To Kill the Cherubim
by: Prolific Bunny
Cassidy had the right to sue Cupid. Jake was meant to fall for her stuck up cousin, not act all possessive over her. Her, meaning Cassidy that is.
It was so easy to tune out a person when the topic of the conversation was that of an already abused one. Thus, it was so in High School. Not that Cassidy hated it. After surviving three years and entering her final one, she deduced hate was much too strong a word to pair up with this stage in life. Antipathy was much more suited. Yes, that was the right word.
Eunice Morton, who was the one blabbering by the way, was completely clueless to the fact that her friend was ignoring her. Instead, Cassidy McGowan opted on putting a fresh film cartridge on her Polaroid camera and once done, tried it out on her jabbering companion. The sudden flash of the instrument caused the teenager to be silent and glared at the culprit.
"I was talking here," she snapped irritably.
Rolling her eyes, Cassidy pulled at the blank print and started to wave it up and down. In monotone, she said, "It's not as if I don't already know what you're talking about. Frankly, I don't even care." When the image on the photo appeared, she chuckled. "Nice."
Grabbing it, Eunice frowned at the chestnut haired woman who looked like she was gasping for air. A groan escaped the teenager's lips as she dully uttered, "I look like a fish."
Before Cassidy could reply, a melodic but vexatious laughter caught her attention and she didn't have to look to know who it was. Sighing inwardly, she cursed her luck. All she could do now was to pray that the wench wouldn't notice her. The hallway may have been crowded but this lady had an uncanny way of seeking her out without much effort only to harass her in the end. To think they were related. Thank God they didn't have the same last name. Instead of McGowan, she had Lowe. Victoria Amanda Lowe. Very fitting for someone so pernicious as her.
Turned out, luck wasn't really on Cassidy's side after all. It never seemed to be anyway so she wondered why she even hoped today was any different. To prove that point, Victoria, Torie, as she was known in Clayton High, sauntered over to her and blocked her path.
"Yes, cuz?" inquired Cassidy before Torie could say anything.
"Don't call me that," she all but hissed. "No one's supposed to know we're related."
That was just stupid. Everybody practically did already. "Whatever." Torie sent her a look as if to reprimand her about her less than intelligent answer. Cassidy couldn't care less. "Is there anything you need?"
At this question, Torie beamed. "Yes, I do need something. I was just wondering if you could lend me that skirt you wore yesterday?" The teenager paused and turned sympathetic suddenly. "No offense, but it looked horrible on you with you being so thin and all. I just thought I'd try it out and see if it looked nice on me."
Lend it to her? It was Ralph Lauren. One of the clothes her mother's best friend, Luella Hutchinson, gave to her. The woman was a widow with no children, fancy that. This gracious lady had loved buying Cassidy clothes the teenager couldn't afford. Torie was actually thinking of borrowing that skirt?
"No way, Tor. Like you said, I'm way thinner than you are. The skirt won't fit."
For a second, a hint of irritation crossed through her features but was again replaced by a smile. "Oh, I said you were thin but I didn't say thinner than me. Don't worry, the skirt would perfectly fit."
"I doubt it."
Her brows furrowed slightly. "It would."
"No, it won't." Cassidy sighed. "Besides, that skirt was made with my measurements that were provided by Aunt Luella. It won't fit you." Said aunt was a socialite back in the day and got married to a kind-hearted, generous, wealthy man. It wasn't surprising she had connections.
Finally put out, Torie gave her a full glare that turned into a taunting smirk. "So uptight with your designer clothes. No wonder you were dumped."
That would have hurt if it were true. See, people believed she was the dumpee but the gossip mill had got it wrong, as it often did with rumors. Cassidy had dumped her boyfriend for constantly wanting to feel her up. Sure they were together but that didn't mean he had the right to do what he did. She felt violated to say the least. When she broke the relationship off, the guy didn't even wait and started boasting to his friends that he did the dumping. Oddly enough, his bragging ended a day later.
