Choni One Shots pt: 2

272: The One With The Gauntlet

TONI POV:

"Not to be possessive or anything but I'm not letting you pole dance in front of a bunch of old white men just so you can join a gang that I don't really want you in!" I tell Cheryl as I walk into the kitchen where her, Fangs, Sweet Pea and Jughead are talking. I look at Cheryl. "Toni I'm not doing this for you!" She says. "I didn't say that!" I shout. "You're not joining the serpents! If you're so worried about not having protection from your family or something because of me you are already protected!" I tell her. "What if we break up?" She ask. "Cheryl unless you cheat on me or kill all my friends and family in front of me there's no way in hell I'm breaking up with you!" I tell her. "I still want to join the serpents." She whispers. "Good for you but I'm not letting you pole dance in front of old white men! It's weird and misogynistic!" I explain. "Well there has to be another way!" She says looking at Sweet Pea. He looks at me and I shake my head. "Toni you do not have a say anymore!" Cheryl says before I can say anything. I look down. "You can run the gauntlet." Sweet Pea says quietly. "What do I have to do?" Cheryl ask. "Learn all the serpent laws, for some reason take care of Hot Dog, stick your hand in a box with a snake in it while you retrieve a knife, you can't flinch or show fear, don't worry it's not venomous, lastly you have to walk down a straight line while various members punch you in the face and you can't fall or show fear!" I explain. She looks at me. "I'm only helping with the laws. Because you need to know those in your sleep!" She nods. "Ok." I sigh trying to calm my rage. "I'll bring Hot Dog over tomorrow afternoon." Sweet Pea says smiling.

I punch Sweet Pea in the face. "The fuck was that?" He ask. I pull him by the shirt. "If she dies I will kill you in your sleep!" I whisper. "Understand?" He nods. I let go of his shirt. "You realize she came to me! I tried to talk her out of it." He says quietly. I punch him again. He looks at me. "You're drunk." He says standing up straight. "I'm fine!" I yell. "Toni I thought you stopped drinking." He says concerned. I look at him. "I need to clear my head! God forbid I fucking drink!" I tell him. "You're using me as a punching bag! This isn't good!" He says quietly. "Let's get you home ok?" He whispers. I nod. He grabs my jacket and we leave. We get in his truck. "I don't want her getting hurt." I whisper as we drive off. "She won't, she's in good hands." He says calmly. We pull up to a church. I look at him. "You knew I was going to do this." He whispers. I nod. "I don't want you fucking everything up again." He tells me. "Can you come in with me?" I ask him. "Yeah. If that's what you need." I nod. "Cheryl can't know." I whisper. He nods. We go inside and sit down a few people go until it's my turn. I stand up. "I'm Toni and my last drink was like 10 minutes ago and I'm still a little drunk from my relapse. But before that I had been sober for almost 3 years." I tell everyone. "Why did you drink?" Someone ask. "I've just been really stressed lately and I needed to clear my head a bit." I explain. "It was stupid, honestly I should have just talked to my sponsor or something." I say quietly. "I don't like drinking, even though I am an alcoholic. If alcohol fell off the face of the earth I wouldn't be sad because it would mean I wouldn't be tempted to drink my problems away even though I hate drinking." I explain before sitting down awkwardly. "And you sir?" Everyone looks at Sweet Pea. "Oh! I'm here for emotional support, I don't have a problem I just dragged Toni here and she made me come in." He says awkwardly. "I can go, if you don't want me here." He say quietly. "No! We love having friends here! Good to see that you care." The guy running the meeting explains. Sweet Pea nods and sits back a little.

