we could be bigger and brighter than space ⋆ choni (for #wattpride)

if you're cold and needed shelter, i'd hold ya, but not sweat ya

"Where do you think you're going to go this time? Where are you gonna-"

Cheryl and her mother were arguing again. Not that it was an uncommon occurrence; they often had blowout fights where she would leave and go stay with Toni for a night or two, but this one was different. Cheryl could sense it in her bones. This time, when Cheryl left, she knew wouldn't be coming back.

"The same place I always go." Cheryl grabbed her red backpack and started shoving clothes into it.

Her mother was following her around her room, yelling. "Oh, yes? The same place with- let me guess- that same girl?"

"Yes, Mother, my same best friend," huffed Cheryl pointedly. "Toni, you meet her all the time."

"You must think I'm so stupid. You think I don't know that Toni is more than just your best friend?" Cheryl's mother crossed her arms, glaring daggers. If looks could kill, Cheryl would have been six feet under long before now. "You are such an ungrateful, spiteful little child."

"That's the point! See, I'm not a child anymore!" Cheryl stamped her foot. "Why can't I just be me? I'm my own friggin' person!"

"Ungrateful," muttered Penelope again. "You should just go if you can't appreciate all I've given you."

Cheryl shook her favorite bag in the air. "I've been planning on going for a while now, Mother. And this time I won't be coming back."

"How did I raise you to make you this way? How did you become a... a homosexual? Was it her?"

"I'm bisexual, for the record. And you better think very long and hard before you bring Toni into this." Cheryl shook her head in barely controlled anger and slung her bag over her shoulder. "Why does everything always go back to her?"

"What are you doing?" Penelope hissed.

"Whatever the hell I want from now on, Mother. And I sure won't need you." Cheryl stomped down the stairs and outside, followed by a storming Penelope, where Toni was already waiting. Cheryl had texted her when the fight was just starting because she knew she'd need someone in her corner.

Toni honked the horn of her uncle's yellow rust bucket of a car and waved. Cheryl grinned and blew her a dramatic kiss, fully aware that her mother was watching. She ran to the car, then, in a moment of rebellion, turned around and flipped her off, savoring her outraged and utterly surprised stare for a moment.

"Drive drive drive!"

They peeled out in a cloud of dust, and the two girls were out of Shit-verdale before Penelope's yell had fully stopped echoing into the open air.

When they were out on the highway, Toni greeted her. "What's uuuuup, loser?!" she cried, wrapping an arm around Cheryl and pulling her to her chest for a quick hug.

"Not much. Just got kicked out of my house and stripped of my inheritance. You know, the usual."

"Major suck," said Toni, glancing over with pity before looking back at the road ahead. They were on the one-lane highway now, and it was deserted, so they were going 80 in a 60 zone. "When do you wanna go back, so I know what we can cram into our time? I'm thinking we hit up a bar tonight, there's a retired Serpent that bouncers at one over this way-"

"I refuse to go back this time, Toni," Cheryl interrupted. "Mummy is just getting worse. I'm done."

Toni stopped in her tracks (metaphorically, of course, since they were driving). "Wait, really?" She grinned. "Good for you, girl! So where are you gonna stay?"

"That brings me to my question: can I stay with you?"

Toni's smile grew wider than was humanly possible. "Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing. My uncle sort of kicked me out, too. Let's totally run away together."