﹙REFLECTIONS ★﹚

CHERRY WIPED AT HER EYES!

She looked down at the bright screen of her phone. She and her best friend, Kenny, had been FaceTiming for 3 hours already.

They both desperately needed to get off their computers. They'd seen each other active at an ungodly hour and decided that was the perfect time to start a new Minecraft world.

Cherry glanced over at the alarm clock on her bedside table. They had a time difference of about 3 hours. "It's 7:30, you're supposed to be at school soon." The girl advised, translating her time to his.

Kenny grinned at his friend's words. "You remembered. Oh shit, I have to go! See you later!"

He waved at the camera before ending the call. Cherry leaned back into the seat and shut off her monitor. After ten minutes of silence, she willed herself up and tried to brush off the lack of sleep.

Her eyes seemed to lower on themselves as she set the bowl of yogurt she'd prepared for breakfast. She buried the spoon past the granola and overlooked the city of New York from the top of the penthouse.

Kenny Payne, her best friend, was always her top priority, no matter the circumstance, no matter the distance, which was 2,800 miles.

Was it a little odd for your closest friend to live on the other side of the country? Not to them. To make up for the lack of human connection, they had each other pinned on social media, sent each other gifts on holidays or birthdays, and had a life 360 circle.

Cherry lived in Soho, while Kenny had just recently moved to the San Fernando Valley. It was laughable that they'd been placed so far from each other, but what made things worse was that if Kenny had moved just 5 years earlier, they could've actually met.

The closest they'd ever gotten to hanging out was FaceTiming until the early hours of the morning.

By the time the red-haired girl finished her breakfast, her phone was ringing again. It wasn't difficult to guess who was on the other end.

"How do you get ready that quickly?" Cherry questioned, glancing at her clock to confirm it'd only been fifteen minutes.

"Not everybody needs four hours to get ready to go to school." Kenny replied, making his way out to the front of his house.

"Whatever. Hope the bus drives past you."

"I think I missed it."

"Are you nervous to go to a new school? I would be. It'd be the first day of kindergarten all over again. You don't know anyone. Where are you gonna sit? Do you know your classes?"

"You're not helping, Cher."

"Right. Okay, don't be nervous! You're a cool guy, you'll make friends. No new best friends, but friends!"

"Wouldn't dream of making a new best friend."

"I do every single time you compare me to an incel."

"Not my fault you stream for a living."

"I'm fourteen. I don't do anything for a living! And don't say that too loud. It's embarrassing. Streaming isn't a real occupation."

"That check you had looked pretty real to me."

"Good, 'cause I used it to buy your Christmas gift, Ken."

Kenny shared his thanks and asked Cherry about her streaming schedule, which consisted mostly of the evenings and playing Roblox for hours straight.

He set his Spotify on shareplay, and his phone down on the ground in front of him.

"Do you wanna see something really cool?" Kenny asked, to which Cherry immediately replied no.

He completely ignored the rejection and did the worst dance imaginable along with the music that poured from the speakers. Cherry couldn't stop herself from laughing at the sight.

A yellow school bus pulled into the frame, its presence announced by the laughing kids inside. Kenny wasted no time pausing his actions and shoving his phone into his pocket.

Cherry stared at the dark screen, covered up by the denim of his jeans pocket. He hadn't even hung up. Kids called out to Kenny as he walked down the aisle of the bus.

"What do you call that? The loser limbo?" One voice insulted, and the stupidity of the comment made Cherry crinkle her nose as she cringed.

It sounded like something straight from the Disney channel. Another insult rang out, "No, no, I think it's called the I'm trying not to shit my pants dance!"

Kenny melted in the seat and hung his head low, pulling his phone out of his pocket. Cherry, not having hung up, looked upset. Her eyes were glazed with pity.

He was quick to hang up, the embarrassment only progressing as the laughter from every kid on the bus continued. He'd just embarrassed himself not only in front of a bunch of his new classmates, but in front of his best friend.

Seeing the look of pity wasn't angering, just humiliating. Of course she'd pity him, she was too nice not to. She always ranted on and on about how people should be kinder to each other, that there was no point in going out of your way to be mean to people.

Kenny had very quickly taken a liking to her because of her constant optimism. She never thought of herself as higher than others because of the number in her bank account or of her following.

She treated everyone with the same kindness. Even mean people, which Kenny couldn't wrap his head around. The k, y, s buttons on his keyboard were his absolute favorite when he got into an argument online.

Cherry never took anything very seriously, because she lived in a way that allowed her not to.

But was kindness really kindness if it was conditional? The second Kenny was involved, Cherry became irrationally angry and mean.

Even a slightly hostile comment towards him was met with Cherry messaging the other their home address and personal information.

But that was online. She couldn't do anything about actual bullies, even if she really wanted to. It's not like she could just pack everything up, go across the country, and defend her friend.

Cherry scrolled through Twitter to distract herself from the memory of that morning, but it didn't help very much. The event still lingered in the back of her mind.

Why were people so mean to someone who was so nice? Because he'd embarrassed himself? It was dancing, not walking outside in galaxy leggings.

She wanted to comfort him, but how could she bring it up? What if he didn't even wanna talk about it? Cherry reloaded her notifications, waiting for Kenny to post, text, call, or something.

The second her phone rang, she accepted the call. "Are you home?" Cherry questioned, doing her best to look cheerful.

"Yeah, I am now." Kenny nodded, his voice betraying the clear embarrassment from earlier.

"Uh... how was it?"

"Horrible. I just- I want to go back home. I hate it here. I wish you were here."

"Me too. What they said was mean, and it was stupid, and I think you're cool."

"Thanks, Cher. I'm gonna do some homework, but I'll call you back."

"Don't worry about it. I'll talk to you later, Ken."

So it turned out that Cherry was willing to just pack everything up, go across the country, and defend her friend.

She'd researched tickets to the Valley at her closest airport as soon as possible while calling her most irresponsible family member, an eighteen-year-old girl named Vivienne, to accompany her on the flight there.

Her bags were packed in an hour and her tickets were booked. Her flight was late at night and would arrive early in the morning.

Cherry's father wouldn't even notice she was gone, at least, not until she was already across the country. He worked until dawn and fell asleep within five minutes of getting home.

The red-haired girl's mind was moving too fast. She should've thought things through before deciding to move across the country, but running on absolutely no sleep and matcha caused her to only care about her pity and anger for Kenny.

Cherry and Vivienne busied themselves with dinner at one of the many fast food places located in the airport. As predicted, Vivienne could not have cared enough to ask about what Cherry's father thought about the spontaneous trip.

All Vivienne cared about was that it was a free round trip to California and an excuse to shop, which they were already doing.

After finishing their dinner, they'd chosen to spend the rest of their time inside the airport shop full of necessities and stupid trinkets.

Cherry would hold up something completely unimportant, like a box of chocolates, and ask if it was necessary. Vivienne would reply yes without even looking up.

By the time they boarded the plane, Cherry's wallet felt a lot lighter, and Vivienne's neck was decorated with an ugly neck pillow.

The younger girl put her phone on airplane mode, effectively ignoring every single one of her panicked father's messages.