Enlightened

Chapter Fourteen: Hard Nights, Speak Easy

A/N: This one's really long.  Just a head's up.

It had been a week since Choni went on their "break".  Cheryl was having a particularly tough morning and was really feeling her loneliness.  After barely managing to get up in time for work and trudging around the house all morning, she decided to leave early and sit at the cafe down the street from the station.  

She ordered her regular, black coffee and took a seat next to a window.  As she sipped at her coffee she began to think about the only thing that had been on her mind for the past seven days.  Toni.  The pink haired girl must be tired because she'd been running through Cheryl's mind all the time.  She craved the pink haired girl furiously right now.  Her compassionate touch, her soft lips, her gentle controlling attitude, all of her.  She wanted to run her hands through Toni's pink and brown locks as she whispered sweet nothings into Cheryl's ear and kissed her neck lightly.  

The redhead stopped her train of thought as she finished her coffee, otherwise, she would've started crying.  She walked out to her car and rested her head on the steering wheel for a few moments.  A tear slipped out and Cheryl brushed it away hastily, thank God her makeup was waterproof.  She started the car and drove off, one hundred percent not prepared to take on the day.

~

Cheryl went to work that day feeling like her feet, soul and eyelids were made of lead.  She got no sleep at all because she was devising plans to get Toni back all night.  The bags under her eyes weren't being covered by any amount of makeup.  She had no desire to do anything. 

She was feeling sappy and decided to play the playlist that Toni had made for her called 'For Hard Times'.  The first song to play was You're My Star by Tank.  The soft sounds of violins followed by harsher, excited trumpets soothed and pained the redhead.  She had so many conflicting feelings and didn't know what to think of it or how to handle it.  Cheryl pulled out of her driveway, tapping her fingers to the love song as she drove to work.  

~

Cheryl pulled into the parking lot and saw that Toni's cru- Tom, was parked in its usual spot.  She took a deep breath before getting out of the car and walking into the station.  She sat down at her desk and began to shuffle through some paperwork when Fangs came up her desk and leaned over it.  "Did something happen with you and Toni?  She's being distant and you guys aren't on top of each other like you usually are."

"Oh trust me, I'm working on fixing it."  The Deputy looked at her with confusion.  "I kinda maybe kissed Veronica and she told Toni.  We're on a bit of a... break right now.  I'm going to fix it though, I promise."  

"You'd better fix it, Blossom, a mopey Sheriff isn't good for anybody,"  He said, walking away.  Cheryl started working on filling out some forms when she saw a familiar face pasting something onto the station's window.  Jughead Jones was outside, putting up posters.  The redhead walked over to the door and then outside to see what he was doing.  

"What's this Jones?"  She said as he handed her a poster.  The poster read 'OPEN MIC NIGHT AT POP'S SPEAKEASY'.  This caught Cheryl's eye, it sounded interesting.  "What kinds of performances will be there?"  She asked, looking up from the poster. 

"All kinds.  Singers, poets, actors, artists, there'll be a whole bunch of different kinds of entertainment.  It's not too late to sign up, we're always looking for more acts.  Go talk to Pop Tate before 8:30 tonight and we can get you on the list."  Jughead pasted a poster to the window on the opposite side of the door before turning to look at the redhead once more.

"I might.  Do you want me to take a stack of those?  I can put them on the desk so people can take one,"  Cheryl asked, smiling softly at the beanie-clad boy.