I'd been wanting to make a sad, short little TonyXEffy thing because their relationship is so cute and real and I was so mad Tony never once came back to see her in Seasons 3 and 4. It's ridiculous, he would have been there during her darkest hour and she had been for him. The writers really screwed up. So, here's the result of my sadness.
"Hey, this is Tony Stonem-"
"AND HIS BEST MATE SID!"
"Sid, shut the fuck up I'm making a voicemail message here-"
A loud thunk and Sid's pained groans.
"Yeah, so leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
Effy held the cigarette in her left hand and sucked in, then blew out a puff of smoke. She went cross-eyed staring at the smoke until it eventually faded away. She smirked.
"Hey, Wanker, today's my first day of college," Effy spoke into the phone, shooting a glance at herself in the mirror by the front door of her home. Hair straightened, clothes that made her look positively fuckable, and that fag she held between two of the fingers of her empty hand. Her blue eyes glinted with wickedness and confidence.
"And it's probably going to be absolute shit, but I'm letting you know anyway because you're my brother and I really don't feel like talking to mum or dad right now," Effy continued. "Call me back and we can compare first days. I doubt you got into as much trouble as I'm going to."
"EFFY, GET OFF THE FUCKING PHONE, YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR FUCKING SCHOOL AND I'M GOING TO BE LATE FOR FUCKING WORK!"
Effy smirked and took an extra long drag from the cigarette.
"Bye, Tony."
"Hey, this is Tony Stonem-"
"AND HIS BEST MATE SID!"
"Sid, shut the fuck up I'm making a voicemail message here-"
A loud thunk and Sid's pained groans, again.
"Yeah, so leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
"Tony, what do I do?" Effy asked in a flat voice as she sat on her bed, barechested and knees pulled up against her. "Remember what I said about love? Well, I think... I think it's happening to me and I can't stop it. I feel sick. I can't sleep. I don't want to talk. All I can think of is him... Freddie. And I fucking hate it. Please call me back, Wanker, okay? I mean, you should know all about this, what with Michelle and everything.."
Effy froze, spacing out again for the zillionth time for weeks.
"Bye, Tony."
"Hey, this is Tony Stonem-"
"AND HIS BEST MATE SID!"
"Sid, shut the fuck up I'm making a voicemail message here-"
The thunk and pained groans are audible once more.
"Yeah, so leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
"T- Tony, can you come home?" Effy choked on tears as she sat on her bed, freshly bathed because her mother had given her a bath while she'd sobbed nonstop. "Tony, I hit her with a rock! I was tripping on shrooms and I fucked up, she attacked me and there was just a rock and.. I used it."
Anthea stood outside her daughter's bedroom door, tears in her eyes and the weight of her failure as a parent settling on her heavily. She turned and slipped back downstairs.
"I think I love him Tony. I really fucking love him. But now he hates me, they all hate me because they think I'm some psycho girl. Tony, I just want you to come home. Please, I'm... alone. I'll read you more of your favourite Greek stories, just please... come home."
Effy ended the voice message and tossed her phone onto the floor, curling up under her covers to cry some more about what she 'd done to Katie.
"Hey, this is Tony Stonem-"
"AND HIS BEST MATE SID!"
"Sid, shut the fuck up I'm making a voicemail message here-"
Again, the pain of Sid.
"Yeah, so leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
"Are you alright, Tony? I mean... I guess you're busy and all with uni work and fucking Michelle and all, but.. whatever. Things are good here and-"
"Effy, get off the phone, I want you," Freddie murmured into her neck. Effy shivered and finished her message.
"Anyway, um, see you soon, right? Bye, Tony."
"Hey, this is Tony Stonem-"
"AND HIS BEST MATE SID!"
"Sid, shut the fuck up I'm making a voicemail message here-"
A loud wack and Sid's repetitive.
"Yeah, so leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
Effy clutched the caferteria knife in one hand, the phone pressed against her face in the other. She had locked herself in the loo and was on the floor propped up against the wall. She couldn't take it anymore. She had gone mad. She had to say good-bye, because the monsters were coming for her again and she wouldn't let them take her. Effy was breathing rapidly, paranoid.
"Tony, they're gonna get me. The people. The monsters. Freddie made me go mad. His love made me go mad and now I'm vulnerable. And they know and they're coming for me. So I have to go now, this is good-bye. The end."
Effy laughed hysterically and then went serious.
"I need to leave now. I'm ready for the end."
Effy tossed the phone aside and held up the knife. The blade glinted as she moved it and then in three swift movements she'd slashed her wrist deeply. Effy smiled in relief and closed her eyes as the blood spilled onto the white tile floor.
"Bye, Tony."
She went unconscious. Minutes later the door crashed open and Freddie threw himself next to her, holding her bloody wrist protectively and cradling her unmoving form in his arms. Tears leaked out of his dark eyes and he kissed her temple hard.
"HELP!" he shouted, his voice breaking. "HELP, SOMEONE HELP!"
