Chapter Text
Red nail polish hits my fingernail. My hand’s perched on a stack of books while Lori paints fiery red across my nails. The rubbing alcohol scent potent, I instinctively sneer towards it.
“So… when’re Julie and Josh getting here?” Lori asks, and I could see the red polish about to start dripping from the brush. Cherri flipped the page of her The Walking Dead comic.
“Mmm… Jul said about 7:45. It’s currently,” she paused—flicking her wrist to check her cheap, navy blue watch “7:38” she breathed out, returning to her comic book.
Lori shook her head, swiping the dripping brush on my pinky nail “Time is ticking so freaking slow.”
I nodded, sighing as I tapped my free hand on the desk.
Roughly 9 minutes later—7:47pm, according to Cherri’s watch—a series of knocks pound on the front door. Cherri looks at Lori, Lori glances at me, then Cherri “I’m busy,” Lori says, her tone tinged with irritation. Cherri rolls her eyes, tosses her comic behind her on the bed, then she springs up from the blankets.
I chuckle, looking from the door she exited from, to my nails, every nail delicately painted. My hands are in front of a mini fan, blowing gentle air over each nail. The silence makes my mind drift back towards that… thing, the squirrel. How the hell did that happen? It was undoubtedly dead—then anyway—so how in the world did it resurrect? The entire ride home from the lake, I tried to solve it. I even almost convinced myself that I did it, but that’s obviously not possible, not logical.
Cherri swings the bedroom door open, smacking her lips slightly, making a satisfying Pop sound, before announcing, “The gent and lady have arrived, they’re already heading to the basement. Hurry up!” she then shut the door, her feet padding down the stairs, quietly echoing throughout the floorboards. Lori sighs, I scoff with a grin “I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know what an inside voice is.” I joke, Lori snorts softly, twisting on the nail polish cap onto the bottle, shoving it into a drawer filled with countless different colored nail polish bottles. I shove myself off of the chair and inhale sharply. Lori walks behind me as we make our way to her basement. When we approach the flight of stairs, we could already hear Julie and Cherri yelling at Josh.
I step off of the last part of the staircase, and walk over to my drumset, going to sit down on the stool.
“Okie-dokie! Here are everyone's sheets…” Lori announces softly. First handing Julie a few pieces of paper, then Cherri, me, then Josh.
The silence persists as we all look over our papers.
Julie speaks up, “My, my, Lori!” she starts joyfully “You should write lyrics for us more often, I mean this is just…” Julie’s voice fades. Lori’s eyes squint as she grins at Julie’s compliment.
“Yeah, y’know, I agree. This isn’t easy to do, especially since you don’t play our instruments.” I imply, not looking up from the papers, analyzing them again, trying to sound out the notes in my head. My foot taps on the thinly carpeted floor, tapping out the first few notes.
After maybe a minute or two, we started playing the song. Having to restart numerous times because y'know, we aren't professionals, messing up by stringing or hitting the wrong note. Julie has been playing the longest out of all of us. She was in band ever since 6th grade, she played the clarinet in 6th though. But after 6th she quickly started to get into Bass. She didn't get the hang of it until the end of 7th however.
Julie and I have been friends since 5th grade, but we didn't really start actually hanging out until the start of 6th grade. Josh is Julie's cousin so they were already acquainted. But me and Cherri have been inseparable since 2nd grade. At first I didn’t trust her because of how ecstatic she'd always been. But now I seriously couldn't see myself without her in my life.
For some reason my mind immediately wandered to that squirrel from the lake. It's been weeks… I can't get that moment out of my head—the whole situation shouldn't be logically possible. There's no simple explanation on how the hell that animal literally resurrec—
“Hello?” Cherri dragged her words, as usual “Earth to Natalie, you good?” She asks with a comforting grin.
“Yeah, you were like, staring at your lap for quite a minute there dude,” Josh added. I guess I zoned out.
“Mhm, just thinking about something.” I shrug. Lori adjusts her navy blue Dean Exile. Cherri nodded slowly, as if she knew could tell what I'm thinking about. I doubt it though.
“Uh, well wanna go over the song again? I don't have to head out for another,” Julie glances at the clock in the left corner of the basement “Hour and a half.”
Lori nods, as well as Josh. I nod with a sharp sigh. I adjust the drumsticks in my hands, Julie and Lori positioning their fingers on their strings.
We then practiced, and practiced, and practiced until eventually all of us had to leave because of curfew.
I turned my head to glance over my shoulder, my eyes catching a glimpse of Lori waving to us all as we walked down her stone walkway.
Josh and Julie jumped into Josh’s truck—a mossy green paint covering the vehicle. “Want me to give you ladies a ride to your abodes?” he offers with a small smile, wiggling his fingers at the word ‘abode’. Julie is rummaging through her bag, looking for something I presume.
“No thanks, I’m gonna walk home.” I state, my voice coming out a little sleepy. Josh then looks towards Cherri, she shakes her head.
“Thanks but I'm gonna walk with Nat. Drive safe!” she replies, her eyes squinting from a smile that’d already been on her lips.
“Yeah, drive safe” I say a little louder than before, trying to get rid of the exhaustion evident in my tone.
Cherri throws her arm over my shoulder as we begin to walk down the sidewalk.
