It was truly surprising how valuable of a distraction school work could be. Even in love. Even a hormonal 17 year old in love. Even a hormonal 17 year old in love, with no idea as to where their beloved was or what multitude of sordid things they were getting up to, could find the merit in burying themselves into their school work to avoid thinking about it.
It was funny, or perhaps sad, how the threat of dropping one grade in one class and missing out on one's dream college allowed one to forget that anything else other than the fact that that sentence on that page in that book should be highlighted, underlined and committed to memory.
If anything, for Cheryl, homework was simply a hobby. She could be teaching the damn classes, let alone pacing herself ahead of the entire year. But, alas, Friday through to Sunday, with the brief exception of Saturday night when she'd spent the evening with Kevin and Josie, she had seldom left herself a minute away from her books.
If she hadn't, she'd have been thinking about it.
About her.
Where she was, was she ok, was she in danger, was she in custody?
"It's just two days, and I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."
The words had echoed around her head any time she'd left it empty enough of information.
She knew she was. She knew Toni could hold her own in a brawl, or break up a bar fight or play look out or delivery driver or give a signal for a drop off. She knew that.
But in those instances she also knew that Toni would be walking into school the next day or visiting Thistlehouse after work or at least texting her back.
But now, she didn't even know where she was for Christ's sake.
Cheryl had kissed her goodbye on Friday night, insisting on driving her to the Whyte Wyrm but eventually relenting when Toni had outright refused. She'd waited all of ten minutes before sending her a good luck text and that was the last that they had interacted since.
Cheryl rather thought she'd been very good. She hadn't wanted to be that girl and certainly not that girlfriend, pestering Toni with texts simply for her own peace of mind when she clearly had more serious business to focus on.
So she'd left it at that, waiting, with her signature childish impatience, for Toni to reply.
But it didn't mean her fingers didn't itch for her phone.
It didn't mean she hadn't glanced at it every 2 minutes hoping to see a message.
It didn't mean she wasn't really fucking not ok with it.
So, she'd stuck her nose in a book and tried desperately to forget about it.
She'd even finished Toni's fucking homework for her.
So, when she'd seen her phone flash on Sunday evening at precisely 20:41, she'd been out of her reading chair and across the room in seconds.
'At the Wyrm. Be at yours later x.'
It was clinical, a little too cold for Cheryl's liking despite the humidity of the night.
But, it was Toni.
And she was ok.
But it's ok. It's all ok, Cher.
Never one to deny herself of something that she wanted for too long, Cheryl had slipped on a jacket and was crunching her heels hurriedly across Thistlehouse driveway to her car inside of a minute.
She'd decided to surprise Toni, pick her up from the Wyrm, kiss her breathless and bundle her into her bedroom to fuck her senseless for the rest of the goddamn night.
