When Two Sides Meet

Chapter 4 :Waking up

This is written in Cheryl's pov
Tw : swearing and arguments

Waking up with your head pounding and everybody around you is not the best idea. But sometimes you have no choice. Sometimes, this happens, and it's all too loud around you, and you can not hear anything. It's that loud. The noise drowns you in thoughts, and you can't move. You can't help it. That's what I think sometimes means. An accident.

It's strange having to lie there in front of babbling, bubbling year 11's. They are absolutely stupid. Walking around and chatting , looking at you like you're some kind of obstacle or nuisance in their pathetic lives. I wish I could say I wasn't like them, but I'm just as bad.

I have a boyfriend who is on the rugby team. The captain, in fact. He is nice and tall and always is there for me. Oh, how I love him, but this isn't the time or place for that. I'm here, lying on the muddy, dirty ground of the football field, and I'm thinking about Jack. I am silly. I should be focused on getting up. I can't, though. The people around me are closing in, almost suffocating me, but then a familiar voice came out through the crowd.

"Cheryl?" Lillian shouted. She looked through the crowd, eyes that screamed of worry and concern.

I have the best friends. I have never really acknowledged that before, but I do. They would do anything for me. I smile as I think about that. The first real and genuine smile that I have smiled in a long time. Not the plastic fake ones I do as people I don't even know smile, wave and say hi to me.

As Lillian breaks through the crowd, she takes a deep breath before she comes over to me. " Cheryl! There you are. I got help as soon as I could, you like properly blacked out for what felt like five years." She stood before me. She was obviously getting flustered, and that made me smile. Made me smile? I must be going crazy. Who feels happy at a friend in pain? It was the feeling that someone cared .That was it, wasn't it?

I really wished I had people at home who cared a small bit more for me, someone whose only vocabulary was not " Just do better. " and " Do the housework, Cheryl" someone who really cared. My parents treat me like shit during the holidays. They only ever acknowledge that I even exist when they need the house cleaned or dinner to be made. The only thing they do is lend me a bed in the spare room. There is nothing else, I even have to buy the ingredients for their dinner out of my money. I get a summer job to pay for all of it. I don't have a choice. If I don't, I get kicked out of the house. That's just the way it works.

But through the thoughts and awful silence, Lillian spoke once more. Very fast and a strange hint of anger, I can't tell why, though. " it was probably five minutes, though. " Silence came over the two of us once more as the other people started to drift away. I came to realise that Lills was feeling worried. She was looking at her watch constantly like she was on some kind of timer. I realise that I can stand up, so I do.
"No! Lie down. Right now! Otherwise, I'll get very annoyed and angry! "

I don't see the point of these obvious statements. I can tell how angry she is just by her piercing look. I don't need her voice to shame me, too. I don't know why but I decided to reply.
" But my hair!"

She snapped.

" Never mind your stupid little princess hair." She mocked me in a high-pitched voice." I care about my hair more than my fucking safety!" She got furious now, her face going red and her neck straining. "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you seriously think people will care if your hair is in a mess after I got so worried about you? We thought you might have a fucking coma! You worried me to literal death up here, and you are there being the perfect prissy princess you are desperately trying to portray! "

Lillian turned her head around as she saw Margaret coming to us in the distance. I was scared. I am scared. I am trying not to think about what just happened,but it's impossible. Her voice got stuck in my head. Am I a prissy princess? Did I worry her that much? Am I that bad of a friend to do that to her ? Her anger i saw whilst laying down, I now realise was fear. No one has ever felt scared for me, at least not to that extent. Bring yourself together, Cheryl! She is just angry at you. Those things never last, right? But it felt different this time, like it was bigger than just a petty squabble that we always have, like it was something that had been building up for ages that had just exploded.

No. That was it. No. It can't be the end, right? No. It can't be! It can't be the end. Like last night, when she kissed me, i thought that would last forever, but it didn't. It's the same, right?

"No. Don't convince yourself that it's like before. There's something different. We can both tell that, can't we?"

No. I will not give in to a stupid, silly, destructive, petty argument that just happened. It will, and I can not stop everything now. We have known each other since year 7 .

"But how well do you really know each other? That's the question?"

Like the back of my hand.

But as Lillian walked off and Margaret arrived with what seemed like an ambulance, I realised I didn't know who or what I had been talking to ,especially as it was all in my head.