Cheryl Blossom, aka, Cheryl Bombshell, is not a pathetic little school-girl when it comes to crushes, in fact, she's always prided herself on being the one to initiate things. It helped that she didn't really get crushes, to be fair. Once in a while, she would find someone attractive and maybe decide to mess around with them for a short period of time, but never did she actually fall for someone.
That's why she was entirely thrown off by the jumbled, almost indecipherable feelings that tore through her every time Toni Topaz stepped into her life. She didn't even need to be there with Cheryl, merely the thought of the beautiful Serpent girl had her tripping over her own feet, and it wasn't something Cheryl was used to, let alone something she wanted.
Here's the issue: Toni is Cheryl's best friend.
The two of them had known each other since before Toni had joined the Serpents, something Cheryl had advised against but ultimately decided to keep her mouth shut with any further disagreement after she found out just how much joining the gang meant to Toni; they had known each other back when everything had been easier for Cheryl, when Jason had still been alive and her parents hadn't abused her. But that was just it: Cheryl had been there for Toni when she had been feeling as though no one wanted her and like she didn't belong anywhere, and Toni had been there for Cheryl when her life had started descending suddenly and at an alarming rate. And they both knew that, no matter what, they would always be there for each other.
But due to recent destructive events, their reasoning for always being there had become different. Toni would always be there for Cheryl because she was her best friend and she cared for her like a sister, and Cheryl… well, let's just say that describing her best friend as her 'sister' was the last thing on her mind.
She had no idea when it had started, but before she even knew it everything was different. When Toni smiled at her it was no longer just a smile; it was the light of Cheryl's life. When Toni touched her, even if by accident, it was no longer casual and dismissible; it lit Cheryl's body on fire. And everything she felt toward Toni, every emotion and feeling that coursed through her whenever the girl was around or on her mind, was the definition of what she didn't need right now, not when everything seemed to be - for the first time since the news of Jason's death - nearly perfect.
Or, so she thought.
It started with something so small and coincidental that Cheryl would have never thought to view it as deliberate, but now, as she sat in her bedroom, hidden from the door's view behind the bed, her knees trapped to her chest and the door locked and barred with a chair, she knew it had been on purpose. It had all been on purpose.
Cheryl waited with Betty and Veronica for the rest of their friends to show up, a chair waiting for each of them at the table they had chosen at the restaurant Veronica had forced them all to try. Jughead and Archie were coming - though Cheryl could honestly do without Archie's simpleton talk - and so was Toni, the only person Cheryl was actually excited to see. Not that she didn't enjoy her other friends' company, just that she really hadn't wanted to be drug anywhere tonight; she had been planning on spending the entire night with Toni, but things don't always seem to go as planned.
Everything was fine, Archie and Jughead showed up together and sat next to their girlfriends, leaving a spot open between Veronica and Cheryl for Toni. At least I'll get to sit next to her. However, when Kevin showed up to take the only chair left, Cheryl grew confused, sitting up straighter in her chair and glancing around the table. Did I miss a chair somewhere? Turns out, she hadn't.
"I thought you said only Archie, Jughead, and Toni were coming?" Cheryl questioned no one in particular, not knowing whether she was accusing Veronica or Betty of miscounting or forgetting to mention they had invited Kevin as well.
"Did I not tell you?" Betty questioned, using that voice she always used when she wanted to sound innocent and outside the reach of mistakes. "I invited Kevin last minute."
"What's wrong, Cheryl?" It was Archie. "I thought you and Kevin were like besties now?"
"First of all, don't talk to me right now; second of all, Toni is supposed to be here."
"Toni is here."
The voice came from behind her, drawing her attention away from the group of clowns sitting around the table with her and toward the radiant smile gracing Toni's features. Cheryl really was a mess of emotions whenever Toni smiled at her.
"Well, now we don't have enough chairs," Cheryl pointed out what should have been obvious, turning back around to the others as she narrowed her eyes, her chest still attempting to clear itself from the incessant fluttering Toni's appearance put it through. "We have to switch tables."
"But I love this table," Veronica pouted, keeping her gaze directed at Archie. They were all aware that it was so she would have at least one other person on her side; Archie could never deny her anything. "It's got an amazing view."
"It is pretty amazing," Betty agreed, making a point of looking out the window to what was beyond.
