TONI POV:
Veronica pulls me into a hug. "It's so good to see you!" She smiles. I smile. "Yeah, it's good to see you too V!" I say quietly. "Thanks for picking me up." I whisper. She nods. "Cheryl doesn't know. Does she?" I shake my head. "Get in the car." She says quietly. "Pop the trunk?" I ask quietly. She pops the trunk so I put my bag in the trunk, we get into the car and drive off. "How are you gonna tell her?" She ask quietly. "I don't know." I whisper. She drives into the the parking lot of Pops. I look at Cheryl in the window. "How is she?" I ask quietly. "She's ok." She whispers. I look at her. "Let's go." We get out of the car. I walk into Pops for the first in a year. I look at Cheryl and wait for her to notice. She looks up and sees me. She gets up and runs over to me. I pull her into a hug. "Hey Baby!" I smile. I take a deep breath. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming home?" She ask smiling. "I wanted to surprise you!" I tell her. She kisses me. "I misses you." I whisper.
I sit down next to Cheryl and hand her some tea. "Why are you home all of a sudden?" She ask quietly. I look at her. "I dropped out." I confess. She looks at me. "Why?" She ask shocked. "I got really depressed and I couldn't keep putting myself through that." She nods. "Also, I didn't even think I'd graduate high school let alone go to college." I tell her. "I'm sorry I was MIA, I just didn't know what to say or do." She looks at me. "Did you actually want to surprise me or were you horrified to tell me?" She ask quietly. "Both." I tell her. "I'm gonna start seeing a therapist next week." I say quietly. "I need to get a bunch of shit straightened out." I add. "It's really good that you were able to realize something was wrong and were able to get help." She explains. "I didn't really have a choice. I ended up in the hospital having a psychotic break and tried to steal a car. Luckily the person who's car I tried to steal the car from realized what was going on and didn't press charges." I explain. "I was in the hospital for 2 months. The only person who knows here, is Veronica." I tell her. "Why does she know everything?" She ask quietly. "Oh! She's the only person that I trust besides you." She nods. "I don't really want to talk about this more. Not right now." I say quietly. "How are you doing?" I ask quietly. "My parents are getting a divorce." I look at her. "Wait-." She stops me. "It's about time. They'd been fighting for a while, it's actually kinda nice." She says quietly. "Who are staying with?" I ask quietly. "My dad. I finally realized how horrible my mom was for me." I nod. "I hope this isn't gonna be what ends our relationship but I did stay here for a bit, I still had the key and I knew my dad was gonna take a bit to find a place and I didn't want to be there. I would have asked you but I had no time to think." She explains. I nod. "It's ok." I shrug. "I fixed the shower." She says quietly. "How?" She shrugs. "I don't know, I actually called someone to fix it." She tells me. "You know, instead of trying to fix it and making it worse." I look at her. She smiles. "You're my worst nightmare sometimes." She kisses me. "Love you too babe." She looks at me. "How's school going for you?" I ask her. "It's ok." She smiles. "Do you know what you're gonna do after high school?" I ask quietly. "Not really. I think I'm gonna take a gap year. You want to travel around the country with me?" She ask quietly. "I don't have a passport and I know they ask for it to prove you're like a real person or something." I tell her. "We can go get one." She says quietly. I nod. "How?" She smiles. "Do you have your birth certificate?" I shake my head. "Well, let's find that then we'll go from there." She whispers.
"Do you want to stay here for a while?" I ask sitting in front of Cheryl. "Called my mom, she's off on a business trip for about a month and my dad is still on a submarine in the middle of some ocean near Washington for another 2 months then he's back on land for a bit but still in Washington." I tell her. She smiles. "Do they know you're home?" She ask quietly. "Mom does! Dad isn't really able to be reached obviously." She nods. "That's how I know where they are." I say quietly. "You ok?" I ask realizing something is off with her. "Yeah." She says quietly. "Cher..." I reach over and take her hands. "I know when you're not ok, I just need you to tell me why." I whisper. "Promise you won't get mad?" I look at her. "Did you cheat or something?" I ask concerned. "I was at a party with Veronica and this guy roofied my drink. I don't remember what happened, I just remember waking up with in Veronica's apartment the next morning." She explains. "Did she-." She shakes her head. "She didn't find me until after. The guy didn't use protection and I'm not on birth control because I wasn't really worried about getting pregnant with you because last time I checked you didn't have an actual penis." My heart drops. "Why didn't you tell me?" I ask her. "I tried to, but you were away and clearly not answering any calls or texts and this isn't something you text someone about." She explains further. I sit back. "Are you pregnant?" I ask quietly. She nods. "Yeah." She whispers. "What are you going to do?" I ask. "I want a kid, but not right now." I look at her. "I don't know if I want to have the baby and let someone adopt them or get an abortion." She whispers. "It's your choice." I tell her. "I'll support you no matter what you decide on." I say quietly. "Well, how about instead of you sitting on the side lines waiting for me to make a decision, you could help me make it." I nod. "If that's what you want." She nods. "I can't- I can't make this decision on my own." I nod. "Of course. If you do come to the conclusion on your own I'm here for you." I tell her. "I'm with you." I whisper. "When did you find out?" I ask her. "10 minutes ago. I need time to process it." I nod.
