Fight For You by Kayla Bain-Vrba Page A

her tight as Cherry clung to her.
    The tears kept coming no matter how hard Cherry tried to stop them. Years of memories bubbled to the surface, making the betrayal even harder to bear.
    Every time she thought she had hiccupped herself under control, a fresh wave of tears dragged her under again.
    Berlin got her into bed somehow and lay beside her, holding her tightly all night.
    When Cherry finally had no more tears to cry, she curled up against Berlin's chest. "None of that matters anymore. As long as I'm with you, I would be happy here forever. As long as I'm with you, nothing else matters."
    Berlin's breath caught, and her heart began to race. It had finally happened. She couldn't run, even as desperately as she wanted to, but as soon as Cherry fell asleep, she made her escape.
    Wandering through The Zone in the dark, well after curfew, made it easier for Berlin to breathe but not any easier to think as the barrage of thoughts kept up their assault of her mind, screaming blame. You idiot! This is your fault! You destroyed her!
    As much as Cherry would counter these accusations, Berlin knew they were true. She had poisoned Cherry.
    She had known from the start that Cherry was too good for her, too pure, too spirited. Berlin was dark and tainted, and by loving Cherry, by allowing Cherry to love her, she had passed on her disease and infected Cherry.
    She should have recognized the signs as complacency began to set in, as the fight leaked out of Cherry. The signs had been there all along, right in front of Berlin, and she'd been too love drunk to see them.
    Cherry had given up double fights. Of course it was too much for her to fight twice in a row, but as long as she had spread out her fight times, she would have been fine. Instead, she had given up, taken the easy road, feeling less rush to leave. Berlin had enough money to leave and then some; she hadn't needed to fight anymore so she hadn't. She hadn't complained when Cherry pulled out of a few fights to spend more time with her, even though in the back of her mind she had known that Cherry wasn't making the money she needed to get out. 
    Cherry had stopped dreaming of freedom; it was finally clear to Berlin. Cherry didn't need to leave anymore; being with Berlin had sucked the need right out of her.
    Berlin was disgusted with herself. The monster inside her had eaten the beauty out of Cherry.
    Everything within her screamed for her to go back to Cherry and live with the way things had become. She and Cherry could be happy together in The Zone, fighting regularly to provide a comfortable life for themselves. Why leave? Why take the hard road and face the unknown? Cherry would be happy—a deluded happiness, but happy nonetheless.
    Wasn't that all that mattered?
    Berlin stumbled, feeling hot tears leak from her eyes as she realized the truth.
    Cherry was all that mattered, Cherry being beautiful, happy, alive . Nothing else mattered, not really, but Berlin couldn't help but feel that Cherry was making a terrible mistake—and that by letting her, Berlin was doing something even worse.
    *~*~*
    Things between Cherry and Berlin became tense after that. Berlin was dissatisfied and felt she was doing the wrong thing standing by and letting Cherry have her way. For her part, Cherry didn't understand Berlin's sudden discontent. Neither of them discussed it, assuming that the other would figure it out on her own or get over it until Berlin came in from the practice field one day to find Cherry painting the walls of her room. That was when she snapped.
    "Just make yourself at home, why don't you?"
    Cherry turned around suddenly, taken by surprise. "What do you mean?"
    "Maybe you should buy furniture too and hang some paintings on the walls."
    "Berlin, what are you talking about?" She pushed the hair out of her eyes and in the process, smeared white paint over her left eyebrow.
    "This!" Berlin's sweeping gesture encompassed the room—and Cherry. "You've gotten complacent ! You've