Everyone else nodded, glancing around the table at everyone but Cheryl before immediately diving back into the menus in front of them.
"Yeah, it's got an amazing view, but what it doesn't have is enough seats for us all," Cheryl repeated, feeling as though they had all just ignored her. She wouldn't let them treat Toni this way. "So, let's move, shall we?"
"Here, I can just drag a chair over from another table," Jughead offered, making a move to get to his feet. Always the hero.
"Not so fast, welfare baby," Cheryl held up her hand, stilling Jughead's movements. She wouldn't lose this, she couldn't.
But before she could say anything else, someone making a sudden move closer to her diverted her attention and she shifted in her chair enough to have a look just as a weight dropped into her lap.
"There," Toni shrugged her shoulders casually, settling back into Cheryl so that she could see the others over her shoulder. "Problem solved."
Immediately, her cheeks heated due to the weight of the girl's body adjusting in her lap, the knowledge that Toni had simply settled onto her lap without even hesitating or attempting to find another solution to the problem springing thoughts that shouldn't be there to her mind. Why would she sit in my lap right now? Can't she get her own chair? Why didn't she even try to get the others to treat her with respect? Does she want to sit on my lap? It was a mess inside her head, like it always seemed to be with Toni, and having the girl's face so close to hers only made everything worse.
What she had failed to notice was the knowing looks being traded between their friends and the satisfied smirk playing on Veronica's lips as everyone's but Cheryl's attention - including Toni's - turned to the restaurant's menu.
Those looks and that smirk were what she really should have noticed at the time. They would have given her all the answers she had needed then. Now, with the memory of them, she had an answer as to why they had invited Kevin last minute to create an issue and why they had been so against the idea of switching tables. It really had nothing to do with the view, every damn table in that restaurant had a great view, and everything to do with them wanting to embarrass Cheryl.
She really should have seen it then. Maybe if she had caught on to what they were doing the first time they wouldn't have continued on with their puppeteering game, and maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't have thought of something even worse.
The first mistake of the night was to have the party at Archie's house. Both Cheryl and Veronica have better places that certainly had more space for a party. Even though Veronica lived in an apartment complex, her place was still more spacious than the minuscule Andrews home.
The second mistake of the night was for Cheryl to agree to playing seven-minutes in heaven with Veronica, Archie, and Betty, the three she had purposefully hurt at the first party Veronica had ever attended in Riverdale.
In hindsight, Cheryl really should have seen what was coming. Still, when that bottle stopped to point directly at her for the decision of who would be locked in the closet with Toni, surprise grasped at her relentlessly. Then a panic ensued, causing her face and neck to redden with embarrassment as thoughts about what she really wanted to happen in that closet flooded her mind before she could filter them.
"You guys are so childish," Toni quipped as she slid her hand into Cheryl's. "Pick on the two bisexual girls, why don't you. That's a new one."
The sarcasm laced in Toni's voice managed to break through Cheryl's internal panic and coax a smile onto her face, the sound of Toni sassing them for obviously rigging the game so that they had to go in together easing her fears. Unfortunately, those fears were only eased for a brief moment, panic flaring back up when the closet door was opened and Cheryl saw just how small the inside of it was. The usual, stone-cold Cheryl Bombshell screamed at her to ask, 'really?', but as soon as the idea of being squeezed in that close to Toni reached the front of her mind any thought made by Bombshell was thrown out the window of a twenty-floor building. Of course, she had been that close to Toni before, they had hugged tightly hundreds of times and shared the same bed just as many, but something about knowing that everyone expected them to do something in that small space had Cheryl's throat constricting.
Cheryl Bombshell, she would never do what everyone expected and wanted her to do, but Cheryl Blossom… she just might be capable of embarrassing herself by kneeling to the desires of others. It wasn't in this way that she wanted to find out the answer to that.
Still, in less than a minute, she was being urged forward by Veronica's words. "Something wrong, Cheryl?"
"Come on, guys," Jughead spoke up, clearly for Cheryl's benefit. "If she doesn't want to play, don't make her."
Sometimes she wondered if her friends could actually be labeled with that sacred title, or if they only spent time with her to learn her weaknesses and how to exploit them, but it was too late to back out; they already seemed to know using Toni was the easiest way to get under her skin. This particular kind of damage came in the form of a heart attack when Toni slipped into the closet just after her, pressing their fronts together and shooting one of those irresistible Topaz smirks at the rest of the crew before the door closed and sealed them in darkness.
