( 𝘨𝘪𝘧: 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘫𝘦𝘴𝘴 )

The aftermath of the 24-hour dance marathon.

Jess Mariano wasn't entirely sure how to approach Cherry Doose. Guilt had nested inside him for the past night, tossing and turning under his sheets as his dreams were plagued with a certain curly-haired blonde. Her anger, her silence. 

He had been watching her from across the counter as he cleaned the same plate for the past ten minutes. Her eyes had remained on the book she had brought along, blue irises dancing over the printed words. Jess knew Cherry was aware of his presence from across the dinner. Her hands would grip tighter the spine of her book if he neared and her eyes would slightly flutter upwards if he opened his mouth. But the words he wanted to say remained stacked beneath his tongue.

Sorry for leaving her behind when he had made a commitment to her? Sorry for involving himself romantically with someone else? How could he ever say that? Someone like Cherry would never like someone like him, and Jess Mariano was a fool to ever think so. A damned fool that had gripped on hope for far too long that he could still taste the silver lies on his lips, like a wisp of something he wanted but had never experienced. 

So he opened his mouth again, in hope that words would somehow just miraculously form themselves. 

Cherry had been observing him this entire time, glancing in short-lived glimpses, awaiting. She wondered what his move would be, what he would say. She wasn't angry for his decision to follow Rory. Who was she to dictate what decisions he made? But she knew she felt a certain way about it, Cherry just couldn't place her finger on it. So instead, she waited for Jess to speak first. He could decide which direction the two were headed. 

But Cherry was merely a spectator. Rory had walked in, and like two deer caught in headlights, the two carefully dancing around each other.

"Hi."

"Hi." 

Luke had raised his eyebrows, overhearing the conversation, or lack thereof, between Rory and Jess. "Okay Jess, your turn to add another word." 

Turning to glare at Luke for a second, he picked up a book he had brought down and reached out to give it to Rory. "Here's that book I was telling you about." 

"Oh, right. Yes." taking it, her blue eyes glanced over the cover in pretence of interest. "I should get going. School."

"What about your pancakes?" Luke protested, the plate ready for her to it.

Widening her eyes slightly, Rory shrugged. "Just . . . wrap them up for me." 

Cherry had watched the interaction with slight amusement. Once Rory had left, both her and Luke stared at Jess with raised eyebrows and hands on their hips, with Cherry being the first to speak up. "I think Romeo and Juliet's romance lasted longer than that conversation."

Jess's eyebrow slightly twitched. "Oh, so now you're talking?"

"Well, I had to give you a demonstration of what a conversation looks like after that failure of one." Cherry snorted, her eyes glancing back to her book as her fingers twitched to pick it up again and continue what she was reading. Noticing her movement, Jess quickly reached out and snatched the book out of her grasp. "Jess, give it back!"

Standing up to chase after him, Jess disappeared upstairs to his shared apartment with Luke. Groaning softly, Cherry climbed up the staircase. Turning the corner to approach Luke's apartment, she screamed when Jess scared her from the corner. Laughter bubbled from his lips as his hand gripped her elbow, making sure she didn't fall anywhere. Cherry smacked him over his head, snatching back her book.

"Who knew you could be as loud as a banshee?"

Cherry glared at him, following him inside to his apartment. "Shut up. Does it flatter your big ego the fact you scared me?"

"Indeed, it does." he retorted, pushing his hands into his pockets as he watched Cherry's eyes observe the apartment. Falling into silence, she softly walked around, scrunching her nose in disgust at the pair of underpants she pushed under the bed with the tip of her shoe, and admiring his collection of scattered books that piled on the floor instead of being placed neatly on the empty shelves. 

Avoiding his gaze, Cherry let her fingers glide across a shelf and collect the dust. "So . . . you and Rory, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess. Though she wants to keep it under cover as to not flaunt it in Dean's face." 

Cherry sharply nodded, humming a response. "You should just kiss her, and step away before she pukes over your shoes."

Narrowing his eyes, he nudged her. "Hey. We good?"

"Of course." gulping, Cherry practically spat out her answer, blonde curls bobbing as she nodded. "Why wouldn't we be? You and Rory are good. Nice."

Jess snorted at her awkwardness, but didn't add anything. Continuing to look around, Cherry's eyes fell on a pile of printed papers. Approaching it, the title read 'The Subsect', by Jess Mariano underlined under. "What's this?"

Suddenly realising what Cherry was about to flip open, he rushed across the small room that consisted of his and Luke's living compartments and went to grab it. But before he could, Cherry held it out of his reach, flipping it open to the first page. "Give it back, Cher!"

"May I remind you that you stole my book and then scared the living shit out of me?" Cherry retorted, suddenly spotting her name written in between the lines of Jess's handwriting. "Besides, we don't keep secrets." 

Jess then managed to snatch it out of her grasp, a rosy flush on his cheeks as his arm instinctively wrapped itself around her waist to balance the two. Cherry's smile froze as she realised how close the two were intertwined. His eyes were staring down at her, breaths mingled into each other as he seemed to realise the same closeness. 

Cherry widened her eyes as an intrusive thought suddenly wormed itself in her mind as she jumped away. Chuckling nervously, she refused to meet his eyes, and as she dusted off her clothes, Jess stared at her confused at her sudden demeanour. "I should really get going."

"But―"

Without another word added, the curly blonde dashed out of the room, hand shaking slightly as she clenched her fist shut and leaned against the wall. Scrunching her nose, Cherry swore under her breath. "Shit shit shit."

Because now that she had realised, there was no going back. She couldn't return to the oblivious past self that could pretend not to know what she knew now.

She liked Jess Mariano.

"Shit."

thank you so much for 41k! 

i'll admit, seeing how many of you still cared about this story may have made me slightly emotional JUST A LITTLE BIT alright 

also, post-season 3 is going to be a ROLLERCOASTER for cherry and jess i'm so excited