It was Friday afternoon and the kids were all running by her quickly to dump their books and change out of their school friendly attire. Feeling more than just a tad awkward, Cherish perched on the steps outside Allie's building. She needed to talk to Allie about Juss. Sure, she'd told him they were just fuck buddies, but that hadn't ended their friends with benefits situation.

Allie had been over at Juss' just the night before.  Cherish had a feeling that Juss might not be so okay with not being more. Or maybe Allie was simply seeing how Juss took it, and waiting for him to make the first step. Either way Cherish knew the outcome would have bothered Allie, and decided an impromptu girls night was the solution.

Cherish had texted Allie to tell her she'd meet her at her apartment after school, but hadn't yet gotten a response. Then again Cherish had had a spare and left early and Allie was probably only just getting out.

"Hey, you're Allison's friend, right?"

Cherish looked up to see a girl wearing painted on pants and and a tight fitting top standing in front of her and wondered if she'd met the girl before. There was another girl, dressed very similarly, standing a few feet away and staring Cherish down.

"Yeah."

"See, Jackie, I told you I saw her with Allison, she ain't here to steal your man," she said and then addressed Cherish again. "What're you doing out here?"

"Waiting for Allie to get home," Cherish waved at the locked door to which only tenants had keys. She could have walked in through the gatehouse, but they'd have called Allie to confirm, and if no one was home then she wasn't getting in.

"Allison's already home. Did you call?"

"No answer." Had she missed Allie?

The girl shrugged and pulled out her keys, "I'll let you in."

"Oh. Thanks."

It was apparent to Cherish that Jackie did not seem to trust that she was in fact there for Allie and not her boyfriend because she was watched from a doorway at the end of the hall. Allie's door was wide open, as were a few of the other doors, and two younger boys- one of them Allie's brother- came tearing out of the apartment and down the hallway with dart guns in hand. With no one else around to announce her presence to, Cherish stepped right in and made her way to Allie's room without hesitation.

She didn't knock. She didn't have to; the door was ajar enough that she could see Allie fairly clearly. Even clearer was the fact that Allie was not alone. Cherish nudged the door with her toe, so it opened the little more it needed to so Allie could see her. This was not just kisses. This was not just confusion and indecisiveness. This was more than unsure about the status of your relationship and testing the chemistry. This was Allie making out with David.

No it was more than that even. It was Allie and David sprawled out on her bed making out in a very sure, hot and heavy, soft core porn kind of way. She cleared her throat and wasn't surprised to find that Allie and David only giggled in embarrassment as they slowly broke apart. They obviously thought it was someone who lived there and was probably used to seeing this.

Hadn't Allie told her that she and David were only talking? She distinctly remembered the words we're not doing anything. But this was something, and not a first time something either. Cherish had to fight to keep her annoyance down, not wanting to do what she'd sworn to Allie she'd never do to her. She was sure there was a valid reason. There had to be.

"I think I'll just pretend that Jackie and her friend didn't let me in and leave you to it."

"Cherish?"

Cherish hurried out of the apartment, hoping to avoid any conversation with Allie in that moment.

"Cherish!" Allie ran out after her. "Cherish."

"Later," she called over her shoulder as she reached the door to the stairwell and wrenched it open.

"Cherish!" Allie called again, chasing her down with determination.

Cherish stopped, and took a deep breath before turning around. "Sorry, I walked in on you. We'll talk later, k?"

"Cherish." Allie rolled her eyes, her tone soft, "You're mad at me."

"I'm overreacting."

"No. You're not," she pulled Cherish down to sit on the step with her. "I'm kinda doing what I said I wouldn't aren't I? Stringing him along? It's just- I want David, God, I want David! But I want Juss too. I think I just need to stop hanging out with him... and the group... for a while."

"Did you tell him already?"

"Not quite. I'm too scared I'll chicken out. Or he'll hate me and we'll never be friends again."

"So you and David?" Cherish asked with a small smile, despite the pang of hurt she felt for Juss.

"Yeah. We, um, just got back together, like today."

Cherish laughed softly, happy for her friend and the decision she'd come to. But she knew, with the look Allie was giving her, that she'd be seeing less of her. It kind of sucked.

"I told Juss I wanted to stop with the benefits. But, I couldn't quite tell him that..."

