"Sherry, meet my boyfriend Kyle." Sam walked towards Sherry, man in tow. The two were linking arms, emitting a sense of familiarity and security and also that of affection. Standing side by side, they looked to be a perfect match and also deeply in love. Seeing the two together strengthened Sherry's resolve.
"Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Sherry." Sherry stuck her hand out for a handshake with an amiable smile on her face.
"Hey, Sherry. Thanks so much for what you did for us. Without you, I would've never realised my feelings for Sam." Kyle shook her hand and also smiled.
Sherry shook her head. "It was your own efforts, not mine. And I could say the same to Sam. When I met her the other day, she inspired me to pursue my own love."
Sam's antenna for gossip was triggered. "Oh, oh, oh. Who's the lucky man?"
With a faint blush on her cheeks, Sherry answered in a quiet voice. "He's a friend."
Kyle saw that the two ladies were going to take a while and excused himself to go talk to the other guests. He also helped himself to some of those beef skewers that have been cooking on the barbeque. When Kyle had advanced to his sixth one, he heard the doorbell ring.
"I'll get it." He told Sam before lightly jogging back into the house, to the front door.
"Oh, hey Greg. I thought you said you couldn't make it." Kyle smiled at the pleasant surprise.
Greg shoved the presents he bought into Kyle's arms and walked in. "My mate ditched me for his girl."
"Well, it's great that you're here. The beef skewers are great." Kyle laughed and placed the present under the Christmas tree. They were planning on randomly giving them out to everyone later.
Greg smirked. "I can tell. There's sauce all over your mouth."
"Hehe, it's Sam's secret recipe. You should really try some." Kyle wiped his mouth and grinned proudly.
"That's your friend, isn't it? Finally got together with her?" Greg raised his eyebrows and asked.
"Yep. She's mine now." Kyle confessed somewhat bashfully.
"You lucky bastard." Greg laughed and walked out to the backyard where most the people were.
Kyle looked out and found that Sam and Sherry were mostly finished with their conversation and were just grabbing some grubs to eat. "Hey Sam! Look who came?"
Sam and Sherry looked up from their plates. There they found Kyle standing next to a handsome young man. He was staring back at them, eyes shaking and mouth wide open.
"Greg! Glad you could make it." Sam turned to Sherry besides her. "Sherry, this is Greg. He's a friend from uni."
"Sherry? What's wrong?" Sam asked in concern. Sherry was staring blankly at Greg, her face somewhat pale and teeth clenched tightly shut. "Are you okay?"
Sherry tore her gaze away from Greg and smiled forcibly at Sam. "…I'm okay. Thanks for asking."
Sam grabbed Sherry's arm. "Are you sure? You look a little pale."
"I just remembered something unpleasant. I'll be fine after some rest."
"Then you should head inside where the air conditioner is. Do you want some water?"
"No thanks. I'll be fine, thank you." Sherry gently refused Sam again and staggered into the house.
"I have to go to the toilet, mate. Go back to your skewers." Greg said before running into the house.
"He must have been really busting." Kyle shrugged and joined Sam.
"Hey, Sam. What's up with Sherry?" Janine came up from behind the couple and asked. Beside her was Charlotte who had been equally as concerned.
"I don't know. She said she needed some rest so I told her to go inside." Sam answered honestly.
"Hmm." Janine hummed with suspicion. "I'll go check on her."
'Something might've happened to Dylan again.' Janine thought to herself as she walked into the house with a serious and solemn face.
"H-hey, Sherry. Long time no see." As soon as she walked in, Janine could hear a gruff male voice in the hallway.
"I don't want to talk to you." Sherry's voice was full of aggression, something that Janine usually didn't hear in her voice.
"I, I know what I did was immature and stupid of me. I've reflected on my actions and I just want to say that I'm sorry and deeply regret what I've done. Please forgive me." The voice pleaded.
"You think I'm going to forgive you after what you've done to me? You made me an outcast! You made me lose all my friends and everyone I trusted! Do you know how many years of therapy it took for me to regain basic trust in people?" Sherry yelled, her voice shaky and full of anger.
"I was young back then. I didn't know how to handle your rejection and didn't know how to cope. I'm wiser now, I know that what I did was dumb and promise that I will never do it again. Can we start anew, please?"
"Give up, Greg. You destroyed all that in high school. I've moved on now and don't want to see you again. Goodbye." Having declared so, Sherry turned to leave only to be held back by Greg. He grabbed her wrist and continued to beg.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done what I did, I know that! I just liked you so much that the blood rushed to my head and I behaved like an idiot. I didn't know that was going to happen. I was just butthurt and said a few things to my mates. I didn't know about the rumours until they spread and by then it was too late to back out." Greg continued to sprout excuse after excuse. After all these years, he was still the trashy person he was then.
"Let go." Sherry's voice was icy and cold. Her anger reached the point of chilly calm, she was basically radiating cold air.
"I, I'll let go after you say we're friends again."
"She said to let go, you human trash." Janine walked up the Sherry and after confirming that she was fine other than the rage building up inside and forcibly pulled Greg's hand away from Sherry.
"W-Who are you?" Greg hissed.
"I'm Sherry's best friend. Seeing as you don't even know that, it's obvious that you were nothing to her." Janine sneered. "Who's this piece of shit, Sherry?"
"Nobody." Sherry's cold eyes stared down at Greg as she refused to even acknowledge their past friendship. Perhaps Sherry of the past would've been affected by Greg's appearance today and swayed by his words, but not this Sherry. She had seen too much, experienced the ugly side of the world, hell, she even died. This insignificant man could do nothing other than make her angry.
"If he's nobody then let's go." Janine wrapped her arm around Sherry's shoulder and the two turned to leave.
"Hah! You're still the same person you used to be." Greg yelled, brushing his hair back in frustration. "You triumphantly trampled all over my feelings back then and you're doing it again! Once again, you disregard how I feel and only care about yourself. You're a selfish whore, all of you!"
The two ladies stared coldly at Greg. Sherry shook her head with disappointment. "Some people never change. You're still using the same insults you learnt in primary school. Grow up, Greg. And please, if you still have a heart, pretend that you don't know me the next time you see me, after all, I don't want to have to one-sidedly ignore you. Goodbye, this time for real."
The two left and went back outside. They could've left the party but why would they do that just because of some trash? It wasn't worth it, not at all. XXX-kun could do nothing but to stare at their backs while he was left to sulk and lick his sore wounds in the hallway all by his lonesome self.
"You okay, Sherry?" Janine asked worriedly. She could fell Sherry trembling and could not help but to be concerned.
"Pft, ahahahhahahhahahahha!" Sherry finally stopped holding back. She burst into laughter, looking beautiful in her joyful state. "Did you see the look on his face? Priceless, it was priceless!"
Janine smiled wryly and let out a chuckle.
"Damn it felt great to let it all out! I feel so refreshed!"
"Damn right you should! Now, let's go eat some skewers. I saw Kyle pigging out on them earlier, we should grab some before they're all gone."
-----
Greg: P-Please don't come near me!
Dylan, unsheathing the sword he secretly uses in his daily life: So he's the bastard that made Sherry cry?
Greg: N-no. We're just strangers, Sherry said so herself!
Author: No, he's the one alright. Go get him!
Greg: AUTHOR how can you sell me out like that? I'm one of your creations too!
Author: But you're just XXX-kun. You didn't even have a name until now.
Dylan: Don't worry. It'll be a long and painful death. You won't die until I get to the thousandth cut.
Greg: Gahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!