From Bully To Beloved

“Cherrel?” Bianca knocked on her door a couple more times before walking into her bedroom. “Cherrel?”

“Bianca.” Cherrel’s face popped out from underneath the covers. Her eyes were blotchy and red and she looked like she had been crying.

“Are you okay?” Bianca rushed across the room to comfort her friend. “What’s wrong Cherrel?”

“Nothing.” Cherrel smiled weakly and brushed her eyes. “I’m fine.”

Bianca paused as she reached the bed and sat down. “You don’t look fine.” She spoke softly and took her friends hand. “But if you don’t want to talk about it right now, I understand.” She smiled at her friend with love and squeezed her hand. “I’m here for you whenever you want.”

“Oh Bianca.” Cherrel burst into tears. “You are really the best friend a girl could ask for.” She placed her face on Bianca’s shoulder and sobbed. Bianca drew her friend close and hugged her as she cried. She rubbed her back and prayed that nothing too serious was bothering her friend.

“Ssh. It’ll be okay Cherrel.” Bianca soothed her friend and pulled back to stare at her. “Whatever it is Cherrel, we can get through it.”

“It’ll never be okay Bianca.” Cherrel sniffed. “I can’t talk about it now but it’ll never be okay.” Her eyes welled up and Bianca could see that she was about to start sobbing again.

“It would have to be something absolutely dreadful for it to never be okay again El.” Bianca smiled at her friend softly and Cherrel looked at her with abject misery.

“Life as we know it will be changed forever Bianca.”

Bianca felt a sudden jab of worry hit her stomach. Had something happened to Jaxon? Was this related to the story that Cherrel couldn’t tell her about? “Is this about Jax Cherrel?” She gasped out, unable to contain herself.

“Huh?” Cherrel looked at her in confusion. “Jax? What do you mean?”

“Does this have to do with what you told me about yesterday? The trouble he got himself into?”

Cherrel looked at her like she was crazy. “Huh? No.”

“Oh okay sorry.” Bianca’s breathing went back to normal and she felt the tension release from her body.

“It has to do with me Bianca and how my life will never be the same again.” Cherrel wailed.

Bianca paused and tried to compose herself. She had a feeling that whatever Cherrel was upset about had to do with a guy. She knew that Cherrel had been seeing someone before they left school but she had been very secretive about the guy. Bianca wondered if perhaps something hadn’t gone wrong with the relationship. “Well, if you want to talk about it. Just let me know.”

“Ok, thanks Bia.” Cherrel smiled weakly and Bianca studied her friend. Even though her face was red and splotchy she still looked beautiful. If only she could look so serene with frizzy hair.

“So can you tell me what happened with Jaxon now?” Bianca grinned at her friend, she knew that if there was ever a time to get information from her friend, it was in an emotional period.

“Bianca!” Cherrel frowned. “I told you I couldn’t tell you.”

“I know but I’m going to be Jaxon’s assistant next semester and I wanted to know what to look out for.” Bianca frowned; mad that this is how she had to tell Cherrel that she was taking the next semester off.

“What?” Cherrel shrieked. “Omg, you’re not coming back to Columbia with me next semester?”

“No.”

“I cannot believe this.” Cherrel’s voice was full of theatrics. “There is no way I’m going back without you.” She paused and smiled. “In fact, I think I’ll work for the family business next week as well.”

“What?” Bianca looked at her in shock.

“Jaxon is always saying I should take a greater interest in the business. And neither he nor my parents can say no, now that you are doing it too.” She grinned. “In fact, I think this will solve a lot of problems.”

“Uh ok.” Bianca studied her friend and frowned. “If you’re sure.”

“I’m positive.” Cherrel jumped up suddenly full of verve and vitality. “What should we do today?”

“What do you want to do?”

“Maybe we can convince Jaxon to take us out on the boat.” Cherrel grinned. “That would be awesome.”

“Yeah, that would be fun.” Bianca smiled. She’d love to spend the day with Jax.

“And I can make sure he gives me a position that doesn’t require too much work.” Cherrel grinned and Bianca laughed. “Oh Bianca, thanks for making me feel better.” Cherrel gave her a hug.

“No problem El.” Bianca paused. “But do you think you could tell me something, anything about Jaxon?”

