"Cheryl. Are you okay?" Toni asked her.

"I don't know, TT. This was supposed to be a magical day. This was supposed to be us walking out there, perfect in every way. This was supposed to be us getting married. These vows I have to make to Charles, they feel so fake and meaningless." Cheryl said.

"Don't cry babe, you'll smudge your make up. They are meaningless, Cheryl, that's the point. Your doing this for Juniper and Dagwood. It is the right thing to do. Your making choices that any good mother would make, and your proving to the world that you can look after Jason's babies." Toni said, holding Cheryl's hand in her own.

"I don't know if I can go through with this. It just feels so wrong. It feels awful."

"Just pretend your doing it for the audience. You're playing a role. It isn't any different from when you played Heather Chandler or Carrie White. You weren't actually them, you were just showing the world you were them. This time, your Juliet with Paris."

"Paris doesn't actually get married to her, TT. She fakes her death rather than marry him. She's already married to Romeo at that point. And then they die, they both die. I don't want to die, Toni, I don't want you to die, I don't want me to die, I don't want Charles to die."

"Cheryl, we aren't in Romeo and Juliet. We aren't them. This is our story. Our fate isn't written in the stars, we aren't fated to be forever doomed." Toni says.

"I know that we aren't them. But the Blossom's are cursed. Our family has caused nothing but pain and known nothing but pain. I will never be happy. The Blossom's are the core of Riverdale. The pain this town feels is my fault, and I must suffer for it. The people around me will never be happy."

"Curses aren't real babe. No one decided that all Blossom twins must die. Your ancestor didn't steal king Herrod's crown and condemn you all. Your family is messed up, but no worse than anyone else in this town. Cheryl, what's happening isn't about you. It isn't your fault. The laws are stupid, but they aren't just about hurting you."

"Maybe there is no actual curse. No reason. No written in the stars Macbeth style curse. But my Mother and the rest of those plague sores that are my blood will not stop hurting me, and the easiest way to hurt me is to hurt you. Which is why I have to let you go."

"Let me go? No, Cheryl, please. I know this is hard, but it isn't forever. Life will change and we can be happy again. Please don't do this."

Cheryl turned away, looking into the mirror, gazing back at her reflection, perfect in a gloriously tragic wedding attire. She tried to ignore the feeling that she was making the wrong choice. If she and Toni split up, Toni would be safer.

"After tonight, you need to leave. I love you Toni, and that's why after tonight, I never want to see you again alone. I can't be with you. I'm sorry."

Charles rolled his eyes as Jughead tripped over.

"Ah, shit." Jughead muttered, pulling himself up off the floor.

"Mood." Charles muttered, almost wishing he and his brother could swap places, swap lives, that it could be Jughead about to walk out to the alter, and that it would be Betty as the bride instead of the bridesmaid, and that it would be Cheryl to stand behind her. Or else it would be a marriage between Charles' sister and Cheryl's brother. That marriage would certainly have prevented this situation.

Charles almost wished it could be Chic on the alter. Sure, he had no contact with Chic any-more. He had not spoken to his boyfriend for quite a while, and certainly not since the whole gargoyles incident. Chic was in prison, and even if he wasn't, there was no way for them to get married. But deep down, Charles still loved Chic.

"You ready brother." Jughead asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Charles muttered. He was not prepared, but there was little choice he had. He had given Cheryl his word, and he would not back out now.

Charles walked up to the alter, barely paying attention to the cheering crowds. He catches his mother's eye and immediately looks away, wondering if she knows this all just a facade to protect the babies that she refused to protect.

Charles watches as Cheryl walks down the aisle. Her white dress flows behind her, traditional in every way. Her long ginger hair flows in ringlets down her back, and the bouquet of violet violets and green carnations clasped in her hand adds the only dash of colour other than Cheryl's hair and lips.

He can tell she's been crying, and he hopes the audience sees the tears of pain and shame as tears of joy. It would not do them any good for the town to be talking about their broken marriage before its even official.

Cheryl joins him by the alter, and she meets his eyes. In her eyes he can feel reflected the emotions in his own. The emotions they are both feeling are not emotions any one should feel on their wedding day. They are more similar to emotions felt at a funeral.

Hermione Lodge begins to read out the official parts. After far too long of droning on about legal shit, she comes to the point of no return.

"Do you, Charles Forsythe Smith, take Cheryl Marjorie Blossom to be your lawfully wedded wife?" Hermione says softly.

"I do." Charles whispers, forcing the words out of his mouth.

"And do you, Cheryl Marjorie Blossom..." Charles zones out as Hermione and Cheryl say their part. He accidentally met Toni's eyes and the guilt he feels is threatening to overwhelm him. It should not be him here. It should not be the name Charles Smith being said. It should be Antoinette Topaz.

"I do." Cheryl says, cutting through his thoughts.

"Then I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride." Hermione says, unaware how despaired Charles and Cheryl both felt at her words.

Charles kissed Cheryl and was unsurprised by how numb the kiss felt. It was a kiss of two friends. It was a kiss between actors on a stage, a kiss between a mother and her long lost son, between a twin and her brother. There was no passion behind the kiss, no wondrous magical feeling. They were up on a pedestal, kissing before a raging audience, and when the bright lights dimmed there would be no more romance. Just two people trapped in an emotionless marriage.