Cherish took a deep breath, knowing she'd regret her words, "Do you want me to talk to him?"

"Would you? God! No! You can't do that. That would..."

"Suck for Juss?"

"Yeah."

-.-

The door slammed open the second the lock clicked and Miri was left standing shocked in the open doorway. Cherish stormed past her and upstairs to Seven's room without even a grunt of greeting. The Raymond siblings that were gathered around the T.V in the living room looked up curiously.

"Someone's in shit!" Felix's thrilled words caused all of them, including Joana, to scramble to the foot of the stairs to try and catch a glimpse. Seven wasn't in his room when Cherish kicked the door open in a huff; they weren't going to get any satisfaction; there would be no ass kicking to witness.

Cherish paused a moment, before dejectedly retracing her steps. Halfway down the stairs, she stopped again, though she hadn't yet noticed the group that was gathered below her. She mulled something over and with a frustrated sigh, turned back to Seven's room. She slammed the door behind her. "Sev?"

Seven startled and turned to the window with a faint smile, "Hey! What are you doing here? I thought you were Jo for a second." He took in her expression with a frown, "What's wrong?"
Cherish climbed out the window without answering him. Seven's instant freezing was not a result of sitting on his roof mid-December. No, it was the fact that Cherish had thrown herself onto him and was clutching at him, her face buried into his shoulder.

He pathetically let out an, "Oof!" and then an, "Uh?"

"I don't know what to do!" she whimpered into his shoulder.

He didn't know what she was talking about, but she sounded sadly desperate. Cursing silently, he wished there was a manual for how to deal with girls or emotions for that matter. After finally feeling some hint of life in his arms, he put one softly onto her back. It took a fair amount longer to get his mouth working. "About what?" he asked quietly.

She shook her head violently, but did not release her hold on him even the slightest bit. He smirked dryly wondering why every female, at least the ones he knew, would go to the trouble of seeking someone out if she was only going to sniffle or glare- or whatever else the emotion she was feeling dictated- without saying anything.

If she didn't want to talk to him about it, then why not run to someone who she would talk to? But he didn't voice this opinion, careful of her mood; they were after all on a roof. They'd also just returned to some semblance of friendship as awkward and charged as it seemed at times.
When his watch told him it had been nearly 20 minutes and December really was freezing him, Cherish finally spoke, "I really don't know what to do."

"About what?" Seven asked gently.

Cherish glanced at him as she pulled away from him, "God! You're sitting out here in that? Aren't you frozen?"

"Nah, s'okay," and when she frowned at him, "yeah." Seven could have laughed at the way her face looked at that moment, like she was torn between getting everything off her chest or feeling sorry for the fact that he was frozen. "Let's go inside."

She didn't argue with him, and disappeared into the window, softly sliding onto his bedroom floor. He slid down beside her and pulled the window shut before dropping his arm around her shoulder; it was awkward but it seemed like the kind of situation that called for tucking someone under your arm. Cherish tipped her head onto his chest and he noticed that she did so without any of the tenseness that she normally had when she came in contact with him.

"I'm sorry, Sev. I was so upet- I wanted to- never mind. I just needed to think."

He looked down at her processing her words and feeling like a complete idiot because it was taking him so long to figure out what she was saying. "Think?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry I barged in here like that."

With a teasing smile, and finally some activity in his brain besides 'duuuuuh?' he squeezed her shoulder, "So you didn't need to talk to me?"

"I want to kill her! Honestly, Sev, I want to murder her!"

"Who?"

But if he'd been hoping for any more clarity on the situation he was out of luck as Cherish only shook her head again. "What the hell am I supposed to do?" It was a rhetorical question, he knew, and she whined it dramatically to the ceiling. It was funny he remembered seeing her like this once before.

"Hey, does this have anything to with Pat and Cindy?"

"Who the fuck?"

He chuckled at her reaction, "You said you want to kill her. I'm assuming that the her is the Cindy who was potentially cheating on the Pat." He took in the wide eyed look and flush that crept across her face. "So, I guess you found out for sure?"

"No, not cheating in so many words... Shit's complicated. He's about to get his heart broken though."

"How'd you find out?" Sev asked with mild interest as he played with the strands of Cherish's hair that were spiraling out of her ponytail.

