Strawberries and Cigarettes | A Choni Fanfiction|

Eleven

"Do you think you and Cheryl will be together forever?" Lulu asked me from where she sat, wiping out a glass with a rag from her seat on the bar counter, and I hummed with a soft smile as I mopped the main floor.

"I hope so." I admitted, "She's like the best thing that ever happened to me, and I don't know what I would do if she wasn't my girlfriend anymore."

"Same. With Josie, I mean." She hummed, her two front teeth showing in her goofy smile, brown eyebrows fluttering as she put the cup on the rack under the counter, moving her booted foot over the counter so she could sit more comfortably, her black skinny jeans obviously getting too tight around her legs, since she'd been working her thighs and glutes out a lot more lately.

She says that it's for football, but I'm willing to bet that it's because she wants to be able to pick up her girlfriend and run around with her on her back for longer periods of time. It's something she'd do, and nobody can tell me otherwise.

"I mean, yeah. I'm happy for ya, Lu. I've never seen you so happy." I admitted, and she hummed.

"She's literally perfect, Tiny. I mean, really. I've only been dating her for four months and I'm ready to propose." She joked, and I grinned.

"Dude, you are so whipped." I teased, and she rolled her eyes.

"I literally watched you go out of your way to make sure Cheryl didn't forget her glasses at school yesterday." She reminded me, "You literally ran inside the school just before the janitor locked the doors to go grab them off the stage in the auditorium."

"And? She needs them to see." I reminded, and Lucy scoffed.

"She has contacts. And an extra pair of glasses. Forgetting them for one day is not dangerous." She argued, causing me to take my turn to roll my eyes.

"Well-"

"Well, well well..." Chuckled a sinister voice behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to see a devious smile, barely visible under a mop of shaggy black curls. "If it isn't Tiny Toni Topaz." Wheezed Malachai, and I reached into my pocket, pulling out a switchblade and drawing it open, casing him to put his hands up in surrender. "I come in peace," He laughed, "for now."

"What the hell do you want, Melondew?" Lulu hissed, and he chortled.

"Why would you assume I want something from you?" He asked, analyzing a picture on the wall beside the door.

"We only see you when you want something." Lulu answered, and he knocked the picture down, causing it to shatter on the ground, and my eyes to roll.

"Or break something." I complained.

"I'm just here to cash out on a deal we made last year." He chuckled, and I sighed.

"Seriously? What the hell do you even want with the half built POS in the woods anyway? It's literally just old wood once we take it down." I assured, and he chuckled, taking a seat on the table near the stage, hands propped back behind him, his moody boot clopping onto the metal seat nearest the table.

"See, we don't just want the wood, we want the memories." He muttered, "I want to take the sentiment from your slimy serpent hands." His neck teetered from side to side as he spoke with a taunting tone in his voice. "I want to shatter your dreams by taking your only true sense of comfort from you, seeing as the only other thing that belongs to you is that pretty little redhead who lives on the north side."

He eyed me, and it caused my heart to throb in my chest.

"Leave Cheryl out of this," I warned lowly, setting the rag down and stepping closer to him, and he let out a shrill laugh with the flick of his wrist.