Angela stared intently at the clock, almost bored to tears by the tremendously dull class. They should’ve been out already, but apparently saying ‘the bell doesn’t dismiss you, I do’ still worked in the twenty-first century.
“Alright, class dismissed, and don’t forget your homework.”
“Shit,” Angela muttered. She had no idea what the homework assignment was, due to the fact that she hadn’t been paying attention at all. She was actually really bright, and did really well on pop quizzes and stuff like that, but hardly even turned in homework, which was the main reason why she made terrible grades. However, as she was a Shepard, everyone just assumed that she was as stupid as her brothers.
She decided to ask someone about it because if she missed another deadline in the class, there’d be a detention and a call home. Tim would skin her for sure. Angela stood up and looked around at the stream of students leaving. Most of them had gone, and the few that remained were mainly socy.
“Fuck,” she breathed, and felt panic forming in the pit of her stomach. I should’ve made friends in this class.
She immediately realised that the longer she waited, the more her chances to ask for help lessened. It was bad enough for Angela to ask for help in the first place (there was no one in Tulsa with more pride than the Shepards), the fact that she had to ask a soc made her want to skip the whole assignment.
She groaned.
A group of boys walked out of the room, leaving Angela with a soc with long red hair that curled gracefully down to her mid back in a dainty lavender cardigan that looked expensive and a white skirt that probably should have been dress coded. If she were greasy, it probably would have been. Angela looked down at her own clothes, jeans and Tim’s old leather jacket, and tucked some of her short messy curls behind her ear, feeling slightly self-conscious for a second. She got over it quickly; she was used to it. Growing up not white wasn’t exactly pleasant in a place like Tulsa.
Angela sighed, reluctantly picked up her books, and walked over to the redhead. Her hair looking even more fiery against her pale skin. Angela scoured her memory for her name and settled on something that she'd heard in class before.
“Hey, Cherry, is it?”
The redhead turned to look at her, striking green eyes staring into Angela’s blue ones. She was beautiful, the type to make Angela go weak in the knees.
“Yeah,” Cherry replied with a smile, which was the last thing that Angela thought she’d do. God, she was even more gorgeous smiling.
“Hey, um—“ Fuck “—I was wondering if you knew what the homework assignment was?”
“Yeah, um, it’s real simple, just summarize chapter ten to twelve and explain the meanings of the literary devices used by next class,” Cherry explained.
Angela stared at her dumbly. She didn’t understand a single thing that Cherry had said. “Okay,” she replied uncertainly, “thanks.”
“I can help you with it if you want,” Cherry said suddenly.
Angela almost did a double take. No one had ever offered to help her with her homework, not even her own brothers, who were too dumb anyways, let alone a soc like that.
“Uh, sure,” she replied, biting her lip with more uncertainty than she had before.
“So, we’ll meet in the library after school, okay?”
“Okay, see you later.”
“See ya,” she chirped, flashing one last smile before disappearing into the hallway.
Angela had thought through practically every situation that could come out of the meeting, most of which ended with her upset, or beat up, or dead in a ditch, and yet, there she was, sitting in the plastic library chair, at a table that was visible from the door so Cherry could see her. God, she couldn’t understand why she agreed to Cherry’s proposition — there were just so many things that could go wrong. It even felt wrong. For one, she felt extremely out of place; She supposed any greaser would in a library, cause they were supposed to be the stupid ones. Angela wished she could separate herself from the stereotype more, but really, who was more greasy than the Shepards?
In case Cherry stood her up, Angela decided to give her ten minutes to show up, then she was leaving. She really hoped that it wasn’t, because she’d spent the rest of the school day thinking of Cherry, replaying the scene in her mind, admiring Cherry’s face from behind her eyelids. On multiple occasions, she’d caught herself looking for her in the hallways, but quickly stopped herself.
Out of everything regarding Cherry, however, the thing that stuck out to Angela most was the fact that they'd barely met. No one had captured Angela so much so quickly, it took her completely by surprise. Angela wasn’t picky, but usually it took more than a thirty second interaction to make her... interested.
Unlike most people in Tulsa, Angela had come to terms with her sexuality (she swore to God that most of the people that she knew were queer), and accepted the fact that she couldn’t stop herself from being attracted to girls. Unfortunately, Tulsa, being the totally progressive town that it was, kept Angela in the closet, which meant no action for her. Sometimes, she referred to herself as sapphic just so maybe someone could pick up on her sexuality, but they were too stupid to understand what it meant or too shy to say anything.
Angela rest her chin on her hand and stared at the door. The few minutes she had to wait felt like hours, and being completely honest, she probably would’ve waited for hours for Cherry to show up, even with her rule in place. Angela felt like she’d do anything for that girl. A mixture of excitement, nerves and uncomfortable exposure came over her as Cherry entered the library and smiled when she saw Angela.
Oh my fucking God, she smiled...
“Hey.” She sat down next to Angela.
“Hi,” Angela managed, trying to act normal.
“I never actually got your name,” Cherry admitted, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Angela noticed that she was wearing a few thin gold rings and earrings of similar type.
“It’s Angela. Shepard,” she added, for no reason.
“Nice name,” Cherry commented, sounding shockingly sincere.