"I saw."

If Cherish realised that in saying those words so very few of her friends would be implicated, she wouldn't have said them. When Seven tensed almost immediately, as he wasn't an idiot, she wished she could take it back.

"You saw?" his voice was calculatedly careful. "Cherish, this isn't one of my friends, is it?"

Cherish was screaming wildly at her mind to do something, anything other than staring at him in that deer in headlights way that made it all too obvious. If she could have kicked herself, she might have. After a minute of a heavy silence, in which she proceeded to only gape at him pathetically, she ran out of the room wildly afraid that he would catch up with her.

"Cherish!"

"No!" she screamed as she tore down the stairs and across the foyer.

"You can't just drop that on me and take off without explaining!" Seven yelled after her.

"What the hell?" Cherish paused only momentarily to take in the look on Joana's face that matched her outraged words. Oh God no! The stupid little crazy was looking at her like she thought the pregnancy story was true! But apparently the split second pause had been too long and Seven caught up with her at the car, his arms locking around her waist and lifting her off the ground just inches from her door.

"You said it wasn't one of my friends before."

"I never said that!" Cherish wailed pathetically, giving up her efforts to run away and sagging back against him.

"I asked you if they were my friends and you said they were yours."

"I didn't say they weren't yours, too. Why else wouldn't I tell you their names? Come on! Pat and Cindy? You knew they were hypothetical people!"

Seven set her down and plunked himself down onto the curb before pulling her down beside him, "Okay, now I feel stupid... Juss?"

Cherish looked away, her gaze focused on the glowing reindeer on the lawn four houses down.  She shrugged so halfheartedly that he knew he was right; that and since Ian and Delia were currently on a date it left only the one option.

"I shouldn't have said anything.  It's not fair that you know before he does. You shouldn't know unless he wants you to."

Seven stood and watched Cherish watch the lighted reindeer again. "I will say this though," he offered her his hand and pulled her up. "You are one hell of a friend."

Cherish smiled as he tucked her under his arm once again, "Thanks."

"Now can we maybe try doing the drama thing inside where it's not so cold?"

"Can we not do the drama thing?"

Seven chuckled as they went inside, "Yeah, I think I could deal with that."

He ignored the looks they were getting from the entire Raymond family as he and Cherish went upstairs. He ignored them even more pointedly when he went back down to get snacks.

When he returned to his room, Cherish had lined his pillows along the foot of the bed and was sitting amidst them, in the process of making herself comfortable with his blanket. He plopped down beside her and flicked on the small T.V. that he and Ian shared. It was a while after they'd stuffed their faces and settled on something to watch when Seven chanced a glance at Cherish.

"My God, Woman! You're such a girl!" he was appalled at Cherish's leaky face. This was a crappy teen chick flick, why was she crying?

"What? How can you not think that's sad? That has got to be the saddest situation ever!" she sniffled embarrassedly into his blanket.

"Maybe. But the fact that she's overreacting to everything and being so melodramatic just makes it amusing and annoying. It's nothing to cry over, unless you're crying for the time we've wasted watching this."

"She's a teenage girl, I think that's the point." Cherish smirked and raised an eyebrow at him in challenge. "Aren't we all overreacting, melodramatic freaks?"

Shaking his head he mumbled something about being right back and left her to continue sniffling over the pathetic girl in the movie.

"And I'm not crying!"

"Whatever, Pumpkin."

Cherish pretended to grumble angrily as Seven shuffled out of the room and flicked the channels to see if anything else was on. If there was nothing else, she might have to admit defeat and give in to watching the ridiculous so called 'real-life drama' that Seven had suggested earlier, knowing that it would get a rise out of her. At the very least it could provide a few empty laughs now and then.

But by the time Seven wandered back in to the room, brandishing two large mugs of hot chocolate, she had found a channel playing Sleepy Hollow.

"Here." Seven passed her a mug, "Sleepy Hollow?"

She was surprised he knew it right away and nodded, "This story used to freak me out when I was younger."

"Then why are we watching it?"

"Len was always laughing at me because I was too chicken shit to watch it with her!"

"Ah," Seven pulled the blanket up over their knees and draped his arm over her shoulder once more. "So we're watching it because of Johnny Depp?"

"Of course we are."

* Title song by Gene Vincent