She swore she heard the others laughing, but she could have also been imagining it. She could barely hear over her own hollowed, heavy breaths, so she wasn't sure she could trust her hearing right now. Being this close to her best friend shouldn't get the reaction out of her that it does, and she knew that Toni could definitely tell she was acting strangely, she could probably even tell her face had turned a similar shade to her hair despite the darkness surrounding them; Cheryl wouldn't be surprised.
"So, what did you do to them involving this game to make them hold this grudge?"
Toni spoke softly, so quietly that Cheryl almost didn't hear her, but their close proximity didn't allow for the cushion of pretending she hadn't heard her; she knew she had to answer. She was well aware that Toni would never think any less of her no matter how terrible she acted, but that didn't stop her heart from pounding in fear that she would.
"I never told you?" Cheryl offered feebly, the words barely brushing passed her red-stained lips.
Through the dark, she could make out Toni shaking her head. "No, you didn't."
"Oh…" Cheryl breathed out, turning her head the slightest bit until she was facing the back wall of the crowded closet. How could anyone even live with this small of a closet? It was a question that the answer to became incredibly important to her in that moment. But she knew she couldn't stall forever. Toni deserved to know since she had been drug into the revenge scheme. "I may have forced Veronica to go in the closet with Archie because I knew that Betty was interested in Archie, but Archie had recently found himself enamored with our new raven-haired girl. I didn't like Betty, and I definitely didn't like how Veronica had stood up to me at cheerleading tryouts, so… I took revenge matters into my own hands and may have gone a little overboard."
"And so, they're sticking you in here with me because…?" Toni trailed off to give Cheryl the hint that she wanted her to finish the sentence.
Oh, God, did her voice just lower seductively? She was in the right mind to believe she was making things up, but as her eyes adjusted more in the dark she could make out the way Toni was now teasing her bottom lip with her teeth; something Cheryl was certain she only did when she was flirting or turned on. I'm going insane, that's the only answer. Toni would not be flirting with me… Unless she was trying to mess with the others… But that would require using me in a sense, and she would never do that. Naturally, her mind went back and forth like this for a while; maybe she's flirting with me, no, she can't be. It went on for so long that she hadn't realized she hadn't answered Toni's question, and that she had just been staring at the way she continued biting her lip. She decided she was definitely going insane and that she probably needed some help.
When she opened her mouth, she meant to say, 'Because we're both incredibly hot girls they want to catch making out?', but what she really said was: "I've no idea."
And the way her voice cracked in the middle was probably the most embarrassing thing that had happened to her in her entire life. Or, at least she thought it was, until she - unexpectedly to even herself - lunged forward awkwardly and crashed her lips against Toni's, who hummed in surprised questioning.
That's when the door opened and light flooded in to blind Cheryl as she pulled away quickly at the knowledge that others were now watching, her chest tightening and her face flushing with the embarrassment that she had done exactly what Veronica had wanted her to do. She hated that she had given Veronica what she had wanted, and she especially hated that knowing, arrogant smirk plastered over the other girl's face.
She couldn't have stopped the tears from brewing even if she had tried, and before anything could be said she was shoving through the crowd of people surrounding the closet and hurrying away from it, away from the people, and away from Toni.
Cheryl didn't have any memory of how she had ended up back at her home. She must have walked, or maybe she had gotten a bus, she wasn't sure, but somehow, she had made it back to Thistlehouse and burst through the door after fumbling with the keys. She had headed straight passed Nana Rose in the living-room, she had headed straight passed everything that usually might have stopped her for a moment, heading directly for the stairs that would lead her up to her room where she could lock herself away until, hopefully, everyone forgot she existed.
That's where she had been for the better part of an hour: curled in the corner the head of her bed created with the wall, out of sight of the door that she had both locked and blocked with a chair, her knees held firmly to her chest and her chin resting on her knees as she thought about everything her friends had done to her that led to this moment. All the teasing she hadn't noticed before. The constant questioning about whether or not she would consider dating a Serpent; the purposeful miscounting of chairs so that Toni would have to sit in her lap; the various jokes about falling in love with a best friend; and now the revenge scheme with seven-minutes in heaven.
Then she thought of the thing that was terrifying her the most.
