TONI POV:
"Have you talked to Cheryl?" I walk into the dorm. "What?" I ask Veronica. "Cheryl?" I sit down on my bed. "I haven't talked to her, not today." I whisper sadly. "I miss her." I lie down and look at the picture of us. "So call her!" She insist. I grab my phone and call her. "You should call Archie! Since you know our partners are stuck at school with each other!" I say quietly. "Hello." I smile. "Hey Cher." I sit up. "How's school?" She ask quietly. "Hard. The coach is a mean bitch who doesn't have any sympathy." I say. Both Veronica and Cheryl laugh a little. "Homecoming is this weekend. I know you said it would be a month but I was hoping you could come down." I smile. I look at Veronica she shrugs. "I don't think I can." I bite my lip. "Oh..." Cheryl whispers sadly. "I'm sorry baby." I hold back tears. "I'll call you tomorrow." She hangs up before I can say anything else. I throw my phone to other side of my bed and sigh. "Have you talked to your mom or dad?" I sigh. "I haven't." I whisper. "God! I don't want to go back home." I whisper. "Why?" She ask quietly. "Because if I go home I'm afraid I won't come back." I confess. I get up. "I need some air." I walk out, I just walk around campus until I end up at the gym. I grab a ball and practice. "Topaz!" I turn around the my coach. "I'm sorry, I'll get out of here. I just need to clear my mind." I say quietly. "You ok?" She ask concerned. "No." I sit on the bench. "My girlfriend is a year younger than me and I miss her like crazy! We're drifting apart! Fast! I-I can't live without her." I say freaking out a little. "I miss my parents. I hate college, this this was never meant for me." I put the ball away and start to walk away. My coach stops me. "Toni." I look at her. "Go to your girlfriend. Just for this weekend." She whispers. "I'm afraid if I go, I'll never come back." I whisper. "I hate college and honestly I'm starting to rethink if Basketball is my path in life." I confess. "Take the Lodge girl." She whispers. "Do you know any, of our names?" I ask quietly. She thinks for a second. "It's hard to know you're first names at least when it's only your last names on the jerseys." I nod. "True." I smile. "Go to see your girl and take the Lodge girl to make sure you come back. I know you guys went to the same high school so it's not like she's going into unknown territory." I nod. "Thank you." I whisper. I wipe my tears. "I'll go talk to her." I leave and walk back to my dorm. "We're going to Riverdale!" I say packing my bag. "We?" She ask. "Yeah. You'll drag me back here kicking and screaming." I say quietly. "You want to see Archie right?" She nods. "I wish we graduated together." Archie wasn't able to graduate so he stayed back.
The door swings open. "Hey!" Cheryl kisses me. We go upstairs and to her room. Nothing happens. "You ok?" She ask sensing that I'm out of it. I look down and start crying. "No!" I whisper. "I am so overwhelmed." She rubs my cheek. "There's something else." She whispers. "I didn't come her for homecoming. I feel like we're drifting away from each other." I struggle to say. "Cheryl, I don't think we can keep this up any longer." I confess. She looks down. "I'm- I'm so sorry Cheryl! It's just to much for me." She gets up and paces around the room. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you! I can't do this, not right now." I whisper. I stand up and walk to over to her. "One last kiss." I shake my head. "If I kiss you I'll never leave." I walk away. I leave her house and home. I walk in. "Mom! I'm home!" I yell. "Mom?" I go into the kitchen. "Toni." She smiles. "Where's dad? it's a Saturday he doesn't work this late." She looks down. "There's something you need to know." She whispers. "What?" I ask quietly. "Sit." I sit down at the kitchen table and she sits in front of me. "Is he ok?" I ask quietly. "We're going to be separating." I look down. "So love is dead?" I ask frustrated. "What about you and Cheryl?" She ask excitedly. I stand up. "Everything is ruined! My life is- is ruined!" I yell. "Toni..." I looks at me. "I'm sorry." I whisper. "It's everything is falling apart in front of me. I thought I was ready to go to college, my grades are slipping worse than they already were! I don't know how much longer I can stay in college." I explain. "Why?" I ask quietly. She looks at me confused. "Why are you and dad getting a divorce?" I ask calming down and sitting down. "You know our relationship has been on the rocks since before you were born." I nod. "Is it permanent?" She shrugs. "I don't know." She says sadly. "How's Cheryl?" She ask quietly. I drop my head and sigh. "Heartbroken. I smashed her heart into a million pieces! Because I'm to selfish to have a relationship." I whisper. "Why did you break up with her?" Mom ask concerned. "Everything has been so stressful and I came here to surprise her, but when I saw her, I realized how much turmoil I'm putting her through right by being away from her. I can't do that to her." I whisper holding back tears. "How does that make you selfish?" I look at my mom. "What?" She smiles sadly. "You broke up with her because it was too much for you, but you also did because you couldn't put her through that." She takes my hands. "I want her back." I whisper. "Give it some time. And go to Homecoming with Veronica and have fun!" She insist. I nod. "Yeah."
