350: The One With The Date

237 5 1

by ravensinging

by ravensinging

TONI POV:

"Do you want to drive?" I ask Jason. "Do you want to die?" He ask back. "No." He smiles. "You just answered your own question." I nod. He gets in the car. "Do you want your license?" I ask him. He nods. "You have to drive then." I say quietly. "I don't want to right now though. Maybe tomorrow after work." I nod. "We can do that." I whisper.

I put my keys on the counter. "You ok?" I ask quietly. "Our anniversary is tomorrow." She looks at me. "I know." I say quietly. She looks at me. I smile. "I thought you forgot." She says quietly. "No! Well a little I accidentally made small but quick plans with our kid but it'll be done before the dinner I was going to surprise you with." I say awkwardly. She looks at me confused. "I was going to pretend like I forgot and surprise you with a nice dinner. I forgot I was married to you and you call people on their shit and that's one of my favorite things about you but it doesn't help me sometimes!" She smiles. "How about this. You don't tell me anything about where we're going and what to expect so there's still some kind of surprise."

I look at Cheryl and smile. "You like it?" I ask quietly. She nods. "Yeah! This place is really fancy." I nod. I smile. "You ok?" She ask quietly. I look at her. "Yeah!" I say fake smiling. She looks at me. "Babe..." She says taking my hand. "I don't want to ruin our dinner." I whisper. "So tell me so you aren't sitting here moping." She says rubbing my hand with her thumb. "After I tell you, you drop it until we get home?" She nods. "The nightmares are back." I whisper. She looks at me. "Drop it. We'll talk later!" She nods.

I walk into the house. It's quiet. I hate it. I take a deep breath. "I don't want to clean this place out." I whisper. "Then don't. It's your house." Cheryl says quietly. I nod. "When is your sister getting here?" She ask quietly. "Tomorrow." I whisper. "Do you want me to stay here?" I nod. I look at her. She cups my cheeks. "I don't want to be here." I whisper. "Do you want to go over to my place for a bit?" I nod. "We can do that." I look at her. "Can we watch Friends?" I ask quietly.

I look at the tv. I'm not processing what I'm watching. Just the thought Officer Keller telling me my parents died repeating in my head over and over and over again. "Toni?" I look over at Cheryl. "Yeah?" I ask quietly. "Your phone is ringing." I take a deep breath. "Who is it?" I ask her. "Fangs." I shake my head. "Let it go to voicemail." I whisper. She nods. I lie my head on her shoulder. I look at the tv. "Oh this is my favorite episode!" Cheryl says smiling. "Why?" I ask quietly. "Because Monica and Chandler get engaged! It's so cute and even though I know what happens it still makes me nervous and excited to see what's gonna happen and how it's gonna happen." I smile a little. "I love how excited you get about this show. That's why I watch it with you." I say quietly. She looks at me. "You're my Monica." I say quietly. She smiles. "That makes you Chandler." I take a deep breath. "Damnit." I whisper. "We aren't Ross and Rachel because we didn't break up and get back together 5 minutes before the show ended." I tell her. I gasp. "Phoebe and Paul Rudd's character!" I say smiling. "I can do that." She says quietly. My smile drops. "My parents are dead." I say remembering. "Oh god we are them." I say sitting back. She looks at me. "Can we go for a walk when this episode is over?" She nods. "Yeah!"

I wake up covered in sweat. I get up and go downstairs. I watch Jason sneak through the door. I look at him. His eyes widen with panic. "I'm sorry." He says quietly. "I'm not gonna do anything. I told mom that you were sound asleep in bed because I didn't want to go on a wild goose chance for your dumb ass." I say pissed. "Now tell me where did you go?" I ask quietly. "Pop's." I look at him confused. "I was on a date! I didn't tell you because I didn't want it to take away from you and mom date!" He says quietly. "Our date was kinda ruined anyways." I say quietly. "Why?" He ask quietly. "You don't need to know!" I whisper. He nods. "How was your date?" I ask quietly. "You don't need to know." He says quietly. "I can tell mom where you were!" His eyes widen. I look at him. "It was good." I smile. "Male or female?" I ask quietly. "Neither." I look at him confused. "They're non-binary." I nod. "Cool." I say awkwardly. "What does that mean?" I ask him. He smiles. "They don't identify as male or female." I nod. "Ok. That's interesting." He stands up straight. "Do you have a problem with that?" He ask quietly. "No! I just don't know much and I'm wrapping my head around it." I tell him honestly. "How long have you been seeing this person?" I ask quietly. "Not long." I nod. "You happy with them?" He nods. "Cool." I say quietly. "Does this make it your coming out?" I ask quietly. "Probably." I nod. "If mom ask you were up when I was up and we had a deep late night conversation in the kitchen." He nods.