The Reunion

Chapter 1

"Scottie, are you there?"

"Yep. Yep, I'm here." She wasn't, at least not mentally but she was back in the present and focused on the conversation. "What were you saying?"

"I don't think you should go to this reunion."

Cherie blew out her anxieties and thought it over; he was right, she knew it but not showing up would only make her look worse. "I already told them I would come so I'm just going to do it."

"No one would blame you if you don't go. You'd be saving yourself a lot of pitying looks about Sophia."

Oh, God, another accurate point, Cherie thought. She was sure that rumors had traveled about her disastrous marriage that ended six months ago. People should be over it by now, so should she but it was five years of her life, five years of what she believed to be the perfect life, a life she wanted to rub in the faces of many but it was as fake as reality television.

"Eddie, it's fine. I'm fine. I can handle it." Perhaps, if she projected faux confidence, she might be able to convince herself that she was indeed fine.

"I know you and you can't handle it. Maybe before all of this, you were good with disasters but this one was close to home and it broke you. Plus, they weren't exactly nice to you in high school. I don't know why you would want to see them"

"They were teenagers then. We've grown up. I've changed, grown, and I have put it behind me." She squared her shoulders and held her chin up. "I need to do this to show them I am not weak and I'm not hiding from what happened."

"Sure, Scottie. Should I just go with you?"

"No. I don't want it to look like I'm hiding behind you."

"I'll be here if you need me then."

"Thank you and I'll call you after."

She ended the call and continued to get ready for what she hoped would be a tolerable night. She knew it wouldn't be great because she was alone, unemployed and circling the drain of depression. It would be fine, they were adults now but rumors and gossip turned adults back into teenagers. She was so tired of being the topic of conversation, even as a teen, her sexuality was the topic of many conversations, snide jokes, and rude comments on bathroom walls but she had gotten over them all. She wasn't ashamed of who she was then and she wasn't now but it didn't mean that it was easy to listen to. It never was and tonight, she would put herself at the mercy of her old classmates and brace herself for the onslaught of their whispers and sympathetic looks, if they grew to care at all.

"It's fine," She told her mirrored image, "It's going to be fine."

Thirty minutes later, she arrived at the reunion and no one had seemed to notice her as yet as she walked through the crowd towards the bar. If she was going to last an hour at the reunion, she could not be sober for it.

"Cherie?" Dammit, her mind screamed. Someone had noticed her before she could take a sip of her drink. "Is that you?"

Cherie feigned a smile before she turned and her eyes fell in search of the name tag of the person speaking to her. Most of the people she attended high school with, she had forgotten their names, for good reason and she wouldn't pretend to know them now for the sake of being nice. The name tag said Jimmy and lucky for him, she actually remembered who he was, mostly because he was a dick.

"I can't believe it's you. I can't believe you actually came." He reached out to give her a one-handed hug and she stiffened against it. "Hey, Eloise." He called out to another of her old classmates. "It's Cherie. She came."

He eyed her, a bit too intensely for her liking and got closer. "God, Cherie, you look amazing. Such a shame you're still into the ladies. Are you still into the ladies?" He asked with a hopeful look.