"How was it?" Cheryl ask as I close the door. "It was ok." I whisper. "You ok?" She ask quietly. "Finally have a reason to why I had that break and why I was depressed." I tell her. "And that is?" I take a deep breath. "Bipolar 1." I whisper. "Can you make sure I keep taking meds?" She nods. "Did you go and pick them up?" She ask quietly. "Not yet, I have to go pick them up in an hour." I say sitting down. She nods.
CHERYL POV:
I rub Toni's cheek as she sleeps. "This is creepy." I whisper. Her eyes slowly open. "You're my girlfriend you're allowed to do that." She jokes. She sits up. "What's up?" She ask quietly. "I want to finish high school." She nods. "I know." She whispers. "I don't want to do that dealing with a pregnancy." She nods awkwardly. "It's your choice, I'll help you make the decision that you think is right." She tells me. "I need this to stay between us." She nods and rubs my cheek. "No one needs to know if you don't want them too." I whisper. "Maybe Veronica because she's probably gonna want to know what's going on with it." She nods. "It's your choice who you do and do not tell." I kiss her. "I love you." I tell her. She wipes my tears. "I love you."
TONI POV:
I look at Cheryl. "You can do this. You're the bravest woman I know." I whisper moving hair out of her face. "You'll be a mother one day, it doesn't have to be today." I tell her. "You'll be ok." I whisper. She nods. "Veronica and I will be out here the whole time." I remind her. I kiss the top of her head. "I'll see you in a bit." She goes with a doctor and I go and sit next to Veronica. "Who did this to her?" I ask quietly. "He's in jail, Archie already kicked his ass don't worry." I nod. "I wish I knew what happened Toni, I do. I would have found away to stop it, but I was also really drunk that night and I was off with Archie-." I stop her. "I'm not the one you need to apologize to, you don't really need to apologize to Cheryl. You didn't know." I explain. She nods. I look at her. "You thinking about going back to college?" I shrug. "I might go to community college. Cher and I were looking at courses and they have nice photography classes." I whisper. "It doesn't look as scary now that it's more local than all the way in Florida, since I know I have a support system here. I had no one in Florida." I tell her. "Where are you heading next year?" I ask her. "Brown." I look at her. "Holy shit! That's great! Congratulations!" I smile. "Thanks. How's therapy?" She ask quietly. "It's ok, found out I'm bipolar, explains a lot." I say quietly. "I'm sorry." I shake my head. "It runs in the family, my brother had it." I whisper. "Had?" She ask confused. "He died while I was away." I say quietly. "It wasn't because of his bipolar, he went back to Puerto Rico to visit some family and died in a car accident." I explain. "I'm sorry." I shrug. "I don't really want to talk about it." I whisper. "I have enough shit going on." She nods. "Do you think she's ok in there?" She ask changing the subject. "She's freaking out right now." I whisper. "I believe that it's her choice but do you think she made the right decision?" She ask quietly. "We'll never know. We don't have to know. I think Cheryl made the decision she thought was right. She put a lot of thought into this and like we went to places and looked at her options, she kept thinking I would give her an answer, she got really mad that I kept saying it was her choice." I tell her. "I don't know if it was pregnancy hormones because she actually screamed in my face telling me I was being 'to liberal' it was weird." I add. She laughs a little. "She would." I nod. "She's very dramatic and this just added to it." I say quietly. "Can I ask you something that's been eating away at me?" She ask out of nowhere. "Yeah!" I smile. "How did you know you were bi?" She ask quietly. I shrug. "I don't know. I had a boyfriend for a while and then we broke up, I met Cheryl and realized there was more to love." I explain. "Why?" I ask her. "I love Archie, I do. But I think I am bi." I nod. "You can love Archie and still be bi." I tell her. "Archie will understand. He was the first person I told weirdly. I was drunk out of my mind at the Wyrm, he was there with Jughead I believe and I just told him. I don't see why he would be mad at you for telling him." I explain. She nods. "Thank you." I nod. "I'm not ready to tell him, I'm not really sure if I am but I'll really put more thought into it." She looks at me. "Good luck on your endeavors." She smiles.
I look at Cheryl. "You ok?" I ask her. She nods. "Do you want to talk about it?" She shakes her head. "Never talking about today again." I nod. "Ok." I whisper. "It's-." She interrupts me. "Don't say it!" I nod. "Sorry." I whisper. "When does your mom come home?" She ask quietly. "Tomorrow." I say quietly. She nods. "Dad?" I shrug. "Who knows."