"Where were you?" Cheryl ask as I walk into the house. "I was with Sweet Pea. I um... I relapsed so we went to a meeting. I'm fine now, I'm still a little drunk but, I'm ok." I tell her. "I'm sorry." She says. "Why?" I ask. "Because clearly I got you all worked up." She says quietly. She looks at me. "I'm sorry." I whisper sitting next to her. "I don't have to join the serpents if it's worrying you so much." She says quietly. "No, you can I just want to know why. You're safe because of me, you really don't need to worry." I whisper. She looks at me. "Tomorrow is the initiation." I say quietly. "You ready?" I ask her. "Yeah." She nods. I nod. "Ok. The snake isn't poisonous, he had his glands removed after 3 people died. It just hurts now." She nods.

I help Cheryl wrap her hand. "That wasn't bad." She says quietly. I look at her shocked. She shrugs. "What?! It didn't hurt that mad! I dealt with an abusive father!" I sigh. "Ok, but we're bringing you to a doctor tomorrow just in case you got part of it's teeth stuck in your hand." I tell her. She nods. "Ok, when do I get my ass beat?" She ask standing up. I look at Fangs and Sweet Pea. "We can go outside and do that now!" Fangs says smiling. "I'm not helping or watching you have fun babe!" She nods as everyone goes outside. I look at the beer Cheryl left. "God! The fuck is wrong with me? I rather watch my girlfriend get beaten up." I whisper getting up and going outside. I watch Cheryl go through everyone and get beaten up. Fangs hands me her jacket. "I think you should be the one to give it to her." He whispers. "Why?" I ask quietly. "She's your girlfriend and she can really take a punch. I'm surprised she's not fighting back." He jokes about the last part. "Yeah..." I nod. "She's an adrenaline junkie." He says quietly. "You can blame past traumas on that one." I say quietly. I go over to Cheryl and hand her the jacket. "If you lose this you legally have to wear mine." I say smiling and jumps into my arms. "I love you." She whispers. "You're covered in blood!"  I say quietly.

I wipe Cheryl's face off. "You didn't say it back." She says quietly. "Oh! Yeah! I love you too baby. I was just caught in the moment, and you were covered in blood, and I honestly like living, so I would like if we didn't accidentally mix blood!" I explain smiling. She nods. "Yeah. That makes sense." She whispers. "You actually like being sober." She says out of god knows where. I look up at her. "Yeah! There's just always something pulling me to it no matter what I do!" I whisper. "Honestly if I never drank again I would die happy!" I tell her. "I just have no self control!" I shrug. "Luckily we don't have anything here so I actually have to go out of my way to drink and usually I'm to lazy to do so!" I explain. "Do you want to get married?" She ask quietly. "One day, yeah. Why?" I ask her. "Just wondering." She says sitting back on the couch. "Do you?" I ask confused. "Yeah." She nods. "Like soon?" I ask. "Yeah!" She says quietly. "You?" I nod. "If you want to." I say quietly. "I've wanted to marry you the second I met you." I say. She laughs a little. "Do you actually remember it?" She ask quietly. "Yeah! It was at school..." Cheryl shakes her head. "No?" She shakes her head again. "Footba..." I shake my head with her. "The drag race." She says quietly. My eyes widen. "Right!" I say smiling. "Ok yeah maybe I wanted to marry you the second time we met." She nods. "That's more like it." She smiles. "You sure that was the first time we met?"
I ask. "Because we both definitely went to the drive in because we were lonely and needed to keep an eye on our idiots." I add. "I really don't count that." She says quietly. "Because I do remember seeing you at the drive ins but I don't think we ever talked or anything like that." She adds. I nod. "Also you were probably blackout drunk." I nod. "Thanks for the reminder." I say quietly. She pulls me close and kisses me. "I don't care about the past, only the future and what it'll be and if I'm with you!" She says quietly. I look at her. I smile. "I love you." I whisper. She smiles. "I love you too baby." I smile. "So you know how I said I didn't want you doing that dance in front of a bunch of old white men?" She nods. "Well, I never said you couldn't do it in front of a young black woman names Toni Topaz." She smiles. "Go upstairs, I'll be up in a second." She says quietly. I nod and start to go upstairs. "Take off your boots first!" She yells. I nod. "Yes babe!"