Cherry Coloured - Alex Turner

3. Gold in Rotten Places

Despite being quite the nocturnal animal, Rent's Pub on the corner of Manesfield Street and Carvers Road was not exactly the place Cherry wanted to find herself at eleven thirty on a Thursday night.

Already having used her 'dip off to the bathroom' card, she found herself stuck exuseless with an empty glass in hand. Nothing seemed to be sparking up her energy that night. Not the mediocre band playing at the back, nor the company, nor the white dust she wiped from her nose as she exited the bathroom stall. As was her fear, she had burnt out on her night off.

Spoiled for company, Cherry sat at a table on an uncomfortable stool with a group of old friends. All had cleared their schedules to catch up after a long hiatus. It only made Cherry's guilt for being so low in participation worse. Put a quarter in her and you'd be lucky to pull a snarky comment or an ad-lib.

With her fingertip, she traced stars on the table with the water left over from the precipitation of her chilled drinks. She was dipping in and out of the conversation her company was entertaining. Her mind mostly mush so only butting in here and there:

"Yeah I heard she's pregnant."

"That guy she started seeing last year."

"Yeah."

Her responses were lacking her usual character. Her friends didn't seem to notice, or if they did, they didn't seem to care.

"I'm gonna grab another drink, anyone want one?" Cherry announced, finally thinking of another reason to leave the table for a moment.

"I'm right," her friends all smiled and continued their conversation as she slid off her stool and made her way back up to the bar.

Cherry debated just going home and catching up on some sleep but didn't want to offend anyone. The bar looked less and less inviting the closer she got to it. No one was currently tending to it. All that sat before her was an extensive liquor collection and some blackboards with beer names written haphazardly in chalk. All capitals.

She tapped the bell situated by the beer taps and mulled over what she wanted to order before anyone came to serve her.

"Sorry love, what can I get you?" a bartender said, quickly appearing from behind the counter where they'd been stocking up the fridges of soft drinks and pre mixes.

"Just a..." Cherry began when recognition flooded through her bones. Not wanting to embarrass herself as she suspected he wouldn't recognise her without the wig and red attire, she quickly cleared her throat and ordered a whiskey on the rocks.

"Any in particular?" he asked, eyeing her carefully.

"What's best?"

"We've got this one, it's cherry infused," he said, pointing to a bottle on the liquor shelf. Suddenly Cherry knew he most definitely recognised her.

"I thought I told you I didn't wanna see you again," she said, hiding a somewhat excited smile.

"I think you'll notice that you're the one at my workplace this time round," Alex smiled and pulled the bottle down off the shelf. "Stalking me are you?"

Cherry scoffed, "I'm not the one that paid to get me alone."

Alex chuckled and took out a glass. He would admit, it did take him a moment to register where he'd seen her face before but when he did, he couldn't pull himself to look away. Her white wig had been replaced by a length of rich brown hair that framed her face in soft, and slightly tangled from the wind, wavy layers. There was not a piece of clothing on her that was red and she was shorter than he'd grown to know. Her makeup minimal in comparison to the bright red lips and glittery eyelids he'd gotten used to. She looked exhausted and bored as always but in saying that, she didn't fail in beauty.