Sick of losing soulmates (Cheryl Blossom & Toni Topaz)

17

Her parents have a huge fucking fight about Clifford's endless business meetings that everyone and her mother knows are just trips to New York City to get away from Penelope and the endless war she's waged against everyone and everything around her. It's terrible. The worst one Cheryl's heard in a long while, with things getting thrown around and glass shattering and screaming matches that echo around the ancient mansion.

Cheryl drawns it out with music and she nearly listens to her whole library before realizing the house has drowned in silence. She removes an earbud, then another, and sits up in her bed. There's a strange ringing in her ears and the sound of her opening the door is amplified tenfold. She's pretty sure Nana Rose hears her and she's partially deaf in both ears.

She's made it to the top of the staircase, barely, when her mother calls out to her.

"Cheryl?"

Cheryl freezes, still, hopes she can make it back to her room in relative silence and be alone. She doesn't want to deal with her mother. Not right now. Not ever.

But then —

"Cheryl, come down here for a moment."

Her mother heard her and there's no going back now. Cheryl treads down the stairs carefully, finds her parents sitting in the kitchen with a bottle of wine between both of them. The floor is immaculate, as if her mother had actually taken the time to clean up everything they'd broken in the fight before anyone else could see. As if they could pretend it didn't happen at all.

"Your father and I are going away early tomorrow to a... couples retreat."

Clifford is staring down at his glass of wine. Penelope doesn't look at him, either.

"Okay." Cheryl says, because there isn't anything else to say.

"We'll be back Sunday night. Will you be alright on your own? With Nana Rose?"

"Of course, mother."

"Try not to burn down the house while we're gone."

"Of course not."

Penelope rolls her eyes as if Cheryl's mere presence annoys her so she takes that as a dismissal. She hurries up the stairs, jumps into bed, and grabs her phone off her nightstand. She pulls up Toni's name on her messages and types out: sleepover tomorrow?

She keeps the converstation open until she sees the three black dots appear at the bottom of the screen a minute later and she shuts her phone off quickly, heart racing.

Sure, she and Toni were friends now and all — Toni had even joined the Vixens to get closer to Cheryl. She hadn't outright said that, of course, but Cheryl knew. They'd hang out in the rec room and linger in the locker rooms long after the other girls had left, and, yes, they'd gone to Pop's a few more times after the movie theater incident, but. Sleeping over was a whole different thing.

T.T: Of course :-) is it a format or casual attire?

Cheryl had saved Toni's name as something inconspicuous on purpose, in case her mother decided to snoop around her phone like she had sometimes done in the past.

Cheryl: black tie, of course.

T.T: i'll pull out my sunday's best for you. see you soon