner of his eye. “Yeah, right. We really should be going. Forgive us for being so brief. Maybe next time, girls.”
Retracting her hand she faked her own smile, “Don’t be silly, Dev. I don’t need an escort. I am fully capable of finding my own way back to the bus. Surely someone who can be trusted to be a representative of her nation in peace talks can walk herself home.” Cherry excused herself and walked around the girls and began to cross the street, rolling her eyes.
Dev looked over the heads of the fans, blinking unbelievably in Cherry’s direction. “Um, ladies, if you’ll excuse me. I’m sorry. I gotta go.” He half ran to catch up to Cherry, tucking the oversized, white shades in his pocket as he neared her side, “Wait a second!”
“Dev, I’m tired. It’s been possibly the longest night of my life. I just want to go to bed. No games. No boys. No acts. I just want to sleep. The faster I go to bed, the faster this day can unexist.” She never missed a step, nor did she even bother to look at him. She watched her feet, left, right, left, right, making her stride as big as her small body could stretch.
“Ok. Fine. No games. No acts. I get it, but what I don’t get is what just happened. You don’t think I was serious about the love-in thing do you? Or is it that I lied about why we were together?”
“None of the above. For starters, I know if you had the chance you would be completely serious about the love-in, and I could care less. And why should it bother me that you lied about why we are together. We are together because you won’t go away, and we always lie about why we’re together, remember? That is all this is - us pretending to like one another so that I can piss Sweet off, because in reality we all know you are a complete, undateable jackass!”
She was now facing Dev, fuming. Dev was standing approximately four feet away from her looking completely baffled. Cherry knew that this outrage was not really directed at, nor caused by Dev. She knew this was just another example of her trying to convince herself of something. She secretly wanted Dev to be her white knight and replace Sweet as the person who constantly tugged at her heartstrings, but part of her didn’t want to let Sweet go, and another was unconvinced Dev could change. She was confused. She was starting to grow fonder and fonder of the person she chose to act out this charade with simply because she knew he was the one person Sweet loathed most of all. Olivia’s words began to ring in her hears. She feared she had been right. Perhaps she was addicted to the wrong kind of man.
“You had a bad day. You should rest. I think I should too. For a second there I forgot to stop pretending and started to give a damn. You have my number. Let me know when I should make my next appearance,” and without breaking his gaze, he grabbed the shades from his pocket, slipped them onto his slender face and his look of what Cherry was shocked to note might have actually been offence turned to his signature smirk. He put his hands in his pockets and turned his back to leave.
Before she could even begin to process what had just happened, “Are you planning on taking up a permanent residence here, Cherry, or would you like to tell your date goodnight and join the rest of us at the hotel?” A voice suddenly came from behind along with the sound of two sets of feet shuffling on gravel. Dev stopped and turned back toward Cherry and the voice. Cherry knew it well and turned her head to meet the body it belonged to. Sweet, cigarette in hand, and Haze, his pipe sticking out from his face like a dark-skinned snowman were making their way to where moments ago Cherry had allowed herself to blow up at the somewhat innocent Dev.
“Olivia said you weren’t in the room, so we went by the bus and you weren’t there. We were worried you’d gotten yourself lost and that we’d have to go buy some paper and crayons and post some Have You Seen This Horn-Blower posters all over the city.” Sweet smiled behind his cigarette. His eyes moved to Dev, “Don’t you have some tail to chase, Pierpont?”
Dev, resilient as they come, was quick to arrange his priorities. He was, first and foremost, Sweet’s enemy. He was decidedly unfazed by Cherry’s outburst, and Sweet’s comment was turned into fuel for his own.
“The only tail I feel like chasing is standing right here between us and, like the generous lover I am, I am returning her for a rest. Sorry for keeping her out past curfew, Pops.” As if Cherry’s words had never existed, he put his arm around her, cocking his head to the side and narrowing his eyes (though this detail could not be seen behind the white-rimmed sunglasses).
Doing his best fatherly impression Sweet replied, “Oh, that’s alright, Sonny, I’ve been informed that your, shall we say, shortcomings are no threat to anyone,” He slipped out of character and ended his sentence in a scathing, cynical tone. “No harm done. Our dear Cherry is just being taken hostage by her hormones.”
Cherry was offended that the comments had turned to include her. Still confused about her feelings for Dev, and made even more so by the fact that she had insulted him, and by the fact that despite this he stayed to play his role in their little game, she turned to face him and only him. “I should go before I get grounded,” she hissed, turning to glare at Sweet.
“Okie dokie, Pumpkin,” Dev grinned a sickening grin as he laid the act on thick. He leaned in and kissed Cherry on the lips. Still angry at the remark from Sweet, she kissed him back.
Dev quickly brought his heels together, stood up as straight as a pole and gave a convincing salute to Sweet. He let out a chuckle, and turned to leave. Once again he returned his hands to his pockets and strutted away into the darkness.
Cherry stared off in his direction for another moment before turning to schlep over to her bandmates. She felt a little guilty about being so angry at Sweet because only a few hours ago he had refrained from ending her career and her source of happiness, but at the same time she longed to punch him in the nose as she had done to Blueberry.
“I’ll reiterate what I said earlier, Cher. You really are becoming quite the troublemaker. What do you see in that walking, talking penis? Or do you do this just to get under my skin?” He snorted looking at Haze to join in his amusement.
Haze let out a light laugh and, when Sweet’s attention had turned from them, gave Cherry a look that she knew meant something along the lines of, What the hell are you doing? Stop this crazy shit at once! While Sweet really thought he himself was kidding about Cherry taking up with Dev to annoy him, Haze was beginning to think he might be on to something.
“Go get your shit off the bus so we can go to the hotel and drink ourselves into oblivion. And by we, I mean Haze and I, you should get some rest. You look like hell.”
Cherry couldn’t agree more with Sweet’s last remarks. She climbed up the steps of the bus and grabbed her overnight bag from her bunk. When she returned to the parking lot Haze was packing his pipe with fresh herb while Sweet extinguished yet another cigarette only to light a new one. She took her place to his right to make the journey up the block to the hotel.
Sweet shook his head and put his arm around her shoulders, “What am I gonna do with you, Cherry? Whatever will I do?”