Choni One Shots pt: 2

327: The One Where They Elope

TONI POV:

I look at Cheryl. "Please talk to me." I whisper. I rub her cheeks. "It's to hard." She whispers. "One more try." I whisper. "We have thanksgiving coming up, and Christmas! And your birthday." I tell her. She starts crying. "I can't go on." She says crying. "Why not?" I ask her. "What is so hard?" I ask quietly. "Tell me so I can help you." I whisper. She shakes her head. "I can't get a break." She says quietly. I nod. "How about we go do something?" I ask her. "What do you mean?" She ask quietly. "How about we go on a trip so we can get away from everything and leave our responsibilities behind." I suggest. She shakes her head. "Then we have to come back to them." She says quietly. "Then we don't." I tell her. "I'm not eloping." She says annoyed. "Is that what that is?" She nods. "I thought it was when you run away to the midwest and got married." I tell her. "That too." I nod. "Do you want to?" I ask her. "My mom has a home in Montana that obviously we don't really go to, we don't have to get married but we can go and start fresh." I tell her. "It's not gonna get rid of the thoughts." She says quietly. "No! But it might help not being in the place that caused you to end up in this situation." I explain. She nods. "How are we doing this?" She ask quietly. "Well, we can move fully. Like rent a moving truck and pack our shit in it." I tell her. "Can just bring what we need. Keep this place for when we want to come back, even if it's for a short trip." I suggest. She looks at me. "Are we gonna tell anyone?" She ask quietly. "We can tell people or we can move and then say something to like one person and hope the word gets around and maybe a little mixed up like in a game of telephone just to fuck with people." I suggest. "I like fucking with people." I smile. "You sure you want to uproot your whole life?" She ask quietly. "I've needed an excuse for a while." I tell her. "I put in my resignation letter last week." I whisper. "I hate my job so much." I add. "Why didn't you tell me?" She ask quietly. "You had enough to worry about, I didn't want to worry you." I tell her. "Also I have another job set up I just won't take it."

One week later

I pack the last box into the truck. "Got everything?" I ask Cheryl. She nods. "We really doing this?" I nod. "We don't have to, and we can come back whenever if you change your mind." I tell her. "I have a job that I can work from anywhere with. You, have your family's money, so we can afford to do whatever we want! We can go to Greece for a month if we want." I tell her. She smiles. "We should probably have you talk to someone though when we get there. I was really worried about you." I say quietly. She nods. "I need help, but I can't do it here." She tells me. I nod. "You don't have to." I tell her. "I'm not going to."

I get out of the truck, walk over to Cheryl's side and help her out. "I'm gonna get the car off the trailer. So we can go and check into the hotel." I tell her. I hand her the keys. "This one is for the house, this one is for the garage. All the doors take the same lock so if we want to use the side door we can." I explain. She nods. "The back door doesn't open though, my dad and I were going to fix that before he died. So I'll do it, later."

I look at Cheryl as we eat our food in a diner my parents and I used to go to. "Do you want to get married?" I ask her. "I mean, if we're gonna do this we should go all the way." I say smiling. She shrugs. "Do you actually want to get married?" She ask quietly. I nod. "It would be nice to see you in the hospital if something happens to you." I tell her. "I'd like to do the same." She smiles. "There's some other legal shit that'll be nice. I don't remember what but whatever. I'd also love to be able to call you my wife." I tell her. She nods. "I'd like that too." She smiles. I hold up my cup of water. "To eloping." I say smiling. She holds her cup up. "To eloping." She says as we gently tap our cups together. We both smile. "We've both had this idea for a while we just didn't say it. Didn't we?" She ask quietly. I nod. "Definitely." I say quietly. "It could be worse, we could have ran away from home after-." She stops. "Oh wait." We both laugh quietly. "It's fine." I whisper.

2 years later

It's been 2 years we're still living in Montana, we go back home every once in a while. But it's for Christmas with our friends and that's about it. I walk out to the porch and see Cheryl and our son playing on the swing set. Oh! We also had a kid, probably should have mentioned that. Sorry. "Guy! Dinner's ready!" I shout so they can hear me. Our son's name is Jason. Not original but Cheryl insisted after her brother and I couldn't say no. He's gonna he a year old in a month. Cheryl picks him up and comes over to me. "What did you make?" She ask quietly. "Pizza." I say smiling. She kisses me. "Pepperoni?" She ask. "It's essential!" I tell her. "It's not a pizza without it." She adds. "Right Jason?" He just giggles. "Come on! Before it gets cold." I tell her. We go inside and sit down.  "You know, if it wasn't for you having a mental breakdown we wouldn't have done what we done." I say quietly. "Thank you for having shitty mental health." I say jokingly. "Thank you for not noticing until I was at a breaking point." She says jokingly. Yes it's a serious thing but we're both in a better place where we can give each other shit about it.