I kissed Toni. I actually kissed Toni. My best friend.
Cheryl had made a lot of mistakes tonight, and trusting that Veronica was actually her friend hadn't even been the worst of them; kissing Toni and possibly even ruining their friendship had been the worst mistake of her lifetime.
"Cheryl? Are you in there?"
Toni's voice and the sound of the knob to her door shaking pulled her from her thoughts, coaxing a panic to settle inside of her, her mind caught between panicking more since it was Toni behind that door and relaxing because the girl that had gotten her through so many obstacles was here now. She didn't make a move to let her in, she merely hunkered down further against her bed and the wall, shutting her eyes tightly and praying that she would simply vanish.
"Cheryl, I swear to God, if you don't open this damn door, I'm going to break it down!" Toni's voice carried loudly through the room, the surety that see wanted to see Cheryl present in her voice. It sounded as though Toni had slammed her shoulder into the door shortly after, but still, Cheryl didn't move. "Nana Rose told me you're here. Open this fucking door, Cheryl!"
At the sound of wood cracking, Cheryl scrambled to her feet in fear, having not believed Toni would actually break her door open, but she didn't move toward the door, something having nailed her feet to the floor where she stood. In another minute, the chair she had placed under the handle of the door was shooting across the room as the door's top hinges snapped, allowing the door to now swing open and offer entrance to anyone. Her gaze met Toni's, and she could see the worry in the girl's eyes as she swiftly moved passed every object in the room without delay, having been in this room enough to know exactly where everything was placed.
Finally, Cheryl got the nerve to speak. "Toni, I…"
But she didn't know what to say, and before she could come up with anything Toni's body was colliding with hers due to the girl's momentum, forcing Cheryl against the wall as smooth hands slid to cover her face and breathtaking lips closed around hers. In that exact moment, Cheryl's heartbeat slowed to the pace of the kiss, Toni's lips controlling hers in a hard, slow kiss, the amount of passion she felt nearly causing her to collapse to the floor. Luckily, Toni had her pinned to the wall, so even if her knees actually gave out on her she wouldn't fall.
When Toni slowly retreated, Cheryl almost thought she would whine in protest. She didn't.
"I've been looking for you for the last hour," Toni breathed out against her lips, thumb moving around to gently pull on the corner of Cheryl's bottom lip. "I searched all over Archie's house, then I came here, when that failed, I went to Pop's. Eventually, I gave up and came back here because I knew you'd have to come here at some point."
"I… What…? Why?" She was very articulate, she really was astounded by her own choice of words.
"Because you live here, Cheryl," Toni laughed, brown eyes glinting with what Cheryl believed to be adoration. "And… because you didn't give me a chance to kiss you back, so here I am."
Cheryl's heart skipped a beat when she caught sight of the smile gracing Toni's features, and stopped altogether when Toni closed the distance between them to kiss her another time. Their third kiss, but it felt like their first, and it was over far too soon.
"You wanted to kiss me back?" Cheryl asked, eyes still shut, mind still savoring the feel and taste of Toni's lips. She still couldn't believe any of this was actually happening.
"I want to kiss you so many times that you get tired of me kissing you because you can't ever get a single word in," Toni replied, leaning in to press their lips together again for a brief moment. "I want to kiss you so many times that you never doubt that I want you, too."
Cheryl parted her lips to say something - though she wasn't sure what train-wreck would come out of her mouth this time - but before she could even breathe a whisper of a word, Toni's lips were covering her own again. But only briefly. This happened every time Cheryl tried to speak until both of them were laughing into each other's mouths at how seriously Toni was taking her statement.
"How about: the next time you feel embarrassed by something our friends have done to us, you come to me…" Toni paused for a moment, making sure Cheryl was listening to her words; "… instead of running away from me. Okay?"
With a smile revealing how delighted she was with how things had turned out, Cheryl nodded her agreement. She reached up to thread her fingers through Toni's hair. "I love you, TT."
"And I love you, Cherry Bombshell," Toni announced without a second's hesitation. "Let's forget about the others, okay? And just focus on the two of us, here…" she trailed off to press a hard, loving kiss to Cheryl's lips; "… and now."
This time, it was Cheryl who initiated the kiss, and she couldn't help but wonder how - after everything that had happened with their friends - they had ended up right where they are now.