Cherry Money Baby by John M. Cusick Read Free Book Online Page B

pass. She found an empty spot in the section reserved for seniors. Mr. Butkey, the assistant principal, was in conference with a sophomore on the front steps. He whistled as she got out of the car.
    “Win the lottery, Ms. Kerrigan?”
    “Something like that, Mr. Butkey.”
    She pulled her bag from the rear and locked the Spider. The vintage locks clicked with a satisfying
ker-CHUNK.
    “Cherry!” Vi Ravir waved from their usual meeting place by the spruce tree and ran over, as much as she could run in heels and a skirt. “Oh, my God, where have you been? Whose car is that? What happened yesterday?” She squeezed her knees together. “I’m so excited I have to pee!”
    Cherry leaned against the Spider, hooking a thumb in her cargo pants like a trucker. “Yep, yep,” she drawled. “She’s
all
mine.”
    “Where did you get it?”
    “Ardelia Deen gave it to me.” Shrug. “Came by my place last night to say thank you for saving her life. This was her way of showing her gratitude, I guess.”
    “You
hung out
with her?”
    “She’s actually pretty cool,” Cherry said. “Not like you’d think. I taught her how to change a tire.”
    “Cherry,
I’m dying.
” Vi put a hand over her heart. “I’m dying! I’m dead. I’m dead now. You killed me.”
    Cherry straightened, getting into the swing of it. This was
really
going to blow Vi’s mind.
    “Listen, though. I’ve got even
bigger
news!”
    Vi folded her hands, literally quivering in anticipation. Times like these she reminded Cherry of a Chihuahua.
    “Oh God, oh God, oh God,
tell me.
”
    “Lucas asked me to marry him!” She inflected these words with Vi levels of hysteria. Their effect was to freeze Vi in her place, jaw petrified into the same demented grin of a girl in a McDonald’s poster.
    “He . . . did?” Different parts of Vi’s face seemed to be registering different emotions.
    “Yeah! Last night! Before the whole Ardelia thing.”
    Vi’s brow furrowed as she desperately tried to square this with the other, unrelated, news. “Cherry, that’s . . . amazing!”
    The girls embraced, Cherry testing the hug for weaknesses, signs of hesitancy. When they separated, Vi had composed herself.
    “Honey, I’m so happy for you.”
    “Thanks,” Cherry gushed. “I mean, we didn’t set a date or anything. It won’t change much. Just, like, we’ll be together like we’re together now. But forever.”
    “That’s . . . wow.” Blink, blink.
    “Yeah.”
    “Yay . . . marriage!”
    Vi squealed and squeezed Cherry’s hands. They hugged again, but the hug deflated too quickly. They started toward the doors. They strolled arm in arm, quiet a moment, before Vi spoke up.
    “So.”
    “So?”
    “You were telling me . . . about changing a tire with Ardelia Deen?”
    “Oh.”
    Oh.
    Vi was more interested in the three hours Cherry had spent with Ardelia than the lifetime she would spend with Lucas.
    “Yeah. The car got a flat. So we pushed it to Pop’s and changed the tire.”
    “You
pushed it
? That must have been hilarious!”
    “I guess.”
    “Then what happened?”
    “Then we went home.”
    “I mean, was she mad? Did she meet your father? Had she already given you the car? Or what?”
    The bell rang, clattering in the tiled foyer. Cherry disentangled herself and re-shouldered her backpack. “I gotta get to homeroom.”
    “See you at lunch!” Vi shouted. Cherry waved without turning, a gesture that looked like
Sure!
or
Go away!,
depending on what angle you saw it from.
    The morning passed without incident. Cherry wasn’t sure she felt relieved or disappointed that no one remarked on her brief Internet celebrity. Something distracted her from the usual, homey boredom of class. The reading seemed pointless, the teachers shabby and hopeless. Her future with Lucas secured, school was irrelevant, and she couldn’t wait for it to be over. And there was something else, too. An excitement hangover. She was disappointed to discover that after her