Then suddenly I hear Julie yell “Oh- Natalie, wait!” Cherri and I halt, turning around, a little confused. Cherri retracts her arm back to her side as I walk back up to the truck, Julie smiling awkwardly “Sorry, just… here” she breathes out, outstretching her arm towards me and opening her palm, her fingers curling outward.
A lighter; my lighter. It has an engraved picture on it—A bear with a fish in its mouth. I bought it mainly because I thought the design was sick. But also because I needed something to light cigarettes with. I know it's unhealthy but I started smoking about a year ago after seeing my mother do it my whole life.
I offered a small but grateful grin as I picked it up from her palm, closing my fingers around it, then stuffing it into my pocket. “Thanks, Jul.” She just nods with a small shrug.
The truck started a slow tread, Josh waving before the truck started to accelerate. I stepped back, grinning a little wider despite my exhaustion.
My legs carried me back to Cherri, where we continued our brisk walk back to my place. I could see Cherri twirling a small chunk of her brunette hair between her fingers in my peripheral, but I didn’t look over. We keep on walking at a steady pace, not rushed, in a peaceful silence, the only thing keeping it from being dead silent are the chirps of birds or the clicking of crickets.
A minute or so later, we step beside a streetlight at a crosswalk. I push a finger into the button to walk across the crosswalk.
As we wait, something popped back into my mind, from a few weeks ago. “Cherri?” my voice comes out a little cautious. She turns her head and her eyebrows perk up slightly in acknowledgement
“Hmm, yeah?”
I mess with my sleeve, glancing down before looking back up at Cherri. Cars speed past us on the street in front of us, the light not red yet.
“Do you recall that,” I pause, gesturing with my hands to nothing, “Squirrel? A few weeks back when we were at that lake?” I clarify gently, not sure if I imagined the whole thing.
I can see something change in her glare before she stuffed her hands in her pocket. “No. No, why? I mean I remember the lake— but not a squirrel, not a specific one anyway.” she says, her lips subtly curving into a frown. I could tell she was obviously lying… She’s never been a good liar.
“Oh.” I nod, not wanting to argue or accuse her of lying. I don’t want any conflict between us over a stupid thing that was probably just nothing. “Nevermind then.” I brush it off, though it doesn’t slip from my mind as easily. “Why would she lie? I mean I know it was kinda uncanny and just downright unnatural. But why lie? We both experienced it together, so why not talk about it, together?”
The rest of the walk to my house was quiet, save for the soft animal chitters and chirps and clicks. However this time it felt kind of… Weird, not as relaxing as before.
As we approached my mailbox Cherri inhaled deeply, very deeply, then held her breath as her eyes stay locked onto mine. I crossed my arms, already trying to predict the news she very obviously is about to spill. “What?” I ask, I feel a mixture of weary and worry. Cherri narrowed her eyes, before exhaling with a slight tremble audible in the sound.
“Well—...” she cuts off, “I—” she cuts off again. She groans. I furrow my eyebrows
”What secret is she keeping that's so difficult to tell me?”
“What is it?” I ask again, seriousness overpowering my worry. “Cherri…”
I furrow my brows once more and I watch her expression quickly turn into clear worry, the tips of her eyebrows curving upwards and her lips are now in a tight line. Cherri relaxes her shoulders—I didn’t even realise they were tense in the first place. “I’ll just…” she raises her hands to drag them down from her eyebrows to her cheeks. “I’ll tell you tomorrow. I don’t think tonight's a good time.” she states with a clear uncomfortable glare in her eyes.
“Cherri, what are you hiding? What's so bad that you can't tell me—your best friend?” I take one step toward her, but she still seems to be a few feet from me. I wait for a response, anything.
She stalls, her mouth sliding open, just to close again. She inhales steadily, even as she seems antsy. “I really… really don't think tonight's the right time. I promise I will tell you tomorrow.” She swears, and I watch as her features soften, trying to relieve some tension in her body.
I search her face for just a moment longer “Yeah… Okay.” I bite my tongue lightly in my mouth.
“I love you, girlie.” She finishes, her tone lighter and hopeful. I nod, stepping back once
“Love you Cher…” I muttered my words before dragging myself into my house, glancing out the window once inside to see Cherri twirling a part of her bag strap as she strolls down the sidewalk. I close the curtains and turn around
“The hell were you?” My mother starts, standing in front of me now. I didn't even hear her. Impatience is written all over her face—shit.
“Lori's? I told you that I was going over to her house for practice.” I start, knowing she’s gonna make a big deal out of this. She raises an eyebrow.
“Practice?” she really forgot?
“Practice, you know, for my band?” I say, stuffing my hands into my pockets, finding a loose string, subconsciously wrapping it around my finger. “The band I've been in since freshman year?” I speak slowly, hoping it’d ring a bell, but her eyes remain covered in confusion. She inhales with a slight rasp.
“Listen, Natalie baby, whatever it is that you do outside of this house, just make sure you do it responsibly, I can’t have you getting hurt. Okay?” She steps closer, brushing a piece of hair out of my face. I blink at her. When was the last time she was anywhere near worried about me? “Go and take a shower though, you reek of sweat.” She sweeps her hand across my shoulder before walking away to the couch, where an unopened bottle of heineken sits. The TV playing some random channel.
“Right.” I mumble before heading upstairs, I stop in front of Greg’s room. I creak the door open, the lights are off but I can still manage to see his unconscious form under his striped blanket. I could barely make out an elephant plushie tucked beside his pillow. I let out a slow breath as I carefully close his door, the latch making a soft click.