CHAPTER EIGHT
Back in the days of Southside High, Toni and the other Serpents used to come to this small clearing in the wooded area by Sweetwater River all the time. Nowadays, however, they'd only find themselves here once in a while – after all, their days of skipping every other class were long gone, and Riverdale High was a good five minutes further away than that other dump they'd barely received any lame excuse of educative material at had been. Besides, Riverdale High wasn't exactly the type of school who didn't give two shits about walk-outs and drop-outs, and the northside definitely wasn't the type of area where people didn't bat an eyelid at teenagers wandering the streets in school hours.
Besides, Toni doubted that, other factors eliminated, she'd go back to her old ways now. She'd said at the time that transferring to Riverdale High was probably the best thing which could ever happen, and as weeks has passed she hadn't changed her opinion on the matter. She wasn't going to abuse that privilege of a fresh start by bunking off whenever she didn't feel like going to maths class.
Although, wasn't that exactly what she was doing right this second?
It was for a good cause, of course; Cheryl wouldn't have been fit to go – early days after a traumatic event weren't days suited to textbooks and staring strangers – and Toni wasn't going to break that promise of never letting her out of her sight again by leaving her back at the trailer whilst she tried to her back on top of years of schoolwork.
She wondered if the school knew about Cheryl being away, whether they'd called her mom, and what she'd said to them in return. Then again, Penelope was too rich and powerful for the school to stand up to... she knew from simply living in the same square kilometre of a ton of people with similar 'ways' to the bitch that the pay wasn't terrible.
"How did you find this place?" Cheryl questioned as she took everything in, from the random battered couches to the the old corrugated shed behind to the rusty fire pit in the centre of the clearing. It kind of reminded her of those places in those anti-drugs or anti-alcohol school movies, considering the secluded location and graffitied building behind them, only more... safe? Cosy? Legal?
"Some of the Serpents used to work here by in the docks before they moved the industry upstream," Toni commented, reaching down to pick up the lighter which had been laid under a clump of browning grass, "We've kind of made it our own since then."
"It's peaceful."
"Not when Sweet Pea and the guys are here," the shorter girl chuckled, "but, yeah, it is. It's nice."
Toni gazed up to the taller girl by her side scanning her face for any signs of discomfort as they spent the next few moments stood in silence. She had been this close to adding the bit about how the teen Serpents would spend Independence Day here year in, year out, but upon remembering the reason why they'd neglected their fireworks and barbecues that time last year she quickly shut her mouth.
Cheryl didn't need that. Toni already felt guilty enough about her people's involvement the Blossom twin's death and bringing up a trigger like that, especially so shallow into this recovery process – or whatever it went by – was just damn cruel.
Pushing those thoughts back to the part of her brain labelled 'do not touch', she held the lighter out to the other girl and cleared any trace of negativity from her throat. "You ready?"
Cheryl nodded, running her fingertips through the uncomfortable fabric and taking in every tear stain, every dusty patch, and every crease which lived within the poor-quality fibres. The rough texture and harsh smell of antiseptic caused bile to rise in the back of her throat at the mere memory of those peeling walls and mystery pills and the overly cheerful voiceover of those old movies, the way the nurses had touched her, undressed her... she swallowed hard and uncomfortably before it took the chance to rise any higher, flinching at the light touch of a hand on her elbow as she shot a small smile of reassurance back to the angel-like face of the girl to her side.
Angel-like.
Both physically and within, Toni Topaz was like an angel. No – change that to a metaphor – she was an angel, is an angel, and she'll probably an angel for the rest of eternity. Cheryl couldn't imagine her being anything less than that.
Her own little guardian angel. What Jason had been to her before... oh God...
Jason was gone, but Toni was here now. No; she wasn't in his place, but she was helping her to fill the Jason-shaped hole in heart which would have eventually killed her otherwise... had almost killed her not even five months back.
And that was enough.
She pointed her vision back down to her hand, and more importantly the lighter in its grip. A sharp click fell in sync with the new appearance of a small blue source of energy which flickered delicately in the soft noon breeze, and Cheryl watched it for a while, in wonder of how something so small could be produced in merely a narrow cylinder at the press of an even smaller black button, in wonder at how something so small and beautiful could turn to something deadly in a matter of seconds.
Milliseconds, even.
A single, subtle movement and that delicate little flame could transform into the most terrifying red blaze, eating up everything and anything that got in its way.
One lit cigarette thrown towards some dry grass – like in that annoying film where a cat rescued a kitten and two dogs fell in love – devastation.
One strike of lightning on the tallest tree in Fox Forest – devastation.
One spark on a dried out Christmas tree – devastation. She still didn't understand why Betty had shared that safety video on Facebook the Christmas before last, but she couldn't deny the way that it was kind of satisfying to watch the flames lick up that outdated living room and transform everything to a pile ashes.
One dropped candelabra in a haunting old mansion...
She couldn't burn the fucking material.
"Okay," Toni, noticing the large extent to which the redhead was struggling in this moment from her right, gently tugged at her wrist for her to come away, "let's just go and take a minute, alright?"
