Free Cherry Bomb by Leigh Wilder

 
     
     
    Cherry Bomb
    Leigh Wilder
     
     
    Copyright Leigh Wilder 2012
     
    Cover art copyright Cre8tive_studios at Dreamstime Stock Photos and Free Stock Images
     
    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
     
     
     
     
    "I'm not going, and you shouldn't either," Jessica told Penny as she packed her suitcase. "A four hour drive to sit in a hot, smelly gym and remember 'the good ol' days' of 1999? Thanks but no thanks. Don't you remember high school?"
    "Only too clearly," Penny muttered, folding underwear and shoving them into the corner of the suitcase. This wasn't a 'ho ok up with an old flame' trip, a nything but. So the und erwear was her every day stuff; the comfy white cotton that she always preferred to all of the silky, lacy stuff that Jessica liked to flash when they went out dancing. "That’s why I have to go. You know what they say. Living well is the best revenge. And I live very well."
    That was a lie. She did okay. But no one needed to know that she shared her closet-sized Manhattan apartment. She was a real journalist. She had bylines and everything. It was a lot more than most people in their tiny Pennsylvanian town had.
    "I'm not going."
    "I know." At least Penny had an excuse. She was playing Katharine in The Taming of the Shrew. It was off-off-off Broadway and she was getting paid in free tickets and pizza, but at least if anyone asked about her Penny didn't have to lie. Jessica was an actress living in NYC. She just happened to work at a temp agency during the day.
    "You shouldn't go either. Do you really think those rednecks are going to accept you because you're better than them?"
    Of course not.
     
    *****
     
    It had been a long time since Penny had driven, and she nearly scraped the side of her rental car along a red pick-up in the motel parking lot when she pulled into town mid-afternoon the next day. She was glad there was only one motel in the town of Greenbrier, so she didn’t have to worry about anyone thinking she was being cheaper than she could afford. She got her room key and took her suitcase and garment bag to her second floor room. It was bare and dismal, which was a little how she felt. What was she thinking, coming all this way without Jessica? Jessica was the bold one; she was the one that got the attention.
     
    Ten years ago Jessica was the golden girl of Greenbrier High School. She was the head cheerleader and had leads in all of the spring musicals. Jessica was pretty and popular. She could string along the boys and never give them anything, and they didn't care because she was the person you wanted to be seen with.
    Penny was not un pop ular, but it was only being Jessica’s best friend that got her anywhere. She didn’t have the natural blond glamour of Jessica, but she had her own prettiness she thought, even back then. She was always two steps behind Jessica--she was a cheerleader too, but was always the last one to make the cut every year, and instead of singing and dancing on stage she painted sets and ran the lights. She always skirted the line between popular and invisible.
    Until Homecoming, senior year.
    Kenny Lorry was not the most popular boy in school either. But he wasn't far behind. He was part of Jessica's clique, sitting at the center with Jessica and Matt the Quarterback. (Penny sat at that table too, but it was a long one, and she was usually on the very end with Matt's cousin Dana, who had mild Down's Syndrome. Everyone liked him because he would take any dare, and the boys treated him a bit like a mascot.) Kenny was the best player on the baseball team and was vice-president of the student counsel. He was also always on the honor roll, but no one ever noticed that.
    One day she was eating her lunch and Kenny