Cherrel sighed and stared at her friend. “Oh Bianca. Look I don’t really know exactly what happened but my parents had to get a lawyer and…” She paused to look around the room and lowered her voice. “I know that he went to jail for a bit.”

“Jail?” Bianca’s voice was shocked.

“Ssh.” Cherrel looked at her with concern. “Be quiet. No-one talks about it and I’m not sure exactly what happened but my parents sent Jax to London for the next year to let everything die down.”

Bianca felt her heart ticking rapidly. “When did this happen Cherrel?”

“I can’t remember exactly. A long time ago.”

“When we were 14?”

“What? I guess, maybe.” Cherrel looked at her suspiciously. “Did you already know?”

“No.” Bianca looked at her friend thoughtfully. “I didn’t know but it explains a lot.”

“Huh?” Cherrel narrowed her eyes. “What aren’t you telling me Bianca?”

“Nothing. I just felt that Jaxon changed after that summer.” Her voice sounded wistful. Inside she was bubbling with curiosity. What had happened to Jaxon? What had he done? And did she really want to know.

“Yeah. He did.” Cherrel’s eyes glazed over. “I don’t know what it was but from that point on it seemed like the light had gone out of his eyes.” She sighed. “And now he’s soo busy running the company with Dad, it’s like he doesn’t have time for anything else.”© NôvelDrama.Org - All rights reserved.

“But he still dates.” It was a statement of fact but Bianca really wanted to ask it as a question.

“I guess so. I wouldn’t call it dating so much as fucking.” Cherrel grinned. “You know men.”

“Yeah.” Bianca sighed.

“You’ll most probably meet some of them as his assistant.”

“Oh. You think so?” Bianca’s heart sunk.

“Yeah.” Cherrel laughed. “I’m sure he’ll have you send flowers and stuff. Just don’t sleep with him.”

“What?” Bianca gasped.

“I said just don’t sleep with him or you’ll lose your job.” Cherrel laughed again. “I heard dad telling him that he had to stop sleeping with his assistants because apparently one of them started leaking company information after he dumped her.”

“Oh.” Bianca remembered the confidentiality contract that Jaxon had asked her to review and sign. “Wow.”

“Yeah. It was crazy. Apparently, she tried to sell a story to a tabloid about him spanking her and handcuffing her.”

“Really? That doesn’t seem tabloid worthy.” Bianca tried no to picture him with someone else. The churning in her gut was making her feel nauseous and she felt a headache coming on.

“Well, ” Cherrel lowered her voice again. “Supposedly he did something extra.”

“What?” Bianca leaned in with her heart in her mouth.

“What’s going on girls?” Jaxon knocked on the door and the girls jumped apart guiltily and for the first time ever Bianca was disappointed to see Jax.

“Nothing. I was just coming to see you actually.” Cherrel was smooth and ran up and gave her a brother a kiss on the cheek.

“Oh yeah?” He raised an eyebrow at her and looked over to Bianca whose cheeks were flushed.

“Yeah. We wanted to know if you’d take us on the boat today.” She grinned up at him. “Please.”

“I’m pretty busy today Cherrel.” He looked at Bianca as she spoke and she tried to maintain eye contact with him without looking too embarrassed.

“Please Jax.” She pleaded with her brother batting her eyelids up at him.

“Well Joshua is meant to come over to go over a contract with me this afternoon.”

“Oh?” Cherrel looked surprised.

“You could invite him too.” Bianca added in her two cents. She liked Joshua, he was one of the Aschmidt’s lawyers and she had met him and his wife several times.

“I don’t know.” Jax looked like he was debating it in his mind.

“I thought he was going to be in the City this weekend?” Cherrel interrupted.

“No, he got into Winterside with Lily last night.” Jax spoke distractedly and didn’t notice the Cherrel flinch. But Bianca did. Though she wasn’t sure why Cherrel cared.

“I see.” Cherrel frowned. “Well I don’t think Joshua and Lily will want to come, let’s postpone it.”

Jax looked at his sister’s sad face and sighed. “No, no. I’ll cancel with Joshua. The contract can wait to be reviewed until tomorrow. I haven’t gotten to spend an afternoon with my sister and her best friend in ages.”