Runaway ✔

107 • Cherry

Frustrated Cherry hoisted herself on a bar stool again. "Those two are unbelievable."

Kozik cast a worried glance at the hallway leading to the dorms. Cherry didn't know the blonde Son very well. She knew Dana and he had history together, but she didn't understand why he was so restless now.

Sure, she was also worried about Dana. And about Juice too, she had to admit. 

Not because the physical harm they could do to each other, for that would heal eventually, but because Cherry felt Dana was shutting out Juice like she was shutting them all out. Not in the most literal sense, but she knew Dana didn't talk to him about what had happened, about what was going on in her head and about the things that still had to come. Dana never talked much about what was on her mind. At least not to her. She never said a word about what had happened to her when she was held captive. And Cherry had never insisted, but at the moment she was afraid it was becoming too much for Dana. 

And then? What would happen then? 

Would she go back to Maddox? Was that what Kozik was afraid of? Was that the reason he'd pushed her to talk to her, hoping she would open up to a female friend?

She'd failed nevertheless. 

Maybe she hadn't been the right person to approach her. She just felt cast aside and she'd expected more from her friendship with Dana. She hadn't been very close with Opie, but she was shocked by the brutal way in which he was murdered and she realized very well it also could have been Kip. Apart from Dana she didn't have a lot of friends, not since she'd left town because she'd set the house of her ex on fire. That was precisely the reason why she'd been so happy to meet Dana, for there had been a click immediately. She'd hoped to support each other in though moments like these. Wasn't that what friends were for? But Dana ignored her, Juice was the only person she still cared about and Cherry realized now it had been this way for much longer. How many times had they been talking in the clubhouse, until the guys joined them? It never took long before Dana and Juice left together. 

And of course, she had Kip. But that wasn't the same. She needed the company of others. She wanted to give him room to find his place between his brothers and sometimes she just wanted to enjoy female company. 

But maybe she never meant that much to Dana. Maybe she was just a way to pass time until better company showed up. 

She blinked away a tear and stared into her glass. 

It wasn't just disappointment in her friendship with Dana which made her feel so emotional. She also feared the future. The men were burning with hatred, they wanted nothing more than to take revenge. They would go back to San Francisco, make another attempt to kill Maddox and now she knew what Maddox was capable of, she was more scared than ever. What if she lost Kip? 

He was all she had. No matter how hard she wished she didn't depend on him, she knew she did. He was the only one who cared about her and if she lost him, she would be all alone. Of course the club would find it its obligation to support her, but that was all she would be in their eyes. 

An obligation.

More than anyone, Dana should know what she was going through, but she didn't look at her at all. It made her sad and disappointed and angry and she didn't know what to do with all those feelings. She couldn't drag her boyfriend to a remote location so he could fuck her until she would feel better. Sex was a good distraction, a great way to seek comfort, but it wasn't a way to deal with the loss of a loved one. She felt annoyed that even Juice couldn't see that. He'd barely touched Dana for days because he had been afraid to call up memories about her crazy ex, but he did permit that the loss of a friend, no, even the fact that she'd witnessed her friend being murdered, would become a memory intertwined with their sex life. 

"I wouldn't even be surprised if they skipped the wake," Cherry muttered. 

Kozik laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "They ain't that disrespectful."

Cherry snorted. "We'll see."

"And if you're right, I drag them out of that room myself," the man answered, shrugging his shoulders. "If Happy hadn't been in jail, he would have beaten up Juice so badly he could only whimper if Dana touched him the next weeks."

Cherry chuckled softly. "Don't think that would have made things better."

He showed her a crooked smile. "Guess not."

Soon his smirk faded and he took a sip of his beer. With a sigh Cherry stared at the ground, knowing his friend was in jail. Happy and Tig weren't even able to say their goodbyes to Opie. Not for the first time she missed Tig, who always had been capable of clearing the air by his inappropriate comments. She wondered if she would ever seen him again, if he would ever stride through the clubhouse again as he'd done not so long ago, during his fiftieth birthday. 

It felt like ages ago when they'd all been together, quietly convinced Dana exaggerated the fear she felt for her ex.