"I can't really blame him," Torie ventured with a grin. "You're character is less than pleasing and your form, or rather, lack thereof is far from flattering. Think you're better than I am, do you? Flat chested and tediously plain. How boring."
"As opposed to your implants? I think I'll do fine," she reasoned in calm. This was no place to lose her temper. Attracting too much attention never did bode well with her.
"Please," she hissed. "These are natural."
Everybody knew they weren't but Cassidy didn't need to point that out. Instead, in complete nonchalance, she retorted, "Ninety-three percent of silicone breast implants rupture in ten years, did you know that?" She inwardly celebrated when she saw Torie pale. "See you when you turn twenty-eight."
Not even waiting for her to reply, Cassidy pulled her friend along and ignored Torie's objections to her claim. Once they finally rounded a corner, Eunice let out a breath and shook her head. "I'm amazed you could do that to Victoria, Cas. I'm just plain terrified of her."
Shrugging, she answered, "It's easier for me because she's my cousin. I guess I'm qualified enough to put her down once in a while, don't you?"
"Was what you said true? About implants?"
"If you could consider anything true from the internet nowadays, I guess."
The girl chuckled and they proceeded towards their lockers. Being that Eunice's was on the far side of the hallway, the two both agreed on meeting later after they got their needed books. As Cassidy was busy with her task, someone approached her and she found that it was Jim Vasquez. A guy who had once asked her out but was rejected in pure cordiality. That was a year ago.
She wasn't sure if he was still interested in her but just like before, Cassidy didn't even want to entertain the thought. There were two reasons. One, though she did dump her boyfriend a week ago, she did like him to an extent. That is, until she learned of his being a jerk and all. There were good memories of them together and she was still bitter about it. Second reason, to put it simply, he just wasn't her type.
As if reading her mind, Jim chuckled and shook his head. "I'm not here for that. I'm officially together with April, thank you very much."
Blushing, Cassidy felt embarrassed but smiled at him nonetheless. "Good. Why are you here then?"
Furrowing his eyebrows, he straightened and touched one of her shoulders. "We were friends before I screwed it up and asked you out." Seeing her disapproving glare, he pursed his trail of thought. "I know what you're thinking but I did screw it up. I mean, I didn't have to avoid you did I?"
Sighing, she shook her head. "No, you didn't. But we still talked."
Jim snorted. "If you could call hallway greetings as talking, yeah sure." When she smiled in amusement, he chuckled. The mood changed though when he turned solemn suddenly. "Just wanted to ask if you were alright. With the breakup with Brant."
Brushing aside her recently cut bangs, she nodded. "I'm fine. My brothers didn't like him anyway."
Watching strawberry strands fall back to its place in stubbornness, he quirked an eyebrow, "Wow, that's rare."
It was. Both the older McGowan siblings were very friendly and rarely hated anybody. Saying that they didn't like Brant was a very big deal. "He must have been a real asshole then," Jim continued in mirth.
Allowing herself to laugh at his accuracy in what her brothers thought of her ex, she answered, "You have no idea."
Just as he was about to proceed on putting down Brant, he was cut off when someone decided to shove him rather violently on the lockers. Startled, Cassidy looked to her right to find a tall figure accompanied by a few others.
Rubbing his elbow profusely, Jim glared at the attacker and hissed, "Fuck, man. Watch where you're going."
"Sorry," he voiced with a hint of ridicule. "Didn't see you there." The guy walked away without even a glance back.
Glaring, Jim shook his head. "That guy has issues." When he glanced up at the wall clock situated in the hallway, he turned to Cassidy. "I've got to go. I still have to meet April by her locker."
"Okay."
After waving goodbye, he left her and soon, Eunice was back. When she saw her friend's odd expression, the teenager inquired, "What's wrong?"
"I was talking to Jim just now."
