Through My Eyes (Being Edited)

Cherrie For The Last Time

Recap

She started telling me about how they started a game the day before in the free period and that a question was asked amid of it. The question being who they hated the most. What H said next made me feel betrayed to the core. When this question was asked from Cherrie, she hadsaid, 'I hate R. the most. Don't you?'

End of Flashback

Part 3

Alex. Yes, Alex brought us together. It's amazing how the two of them have taught me so much in life. The problem with me is that I don't give people chances. I'll give them a second chance but never a third. I can simply not afford to get myself hurt for a third time from the same person. The break up hardly lasted for a day or two because of Alex. This has to be the worst habit of mine that I give up on people too easily. Even though I try to work on it, it's natural and it stays. Always. Yet, my friends accepted it then, and accept me now with this fault.

Days passed and before we knew it we had passed our exams and the vacations had started. Something happened that summer that scarred my life for many reasons I still don't know. Alex left school. With her gone, I felt vulnerable. It was as if I was standing alone against the whole world.

Cliché? 

Whatever.

You must be thinking why I haven't been mentioning anything about my family and why I am not attached with at least a single person from my home?

Well, that's another story. And no, I am not really attached to anybody from my family.

Now, vulnerability is a quality that we all know is dangerous. They say never let anybody know what makes you weak. I was too dumb, as Veronica puts it, or just too naive to see how cruel the world actually was.

Other than Alex leaving, it was H. I started talking to her a lot. We texted all the time almost and then one day, we had a fight for a petty reason I never bothered to commit to my memory. Then her birthday came, despite the fact that we had fought a few days back and how it was her fault and she still hadn't apologized, I messaged her less than a hour before, wishing her happiness. A second later, her reply cut through the air and my cellphone beeped. She had replied with: 'Not yet, you bitch!'

I didn't reply because I was not a fighter, an aggressor - at least not at that stage. Days flew and we didn't talk. The school started and unfortunately I had to take the first day off. My uncle had arrived and I had to stay back with him. Now, I know you all are going like WE-WANT-OUR-CHERRIE-BACK, but hey, this is where Cherrie proved how good of a friend she was and how she could stood up for me.

Later that day, Y called me to tell me what had happened. Bloody H had turned the whole thing on me and was spreading rumors about me. WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL?

It was Cherrie who stood next to me in those days and fought against them. She supported me and told me how I could always count on her. From then onward, I did just that. I never admitted this ever before, but her added inches were a bonus for me that intimidated others. How could I? We used to bicker about her being taller than me all the time! You may imagine Channing Tatum looking down his nose, with his sexy one-eyebrow-lifted pose at Jackie Chan.

Okay, Cherrie, wait. I am sorry but you cannot just beat Channing Tatum's hotness okay?

Oh look, I dropped some drool on my keyboard, darn it!

From then on started a new decade of our new-knitted friendship and trust and love and . . . Um. Cherrie and I became how every girl best friend is like. All those who plan to get a job somewhere abroad, settle in next to each other and well, just enjoy and laugh and do crazy stuff and eat marshmallows and then eat her cake and then my Alaska and well, the list never ends. I still remember how we always wanted to go out for shopping sprees and how we wanted to do sleepovers or even how much we wanted to just go and hang out. You see the problem lay in seeking permission. We never got those. Mostly it was me who didn't get permission. We were fourteen then and my mother thought I was too young to go out with my friends. Little did we know that we'd be doing this for the rest of our lives (hanging out, that is) and hey, she was right! As Veronica says, I am dumb but didn't I say this before?

I remember this one time that Cherrie and I had to literally beg for our parents' permission to go to a basketball tournament in Lahore. It was a three night stay and well, we couldn't get it. No matter what we tried to do, how we tried to ask or even how less food we had - yes, food strikes - they wouldn't budge. Most important reason being, for me, Cherrie's parents not allowing her to go and most important reason for her was that I wasn't getting the permission either! I know, I know, sad life. That's how it always has been for me and Cherrie. Our families were. . . Well, family to each other. They had to be, I've been friends with her since first standard.

We had our share of fights of varying types: small ones, big ones, for-a-guy ones - but in an entirely different scenario - etc. We even parted for some time. I distanced myself from everybody. I just hated people. I hated my own friends. I became a nerd and a loner and I was all happy with that and yada yada. But then came the big announcement of her engagement. I know you must be thinking 'a fourteen old girl got engaged?'

Well, it's a good way to keep the onlookers and the guys away when you are hot with a broad-shouldered curvy body. But I really have got to say that I hated how that became hot gossip in our school. Everybody would just not stop staring at her and that was annoying. Much more annoying was the fact that she had to answer questions of nosey juniors when they came up. 

'Oh, Cherrie, did you get engaged?'

'Oh, Cherrie is it really you in your Facebook display?'

After many groans and snorts, they stopped but the teachers still talked. *sighs*

But there is a best thing about it, she told me about it the first chance she got. Nobody else, but me! Let's just say that I had to drop my loner ways for her sake. I didn't want her to be anyhow less happy because of my attitude or something. Her engagement was great. Yes, we danced there and the crowd loved us. Later Cherrie and I sat on the couch-look-alike discussing Bilal Lashari and Hamza Ali Abbasi while I fed her with the contents on my plate. Hehe. I've got to say this, I like the colour of Hamza's eyes. 

We completed our school together painting the town red - we did paint our school walls - bunking classes, studying, laughing and crying, sneaking out  and creating mischief. Everything together.

Our friendship strengthened then and oh, she got married!

Did I tell you I danced there, too?

Or that we had the crowd screaming for us to perform 'once more'?

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