"Hey, this is Tony Stonem-"
"AND HIS BEST MATE SID!"
"Sid, shut the fuck up I'm making a voicemail message here-"
Ouch, you get what happened.
"Yeah, so leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
"Hullo, Tone," Effy smiled through the receiver. "How are things? Things are much better over here. I've got a therapist now. His name's John Foster, and he's making me better. He's making me forget the bad. Now all that's left is the good feelings. No more bad. I love you, Tony. You don't have to come and see me anymore.
Bye, Tony."
"Hey, this is Tony Stonem-"
"AND HIS BEST MATE SID!"
"Sid, shut the fuck up I'm making a voicemail message here-"
A loud thunk and Sid's pained groans, for the last time.
"Yeah, so leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
"He's gone, Tony," Effy muttered into the phone, staring out the window of her room at the psych ward. "Freddie's gone. He ran away."
Effy sighed and pushed hair out of her eyes, blinking back tears.
"I said nobody breaks my heart, Tony. I told him he wouldn't break my heart. But he did, Tone, he did. And I miss him so much. I love Freddie. I love him so much it hurts. So much I went mad and nearly died. I fucking love him."
Effy sniffed and hastily wiped her eyes as someone approached her room.
"Bye, Tony."
"He's dead, Tony. John Foster killed him."
"He's dead. Freddie is dead. He's gone. He was murdered."
Effy didn't even bother with a 'bye, Tony' but rather collapsed on the floor in a fit of tears, her phone gliding across the floor away from her. The rest of the message was the sound of her sobs.
"Sid, you stink," Tony noted as he entered the flat that Sid and Cassie lived in together in New York. He only been there once before, and during this holiday he'd decided to come again with Michelle. Hey, the city that never sleeps. What better place for the four party people?
"Thanks, Tony," Sid nodded, brows furrowed as he looked around, unsure how to respond so he said that. Cassie bounded out of their bedroom, cheerful as a fairy, and wrapped her arms around Sid from behind. Michelle was popping open some beers in the tiny kitchen.
"Oh, wow, Tony, you've gotten... taller," Cassie said with a bright smile, blonde hair tickling Sid. Tony looked up, scrunching his eyes slightly. He smiled as nicely as possible at Cassie, and Michelle hid a smile as she gulped some beer.
"Yeah, I suppose I have," Tony agreed, taking the beer Michelle offered him and sitting with her on the sofa. Sid and Cassie were getting really touchy, making the other two rather uncomfortable, until Sid said something.
"Oh, Tone, you left your cell last time you were here," Sid said, slipping out of Cassie's grasp to rummage in a drawer and retreive the said phone. He tossed it to Tony, whose light blue eyes were wide.
"Oh, I'd been wondering where this was," he flipped it open and his expression flickered slightly.
Seven voice messages from:
Effy.
"Tone, you alright?" Michelle inquired, hazel eyes looking over in concern.
"Yeah, ugh, hold on a moment, I have to do something," Tony said distractedly, retreating to the bedroom and shutting the door behind him. He plopped on the bed and started the messages.
"Hey, Wanker, today's my first day of college-"
"Bye, Tony."
"HELP! SOMEONE HELP!"
"She attacked me and there was just a rock-"
"Bye, Tony."
"Please, come home-"
"I fucking love him."
The phone slipped out of Tony's cold hands and he stared at the wall in front of him, mouth slightly open and heart crunching and twisting. He should have been there. He should have visited her. But he didn't. He had left her all alone. Forgotten her. How could he forget his own sister?
Who nursed him back to health after he'd gotten hit by the fucking bus. The nightmares and the stories she'd read to make them go away. Listening every night to make sure Tony hadn't woken up in terror from the nightmares. Dressing him. Being his friend.
He'd left her all alone to fade away with their fucked up family.
What kind of brother was he?
Tony pressed the palms of his hands to his face and rubbed, tears stinging his eyes.
I'm so sorry, Ef. I didn't mean to leave you. I love you, Effy, and I'm sorry.
"I thought you might want this in here," Anthea said, handing a small framed picture of Tony pre-accident to the teen girl who sat in the bed in her ward room. Effy took the picture gingerly, her small stuffed giraffe Patto held tighly in her right arm's grasp. Tony looked so happy, so young and blissfully ignorant. That was before their lives had flipped. Effy smiled slightly at the photo and Anthea felt a glimmer of hope flitter in her.
"I'll let you get some sleep, love," Anthea stroked Effy's hair once, then picked up her purse and left the room, sending one last look at her beautiful, fragile daughter.
Effy held Patto tight and stretched her arm to set the portrait of Tony on the stand beside her bed. She snuggled under her blankets and one memory flashed in her mind.
"Why bother?" Effy asked, both her and Tony gazing at their sleeping mother.
"With what?" Tony questioned in confusion.
"Caring about people," Effy said stiffly.
Tony stepped close to Effy and leaned over, his lips close to her ear.
"You don't fool me, Effy Stonem."