Feeling there was more to it than she was telling, Eunice prompted her and she added, "Jake Parrish ran into him. Rather, shoved him."
"Ah, Parrish makes his presence known. He does that to people just to remind them of his superiority," uttered Eunice in an all-knowing way that amused her friend.
"I think it was rude."
An incredulous look crossed her features then. "What would you expect? High and mighty people like him think they're all that! Just because he's rich and hot. What a jerk."
They finally started walking and a smile took form on Cassidy's face. Nudging her friend, she whispered, "I'm still calling out to Cupid to make him fall for Torie. She's been after him since she saw the guy walk pass her. They'd make a perfect match you know."
She giggled. "Yeah, I could see it too. He'd be so arrogant about getting the one woman every guy dreamed of dating and she'd be so vain and flaunt him for all to see. The jackass and the bitch. A perfect match."
They both laughed at that. Then, Eunice sighed and slumped down her head in an act of disappointment. "I'd be sad to see if that did happen though. I don't want Victoria to get him, honestly. I think he's too good for her. Once, I was in Starbucks and when I got out, I saw Jake giving some homeless old guy a steaming cup of coffee with take out food too. That was so sweet of him."
"Torie willingly volunteers in the orphanage in the south but that doesn't stop her from being a bitch does it?"
Gingerly shaking her head, the girl answered. "I guess not. Still, Jake deserves so much more, I think. I'm not going to go to Cupid on this."
Shrugging, Cassidy grinned, "Fine by me. With how much Torie is hounding him, by the time the arrow gets through his heart, he'd see her then bam! The it couple of the century."
Eunice laughed at her friend's silly thoughts but stopped when said friend took a picture of her again without even a single warning. The result was more pleasing than the first and she had asked if she could have the photo from her smiling friend.
All the while, both were unaware of what was happening on the other side of the school. By this time, the bell had rung and most hallways were already empty, including the one where Jake was and as well as a helpless looking Jim.
The latter was leaning on the wall clutching his abdomen in pain and he struggled to stand up due to his weakened state. "What now?"
"Don't you have a girlfriend, Vasquez?"
Wincing, he answered, "Yeah, April Jenkins. So what?" he spat out and coughed.
"And McGowan?" he interrogated calmly.
Jim glared. "What about her? Cassidy's my friend. Brant was an ass and I asked her if she was doing ok. Is that a crime, Parrish?"
At the mention of the guy's name, his eyes narrowed. "Brant? Did he do something again?"
This was getting very suspicious but Jim was still too annoyed to make sense of it all. "I haven't talked to her in a while, is all. I was just concerned. What's with you?"
Jake was silent for a few seconds then he spoke in a soft but threatening manner, "Brant was a dick. He had what happened to him coming. April may be your girlfriend but that's what Nicole Aguilar claimed she was too."
When Jim swallowed hard, Jake leaned closer and whispered a warning, "McGowan's ex was bad enough and now a cheater is hounding her. I do hope that what you said was true for your own sake, Vasquez. Concerned friend, huh? We'll see, won't we?"
Sending him a cold stare, Jake walked off with his hands inside the pockets of his hoodie. Meanwhile, Jim fell to the floor and was in an uncomfortable sitting position. With furrowed eyebrows, he exhaled deeply.
"What the hell just happened?"
a/n: okay, here we go. another cliche. seeing that I'm still not ready to go on with Paradox, which is the sequel to the vampire story that I wrote, and that the other story that I'm writing, which is another cliche by the way, Bridging the Gap, is almost finished with, according to my estimation, three more chapters left, I decided to write this one which has been going through my mind even before my first story here, Bitten. Like I said before, everybody has their own version of cliches and this just happens to be mine. I sincerely hope you liked it. Whoever you are. hehe. If you did, you could leave a review you know.
:o)
Note:
Names in this fic are purely fictitious. Any similiarities to real people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Disclaimer:
Polaroid is not mine.
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Should I continue this?