“Thanks,” Angela mumbled, hoping her blush wouldn’t show too much.
“So, should we start reading?” Cherry suggested, getting her book out.
Angela nodded and opened up chapter ten. She made eye contact with Cherry a second before they started reading, when both didn’t quite know what to do with themselves. Cherry giggled and pursed her lips as she stared at Angela. It was like all the air had disappeared from Angela’s lungs and her heart was hammering in her chest. Then, Cherry looked down and started reading, and so did Angela.
The whole time they were supposed to be reading, Angela couldn’t focus. She found herself constantly stealing glances at Cherry, trying to sear into her mind the beauty next to her, and when she wasn’t doing that, she was rereading the same sentence ten times over, none of the words processing.
After another attempt at reading, Angela sighed. How the hell was she gonna work with her sitting so close? Cherry studied the page intently, her eyes dancing across it, a small smile playing at her lips, which every now and then, she’d bite down on, sending a shiver through Angela’s body. It was almost unbelievable how gorgeous she was, how perfect she looked.
But what were the chances that she liked girls, specifically girls like Angela: kinda rude, greasy, slightly fucked in the head... Cherry was way out of Angela’s league, unsurprisingly.
Despite being used to it, Angela still felt disappointed. She began to wonder if Cherry had a boyfriend. What kind of guys would a girl like her like? No doubt, every boy within a mile of her would be falling at her feet, but what kind of guys would be worthy of her liking?
Cherry’s eyes flickered towards Angela, sending the breathless feeling through her again. Angela smiled weakly, which Cherry returned sweetly, then she looked back down at her book.
Something nudged Angela’s leg. She furrowed her brow, and glanced under the table. There was nothing there but Cherry’s leg, which Angela couldn’t bear to look at. She shrugged it off and assumed Cherry must’ve hit her accidentally. However, a few seconds later, there was another nudge, this time lingering longer against Angela’s skin.
Angela realised quickly that it was Cherry’s leg, but it wasn’t an accident. Her eyes widened and a rush of heat shot through her body. A thousand questions ran through her mind, like what the fuck is that supposed to mean?
Angela could feel Cherry looking at her, so she met her gaze. In every way possible, it was different from how Cherry looked at her before. It wasn’t caring or anything like that, it was full of what looked like want. Cherry bit her lip and closed her book. Slowly but surely, she stood up and walked towards the exit. Angela’s eyes trailed her, and she realised when Cherry turned her head to look at her that she was supposed to be following her. Angela dropped her book and jumped up from her chair faster and with more urgency than she ever had trying to get out of class.
Cherry turned into a nearby bathroom with Angela a few paces behind her. It was empty.
Before she could fully comprehend anything, Cherry had grabbed both Angela’s wrists, pushed her into a stall and pinned her against the graffitied wall, grip surprisingly strong. It was only when she heard the click of the lock when she understood what was happening.
Oh my God…
Cherry released Angela’s wrists, but Angela didn’t move. She couldn’t. Everything was moving so fast, and the lack of air in the world, strength in her body and beats of her heart were hindering her reactions. However, it didn’t matter because Cherry seemed perfectly happy taking the lead.
Angela felt a hand on her warm cheek, and saw Cherry’s face get closer to hers. She didn’t know where to look, but easily settled on Cherry’s lips, which she noticed had sparkly lipgloss on it. Then, everything stopped. The tension in the stall was higher than Angela had every experienced in her life.
“Can I kiss you?” Cherry finally whispered.
Oh my God, this is really happening.
Without wasting another second, Angela nodded and closed the space between them.
She’d never kissed a girl before in her life, which had to be different from kissing a boy, it just had to be, and the second their lips touched, it was confirmed — it felt like Angela’d been struck by lightning, or she’d had an epiphany that this was all she ever wanted, ever. Lip to lip, chest to chest, she desperately pressed her body against Cherry’s as much as she could, until there was no more space between them. God, it was amazing. Angela’s hands were on Cherry’s cheeks, then on her waist, then in her hair, then on her cheeks again; there was just so much skin to touch, she never wanted to let go of Cherry, she wanted to kiss her until she couldn’t breath, and even after that.
They pulled away from each other, trying to catch their breath. Angela’s eyes never strayed away from Cherry’s. She tasted sweet, like a strawberry flavoured candy. It lingered on Angela’s reddened lips.
Like a magnet was pulling them towards each other, they slow drew nearer to each other until their lips were touching again. The kiss was shorter, but more careful and familiar. Angela smiled against Cherry’s mouth and pulled back, leaning against the stall wall. The same smile grew on Cherry’s face, as her hand reached for Angela’s, and their pinkies connected loosely, like they were making a promise, and in a way they were. This was definitely something that they would be revisiting, and something that they’d be keeping to themselves.
Angela didn’t know how long they stood there, but it felt like forever gazing into the deep green of Cherry’s eyes.
Evidently, it wasn’t forever, because Cherry eventually whispered, “I have to go,” kissed Angela on the cheek, unlinked their pinkies and left Angela alone in the bathroom.
Angela brought her hand to her lips, the lips that had just been kissed by Cherry from her English class, the lips that were red and still tasted sweet strawberries. They curved into a smile.