TONI POV:
"Have you ever been with anyone Toni? You seem pretty lonely." Veronica ask. "Rude." She smiles. "I'm sorry, you don't seem like someone who's been with a lot of people." I look down. "Not in a while. My wife died a few years ago." I whisper. She looks at me. "What was her name?" She ask quietly. "Cheryl." She smiles. "Blossom?" She ask sitting up. I nod. "Yeah. You knew her?" I ask. She nods. "Yeah! She was my best friend in high school." I look at her. "She never really talked about her life before we met. She was a very private person when in our 15 years together." She nods. "Were you at her funeral?" I ask quietly. "No, I was in Japan for a work thing, I sent flowers though." I nod. "You're that Veronica! The Veronica that caused me to be in the hospital for an allergic reaction to the flowers." Her eyes widen. "I specifically told people not to bring flowers, you obviously didn't know that, it's fine, I'm fine." I say quietly. "What was she like?" I ask desperately. "Like in high school." I add. "Well, when I met her, she was really depressed. Her brother died." I nod. "Jason. Yeah, I know about him." I whisper. "She slowly started to get better, I don't know what was always going through her mind and she was never truly better. But she was happy, scared the shit out of me sometimes." She explains. "She that's kinda her job it seems like." I joke. She tells me all about Cheryl. "She always talked about having kids." Veronica says quietly. I smile. "Yeah, we have a daughter. She's almost 16." I say quietly. "She was 10 when Cheryl died." I whisper. "What's her name?" She ask smiling. "Julia." I say quietly. "Cheryl wasn't letter her leave the hospital without giving her a name with the letter J. Even if we had the throw it at the end." I say quietly. She laughs quietly. "She looks like Cheryl." I whisper. "Like every time I see her I see Cheryl." I smile. "Can I see a picture?" I nod pulling out my phone and showing her a picture. "She looks so much like her!" I smile. She looks at me. "Have you told her what happened?" She ask quietly. "No, it's been to hard." I whisper. She looks at me. I realize what's about to happen. "I have to head home." I say awkwardly. "Can I text you?" I ask quietly. She nods. She gives me her number. I get up. "I'll- I'll see you- I'll see you later." I say getting nervous. I leave and go home. I walk into the house. "Hey, kid! I'm home!" I say putting my keys in the bowl. I look at Julia who's sitting on the couch watching tv. "You ok?" I ask quietly. "How did mom die?" She ask quietly. I take a deep breath. "I think we should talk about this tomorrow morning, it's kinda late I just got home." I whisper. She stands up. "You say that every time I ask." She whispers. "You ask at the weirdest time kiddo!" I say quietly. I look at her and she's a spitting image of Cheryl. I take a deep breath. "Please before I hear something that isn't true and believe it." She whispers. I nod. "Sit." We go to the couch and sit down. "Why did you hesitate to tell me?" She ask. "It's just hard." I say quietly. "How?" She ask looking at me. I take a deep breath. "She was driving home from dropping you off from school, first day back to school after Christmas. She was hit... by a drunk- a drunk driver." I explain. "Did you find the guy?" I nod. "Where is he?" I shake my head. "I'm not answering that question." I whisper. "Why?" She ask. "I don't want you to go after him." She stands up. "He killed mom!" She yells. "He's doing his time. I've forgiven him." I say standing up. I feel my breathing get harder."I-I have to go to bed. You should too." I say going upstairs. "We'll talk in the morning!" I say. I go into my bedroom and just lie down. I take a shaky breath as I start to panic. I lie on my side and slowly fall asleep. Well, until I hear a knock on the door. Julia slowly walks into the room. "It's late go back to bed." She shakes her head. "I can't sleep." She whispers. I sit up and realize I'm still in my regular clothes. "Go get some water, I need to get changed." She nods closing the door. I get changed and wait for Julia. I look at a picture of Cheryl and I. Julia walks into the room. "I'm sorry about earlier." She whispers. "It's ok. I should be the one to apologize, I should have told you what happened to mom."
I walk into the kitchen. "You feeling better?" I ask quietly. She nods. "Are you ever gonna move on?" She ask quietly. "Do you want me to?" I ask going over to the coffee maker. "Kinda, you're all sad and lonely. It's depressing looking at you." She says quietly. I look at her. "Ok?" I say confused. "I met one of mom's friends last night." I say quietly. "And?" She ask quietly. "She's nice." I smile. "You didn't know about her before?" She ask quietly. "Mom didn't talk about her life that much before we met." I say quietly. "That's not fishy?" She ask. I shake my head. "No, that's who she was. Last night I found out why though. Everything with her family was bad, and she needed to escape it." I say quietly. I look at her. "Trust me, I met some of her family and they are a different breed." I explain. "Like what?" She ask quietly. "Racist, homophobic, fascist probably." I say. I walk closer to her. "Your uncle Jason, is sweet though. I'm sorry you haven't been able to see him a lot." I whisper. "We can go see him, if you want." I say quietly. "I bet he would be happy to see you." I whisper. "I don't know." She whispers. "Can we get a pet?" She ask changing the subject. "What kind?" I ask quietly. "A parrot." I look at her. "No." I shake my head. "We can get a hamster." I say quietly. "Or a dog?" I add. "We have a dog, all she does is sleep and smell like death!" I look at our dog. "Yeah. I'm surprised she's still alive." I say quietly. "So-." I stop her. "No, we're not gonna get a fucking parrot." I say quietly. "Don't you have school?" I ask looking at her. "It's Sunday." I nod. "Ok. Well, don't you have friends?" She nods. "All my friends are in marching band and they are currently in Kentucky." She says quietly. "You would know that if you weren't to busy mopping over mom." I nod. "Look kid, I'm sorry." I whisper. "Well, I'm gonna meet up with mom's friend, Veronica." I say quietly. "Do you want to come?" I ask her. "What time?" She ask quietly. "Around noon." She nods. "I'll go." She whispers. I nod.