12 Stranger Danger

Cherry thought nothing in the world could spoil her good mood but someone pulled her into an alley on her way to the pizza place. A man with lustful eyes.

She was disgusted. She wasn't even trying to seduce anyone right now but there were creeps everywhere, not only in nightclubs. This guy wasn't only a pervert, he was a pedophile to boot since she looked like a kid right now.

"Go screw yourself," she spat as she pulled out her pepper spray and shot him directly in the eyes.

He howled in pain and she took that opportunity to kick him hard where the sun doesn't shine and steal his wallet. Her foot was throbbing a bit because she was wearing sandals but that didn't matter. She had dealt with much worse.

He deserved to deal with the hassle of replacing his ID and all of his cards. She was going to take the whole thing. It didn't even matter if she wasn't able to use the cards before he reported them stolen. She was doing this primarily out of spite for daring to attack her so brazenly.

Nobody messed with Cherry Radcliffe! She was the one who messed with others. Only when they deserved it though. She never went after anyone innocent.

She stuck the wallet into her purse and went to get her pizza. She added on an order of breadsticks and a liter of soda while she was there using some of his cash since that had been tiring and her foot still hurt.

She hoped it got feeling better before she went out tonight because it would be difficult both to dance and to escape out the bathroom window as usual with a hurt foot. If not, she was going to have to take the night off. It was too risky otherwise.

This whole scheme depended on all of her senses being sharp and being able to react quickly. She couldn't have an injury slowing her down.

Unfortunately, her foot swelled up even more and she was limping by the time she got home. Don't tell her that she sprained it! She needed to ice and elevate it then see how things felt in the morning before wasting time going to urgent care.

She ate her pizza while watching a musical movie she liked and babying her foot. Then she did a facial and utilized one of her favorite candles trying to make herself feel better.

Cherry was used to taking care of herself but, at times like this, she could acknowledge that it would be nice to have someone to fetch things for her when she was injured so she didn't have to move around so much. That was never going to happen though. She couldn't get close to anyone.

It was a terrible idea considering her lifestyle. The only kind of person who would accept what she was doing would be a criminal too and that would be incredibly stupid. Partners could turn on each other way too easily. It was how her dad ended up in prison for good.

She hadn't had friends since before quitting high school and her family was gone. The only one looking out for her was herself.

Cherry didn't trust anyone else to do it. She simply had to deal with the inconvenience at times like these. She would survive. She always did. Her stupid foot was going to be fine.

It didn't feel better by morning so she had to go to urgent care after all and was told it was just a bad bruise and to keep icing it. It shouldn't take more than a week to fully recover. That was a relief because she needed to get back to work.

She hung around bingeing musical movies, making her own scented lip glosses, and admiring her dolls until her foot got better. She had to live off of leftover pizza and whatever could be found in her cupboards or fridge. She really needed to go grocery shopping but that wasn't happening until her foot was better.

So Cherry made do. She made an extensive list of things to stock up on and went out to get them as soon as she could walk without it hurting.

She struggled a bit with all of the grocery bags on her way back though. That was why she usually did a bunch of small trips rather than one big one. This had been a bad idea. Was she even going to make it back to her apartment at this rate?

"Here, let me help you," a semi-familiar voice said as he relieved her of more than half of her bags.

She looked up at him with a confused frown. "Scott? What are you doing?"

"You seem overloaded with shopping bags. Tell me where you need to go."

"Yeah, I'm not telling you where I live."

He laughed. "I see your parents instilled Stranger Danger into you. That's a good thing. How about this then: I help you until you're on your block. Does that work?"

Cherry bit her lip. There were multiple apartment buildings on her block. That wouldn't be too much of a giveaway. And it would help since all of this stuff was really heavy. She had no real reason to say no.

"Alright. Thanks."

"No problem."

She told him where she needed to go but, aside from that, the two of them walked in silence. He really was a ridiculously helpful person, wasn't he?

He looked tough and a little scary but that was probably a combination of how muscled he was and the tattoos on his arms. He had a rugged face with well-maintained stubble and his dark brown hair probably went just below his shoulders but she had only ever seen it in a ponytail with a few strands hanging out.

Cherry barely managed to hold back her laughter about how his looks and his personality were so different from each other. You really couldn't judge a book by its cover. If she was a wolf in sheep's clothing, he was a sheep in wolf's clothing.