Read Chocolate Box Girls: Bittersweet for Free Online

melodies until the words you cannot say to her in the daytime fall out of your mouth and drift into the darkness, making patterns with the music, pulling the sadness from your soul and turning it into something new, something better, something beautiful.
    The song is called ‘Bittersweet’, and it’s probably the best thing I’ve ever done – it’s a pity Cherry won’t ever get to hear it.
    ‘Bittersweet’ says all the things I want to say but can’t – if Cherry heard it she would understand,surely? She’d know that I’m sorry.
    If I had the guts, I would pick up my guitar, walk over to Tanglewood House and play my new song in the moonlight beneath her window. The trouble is Cherry has the attic room; she might not even hear me, and knowing my luck Summer and Skye would spot me first and chuck a bucket of water over me. Or possibly boiling oil?
    I sink on to a rock at the water’s edge instead, pick up my guitar and start to play, losing myself in the song:
A seagull’s call cuts through the misty morning
    Sunlight hasn’t touched the blankets yet …
    I hear your voice whisper in my waking dream,
    And tell myself you’re here, and I forget –
    How yesterday your smiling eyes they left me;
    How yesterday your heart it turned away;
    Last night I dreamt of cherry-blossom trees, but now
    Comes the bittersweet reality of day …
    As the last chorus fades away, I hear gentle clapping from behind me and jerk round to see a shadowy figure against the cliffs.. Hope floods me and I drop the guitar, scramble to my feet.
    ‘Cherry?’
    But Honey Tanberry steps out of the shadows, and my heart sinks.
    ‘Sorry to disappoint you, Shay,’ she says. ‘Ofcourse, there was a time when you’d have been pleased to see me …’
    ‘Huh,’ I snap. ‘What are you doing here?’
    ‘It’s a free country, isn’t it? Last time I checked, this wasn’t your private stretch of beach.’
    I scowl. ‘Haven’t you caused enough trouble?’
    ‘Me?’ she echoes, wide-eyed. ‘Shay, it was you who lied to Cherry!’
    ‘But you stirred things up,’ I remind her. ‘And you enjoyed it.’
    ‘Maybe I did,’ she admits. ‘The way I see it, Cherry had it coming – she did the same to me, didn’t she?’
    ‘It wasn’t the same at all,’ I say firmly. ‘What happened last summer was my fault, not Cherry’s, but you’ve never let either of us forget it. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole thing wasn’t one big set-up, designed to split us up!’
    ‘Yeah, right,’ Honey huffs, her eyes flashing anger. ‘Don’t flatter yourself, Shay. What happened last summer is over with – I’ve moved on. I had way bigger things on my mind this Monday than you and your moody little girlfriend!’
    I sigh, sitting down again as the truth of this sinks in.
    ‘I guess,’ I admit. ‘Sorry, Honey.’
    ‘I have to admit I’ve kind of enjoyed the fallout, though,’ she grins. ‘I didn’t think you had it in youto mess up so spectacularly, Shay, but I was wrong. And Cherry is just as stupid and stubborn as you are, moping and mooning around like it’s the end of the world but too proud to do anything to fix it. Too bad.’
    ‘She’s moping?’ I say, suddenly hopeful. ‘She misses me?’
    ‘Like I told you, she’s not very bright,’ Honey shrugs. ‘She misses you, but she’s really hurt … Skye and Summer and Coco are telling her to be brave, stay strong. And none of them will talk to me! What a joke!’
    ‘But we didn’t do anything,’ I argue. ‘Nothing wrong, anyway!’
    ‘Tell her that,’ Honey sighs. ‘I already know.’
    ‘She won’t take my calls or read my messages or texts,’ I say. ‘I’m doomed.’
    ‘Maybe you’re better off without her?’
    Honey leans down towards me, brushing the hair from my face. Her fingers stroke my cheek, trace the shape of my lips, slide softly down my throat to rest on my collarbone. I close my eyes, my breathing suddenly ragged. I have never felt as lost