CHERYL POV:
I open my locker. "What the hell Cheryl?" Fangs looks at me. "What?" I ask quietly. "You and Toni?" I look down. "She broke up with me! Why are you taking to me anyways?" He shrugs. "Toni my half sister and she told me to keep an eye on you to make sure you were ok. She didn't tell me why exactly but, it sounded pretty serious." I grab what I need and close my locker. "Sophomore year, after JJ died, I tried to end my life and she found out and has been worried ever since." I say quietly so only he can hear." He looks down. "Oh. I'm sorry about that." I whisper. "And it's you and the serpents fault." I tell him. "I wasn't a serpent when he died. Neither was Toni. You know that." He whispers. "Do you have a date to Homecoming?" I ask quietly. "No. But don't you want to maybe try to go with Toni." I shrug. "She's going with Veronica. Because of everything that happened with her and Archie." I whisper. "I can't though." Fangs looks down. "Oh! Who's the lucky guy?" I ask smiling. "No! It's the dance." He whispers. I look at him concerned. "Before my mom lost her job we had to move to Riverdale, I was going to a fancy private school and there was a homecoming and I went with a guy to the dance and some stupid jocks gave me and him a lot of shit, it was really just unpleasant." I rub his shoulder. "I'm sorry about that." I whisper. "How about we go, and if you want to go we can go to Pop's and eat all the food we can afford." He smiles and nods. "Ok. Same goes for you." He whispers. "If Toni is there which by the looks of it she will be." He motions behind me. I turn around and see Toni. "What the hell are you doing here?" I ask as she walks over to us. "Well, some of the kids working on the dance asked if the alumni could help out and honestly I need to get my mind off of everything that's been going on." I look at her. "You're the one who broke my heart!" I get mad. "You don't think I don't hate myself for it?!" She says getting worked up. "Cheryl I did this before I hurt you more than I already have!" I start the walk away but she stops me. "What?" She pulls me into a kiss. "I'm sorry." She apologizes. "I'm under a lot of stress at school and being in a relationship with someone in a completely different state is making it worse!" Toni whispers. "It's not you. But I did do this for you." I slap her. "I hate you!" I yell. "Ow!" She looks at me. "Sorry." I look down. "I needed that." She whispers. "You're drunk." I say. "No, just I bit my tongue when you slapped me." She says making sure she isn't bleeding. "I'm sorry, let's get you some ice." I rub her cheek.
I hold the ice on her face in the Blue and Gold. "I'm really, really sorry." I whisper. "It's ok. I'm not mad." I look at her lips and back in her eyes. I could get lost in them forever. "I love you Cheryl Blossom." She whispers. "I love you too." I pull her into a kiss. "Come to Connecticut with me." She whispers. "You guys have the long weekend, I don't have any classes, I have practice on Monday but it's only for a hour." She tells me. "I have a take care of Nana." I whisper. "Why haven't you gotten a care taker for her? She's a million years old!" I smile. "She's 80." She looks at me. "I'm trying to find someone." I answer. "Put her in a home!" I shake my head. "I want her home, she wants to be home." I insist. "Makes sense." She nods. "How are your parents?" I ask quietly. She looks down. "My parents are separated again. My dad is probably off with Fangs's mom." She rolls her eyes. "How did that even happen?" I ask quietly. "My parents got into an argument and I guess he got pissed enough to go and sleep with his mother. I don't have the whole story." She tells me. I move some hair out of her face. She smiles and pulls me into another kiss. "I missed this place." She whispers. "You hated high school." I rub up and down her arm. "It was better than college. I don't think I will make it through the semester." I look at her. "The work is so hard. I barely made it through high school, the only reason I passed because I wanted to play basketball so bad! I don't think I can keep it up anymore. I really want to, I don't think I can." I take her hand. "What's more important? Basketball? Or your mental health?" I ask quietly. She looks at me. "I've worked to hard to quit now. I need to make it through college." She holds back tears. "Why?" I wipe the stray tears. "Basketball is the only thing, that isn't you, that makes me happy." She takes a deep breath. "It's the school part of it and if I don't pass this semester, I lose my scholarship and any chance of a career." She whispers. "Have you thought about a tutor?" She scuffs. "Yeah right! Like I can afford that!" I cup her cheek. "I was talking about me!" I smile. She looks down. "You won't be able to help me." I shrug. "I have the highest GPA in this school. I'm already taking college courses and getting college credit." I smile. "How?" She ask quietly. "Face time and when you're here I can help and I bet Veronica could too. On one condition." She looks at me. "We get back together and try to make this work." She nods. "What if it doesn't?" I smile. "I don't like seeing you like this. So I'm still going to to help you, but give it until Christmas at least." She smiles and kisses me. "If you say we're endgame I might be willing to lose my scholarship!" She jokes. I smile. "I'm not." She kisses me. "I love you." I kiss her back. "I love you too." I smile. I lie my head on her shoulder. "When can we start?" She ask quietly. "Tonight?" I suggest. "Yeah." She smiles. We sit there in silence. A comfortable silence. "What are we going to do about our dates?" I break the silence. "Well, I think Veronica took Archie back and honestly I don't think Fangs wants to go." I say sadly. "He told you?" I nod. "I don't want to make him do something he doesn't want to do." I say. She kisses my cheek. "Aren't you suppose to be helping set up for the dance?" She nods. "Yeah but, I really don't want to." We both laugh.
TONI POV:
I pull Cheryl closer to me as we sway to the music. "This is the happiest I've been in a while." I whisper. She smiles. "I don't want this night to end." She whispers. "I don't want you to go back to UConn." I look at her. "Let's not think about that right now!" I whisper. "We are going to enjoy this night like it's our last!" I take her hand and kiss it.