Cheryl noticed how dry her mouth was and how her vision had began to spot, every joint from her knuckles to her knees threatening to turn limp and debilitated. The pink-haired Serpent kicked the clothes of death out of eyesight behind the pit the second they dropped to the ground, wondering if their mere presence was the cause of the situation, but they weren't what she was worried about; the thing that was concerning her the most was the way the lighter was gripped tightly in a shaking fist clenched so hard that the skin had turned paper-white
"Can you give me that, please?"
It was an attempt – a weak attempt at that, but it didn't seem that much else would draw the other girl's attention away from that little source of energy which danced at the end of the stick at the rapid, involuntary movement of her wrist. She was so engaged, in fact, in trying to gain eye contact that she almost didn't manage to catch the lighter when it slipped through shaking fingers. Of course, grabbing it by the wrong end wasn't exactly the desirable solution, the shorter girl mentally cursing the damn thing as as the palm of her hand met the sharp burn on the naked flame.
She brushed her pain off and ignored her head willing her to run it under cold water for ten minutes, locking those thoughts away in the compartment labelled 'deal with later', even if she would most likely have the Try by P!NK in her head for the rest of the day, some stupid little burn wasn't going to end her.
"Take a deep breath, it's okay," Toni sighed, wrapping a gentle arm around the other girl's shaking shoulders as she guided her away to one of the bashed-up couches behind them. "Breathe. Breathe. I'm right here, 'kay?" she soothed.
The tentative, caring tone caused tears to form and threaten to slip over the redheads eyelids.
She didn't deserve this, Cheryl thought; she didn't deserve her. In the end, she'd just end up bruised and scarred – just like everybody else who'd entered her life and spend more than one second in it – and that was the very last thing Cheryl wanted. She wasn't going to let that end up as Toni's reward for saving her from herself.
The shorter girl shook her head, a frown on her features and worry clear in her eyes as she stroked the redhead's pale hand with the pad of her thumb comfortingly. "Just take a minute. You're okay."
It was as if she could read her every thought. Cheryl couldn't figure out whether she liked that or not, but she knew that the shorter girl wasn't doing it to be intrusive. No; she was acting this way, second guessing every action, trying to figure out where her head was at because she cared – she cared a million times more than everyone else she'd ever known, even maybe Jason.
She never thought she'd hear herself say that. She never believed that, after he'd left, she'd ever have someone care about her in the slightest again.
How the tables can turn.
"What's going on up there?" Toni asked softly after a short while, nodding subtly towards her forehead as she ran a hand through the fiery hair. Cheryl leaned into the touch, letting her eyes droop halfway. She was still tired – a severely messed up body clock, alongside two weeks of mystery meds followed up by nothing, was clearly not doing her the world.
"It was a just a thought," the redhead mumbled eventually, only just loud enough for the other girl to hear. "It's nothing."
"You can tell me?" Toni's forehead creased in concern. Still, though, no answer came. A shake of the head accompanied that. Fine, Toni thought, it would come out in its time. Cheryl trusted her... right? "Maybe it will help," she continued, "Please Cher – I want to help you. I want for you to be okay again."
"I wasn't okay in the first place," the northsider scowled, Toni rolling her eyes at the bitter honesty."
"I know. I'm sorry. But you can't live by keeping things from others; doing that... it isn't going to solve any problems."
Toni gripped Cheryl's hand a little tighter with pleading eyes. "Talk to me."
The redhead paused for a moment in contemplation before her neutral facial expression transformed into a malicious frown. "Nothing happened," she spat.
Following that moment of verbal aggression, she was half-expecting Toni to flinch just like everybody else in the world would, or maybe run away. She definitely wasn't expecting a mere shake of the head as she smiled that same sympathetic half smile she constantly worse on her face.
That was what frustrated her the most; she wasn't going to win this battle, and that was a statement essentially confirmed. The war was yet to be taken, but right now there was no denying that this other girl was the current victor. Upon figuring that she most likely was not going to win, Cheryl's head fell back in to her own hands – the place it practically lived, in all honesty – as she inhaled deeply. It was strange, really, since they were on the same side of the battlefield yet, right this second, they in were one against one situation in attempt to unite... that explanation had definitely made no sense, yet since when did life – her own life, more specifically – make any more sense than that?
"We don't have to talk now," Toni went on unfazed, "We can just sit and talk for a few minutes." Cheryl raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Maybe not about that, but something off topic? Or we can go home, if you want, and come back and do this another day?"
"No," I muffled sigh escaped the redhead's lips. "Now. Today. I want to try again. I promise I'm okay. But first—"
She swallowed hard, remembering exactly what had caused the issue in the first place with crossed fingers.
"First, I have to tell you something."
SO I'M SO SORRY ABOUT TWO WEEKS ONCE AGAIN – BEEN WAY TOO BUSY AND HAYFEVER IS REALLY AFFECTING ME IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY SO I FEEL HORRENDOUS RIGHT NOW! SO TBIS WAS GOING TO BE COMBINED WITH THE NEXT CHAPTER BUT TURNED OUT TO NOT WORK AS WELL. ANYWAY, LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH AND THANKING YOUS VERY MUCH FOR READING! ALSO – ONE MONTH LEFT OF THIS ACADEMIC YEAR, AND ONE MONTH ONLY!
