Not So Different After All

14: Lies

Cheryl couldn't sleep.

Not that it was different from any other night. But the unfortunate thing was that Cheryl had barely slept at all since the night she had been saved from the Sisters. Her and Toni both squeezed on to Toni's couch every night, and every night Cheryl would get kicked by Toni. Or slapped by Toni. Or punched by Toni. For being so small, she was an extremely aggressive sleeper.

She sat on the floor, back against the couch, and thought. As she thought, a pit of guilt formed in her stomach. Cheryl hadn't been home once in the two weeks she had been back from the Sisters. But it's not that she wanted to see her mother or her uncle. She most definitely did not want to see them. It was her Nana.

Nana Rose had always adored Cheryl and Jason. She told off Penelope for as long as she could, but at one point she realized it wasn't doing anything and stopped. Cheryl loved her Nana and she knew that if anything bad ever happened to her, she would never forgive herself for not being there to save her.

The girl was stressed out, to say the least. Stressed about what to tell Toni and stressed about what she should even do in the first place. Cheryl sat there until Toni's phone alarm went off at 5:30. The serpent snoozed it four times until she finally groaned and sat up slowly.

"Hey, did you sleep at all?" she asked groggily.

"No, not really," Cheryl replied, staring down at her hands.

"That's ok. You're working on it," Toni reassured, placing a hand on Cheryl's shoulder before getting up to shower. Cheryl's stomach had been in knots over talking to Toni about going back to Thistlehouse for a while. She just couldn't bring herself to talk about it.

A short while later, while Cheryl was preparing breakfast for the two, Toni reappeared from the bathroom. She had an annoying habit of wearing just her towel until Cheryl forced her to get dressed. It drove the red head up the wall because Toni was wearing way too little, but also way too much at the same time. So, as per usual, Toni had done it again.

"That smells good," Toni commented. Cheryl hummed in response. The serpent took a seat at the table and waited patiently until Cheryl put their food down. She sent Cheryl a thank you glance before beginning to eat. Cheryl just moved her food around on her plate. She wasn't hungry, and she hadn't been recently.

"Is something on your mind?" Toni asked, glancing up from her food.

"No, just not hungry is all," Cheryl lied. She hated lying to her girlfriend, but she had no choice. Toni looked at her skeptically before shrugging. Toni finished eating and took both of their plates before going to get dressed, leaving Cheryl to her own thoughts. Her brain hurt from all the thinking she was doing. Toni returned from getting dressed which meant that her dresser was all Cheryl's.

Cheryl and Toni had developed a pretty good system for working around each other in the mornings. Typically Toni would do everything first. She tended to get easily distracted by just about anything that was shiny or moved, so it took her a bit longer than most people. Cheryl could shower in under 5 minutes if she really wanted to. The only time that it got annoying was when they both happened to be in the bathroom at the same time.

When Cheryl got done picking her outfit, Toni was still blow drying her hair in the bathroom, which meant that Cheryl had to do her makeup around the other girl. It was quite the challenge, considering Toni couldn't really stand still for all that long and she kept accidentally knocking Cheryl's arm. They bickered over makeup like they always did, but somehow, by the grace of God, they were out the door with 5 minutes to spare.

They walked into the school together and instantly, the hallway sounded like a windstorm had hit it. Ever since Cheryl had returned from her adventure at the SOQM, people wouldn't stop whispering. Cheryl wasn't sure if it was because of the fact she had been sent there, or if it was because she had begun to be friendly with a Southside Serpent. She blamed both factors.