The Quiet Kid: (choni)

18: The Serpents

TONI POV:

It's been a few weeks since I started school and go drunk at the drive in. I've been in and out of school I've only been going 3 days a week. Emotionally I can't go everyday. Cheryl finally got her own apartment. Not that I don't want her living with me. It's just kinda awkward with Sarah also there. "Toni maybe you should think about going more times a week." Cheryl suggests as she takes my hand. I think about it for a minute and the answer is obviously no. "No." She stops me and cups my cheek. "It's been over a almost a year. What is your problem? Honestly." She insist. "I don't know." I lie. I know exactly what my problem with coming here is. It's everything that happened that day and the football team except Archie he's innocent. "I don't believe you, but I'm gonna let this go for today." She plays with my hand as we walk to class. Class happens nothing interesting happens. As usual. Some how I don't get called on thank god.

We're sitting at lunch eating. For some reason Cheryl and I were sitting at different tables. We're not in a fight but she's sitting with the Vixens and I'm sitting with the serpents (Jughead, Fangs and Sweets). "So when you getting your tattoo?" SweetPea ask me out of no where. "I don't know. I don't even know if I want to be a serpent in the first place " I say frustrated. "Than why are you a serpent?" He ask standing up. "I never wanted to join, you made me because of my family history!" I yell also standing up. Everyone starts to look at us. "We should talk in private." I grab my stuff and storm out. I go to the blue and gold, slam the door behind me, get in a corner and have a panic attack. "Toni..." Cheryl sits a few feet away from me. "I saw you run out." She says calmly. "I don't want to talk." I say quietly. We sit there for a while in silence. Honestly this is something I love about Cheryl, she sits with me through my panic attacks and if I need to be talked off a ledge she does that. The bell rings. "You ok?" She ask grabbing her bag. I just shake my head. "Do you want me to stay?" I shake my head again. "I'm gonna go to the nurse and call Sarah." I get up and we walk out. "Do you want me to-." I stop her. "I can do things on my own. Go to class you have a future a head of you." Before she can talk me out of anything I go to the nurse. She immediately starts dialing the phone. "Go lie down." She whisper and calls Sarah. I lie down on the bed and next thing I know Sarah is shaking me away. "Do you have all your stuff?" I nod sleepily, I get up and we leave. We get into the car. "You can't just come home every time you have a panic attack." She says quietly. "I know." I rub my neck. "Can we go home?" I ask quietly. "No." What? I look at her. "What?" "We're going to Pops, I need to talk to you." That's never good. I sit back and try not to think about what she might say.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" I ask nervously. She puts down her fork. "So you know Johnathan is." I roll my eyes. "Yeah, what about him. You guys aren't getting married are you?" I sit up. "No, we decided to break up." Oh thank god! "Oh no that is a shame." I try to sound disappointed. "Really bud?" Slightly frustrated. "I'm sorry, he reminded me of my brother. There's a reason why I never talk about him." I say quietly. "He was also much older so I don't really remember him." I add to the sentence. "Why did you have a panic attack?" She ask leaning closer to me. "I got in a fight with Sweet pea and everyone saw. We didn't physically fight, but we almost did." I say quietly. "About what?" Ok so little back story. She knows I'm a serpent but she tries to forget the fact that I'm a serpent. "It's not important. It was just us being boys." I dodge the question. "Anything else?" I stop eating. "What are you trying to get out of me?" I ask frustrated. "I want what's best for you! I really don't like you being in the serpents, and you know that." She says quietly at the end. "Sarah, can you choose? You're either cradling me like a baby or throwing me out to the world."

"What do you want?" I ask Sweet Pea. "You don't want to help the serpents, so I'm sorry but, get him." Fangs and Jughead grab my by the arms. "You don't want to be a serpent anymore?" He ask. "This isn't making me feel any better about staying in the serpents just throwing that out there." I try to get out of the boys grip. "Too bad." He punches me. "What happened to us being a family?" I ask. He takes a step back. "You guys can let go." The both drop me, I feel my nose start to bleed. Fangs and Jughead walk away. "What's gotten into you?" he ask quietly. "You can talk to me." He whispers. "You just punched me because you were bored!" I yell. "I can't do this." I whisper. "I'm sorry." I take off my jacket and start to hand him. "We need you." He tries to hand me back my jacket. "For what? I don't anything! I can't do this! Not right now." I yell. "Ok, but you should keep the jacket just in case." I nod. "If you need to talk, I'm here." He offers. "I know, I'll see you at school." I walk away to my truck. I throw the jacket in the bed and get in the truck. I turn on the radio, nothing interesting is on but it blocks out my thoughts. Well until I start crying and pull over. I wipe my tears and call Cheryl. "Hey babe what's up?" She ask quietly. "Can I stay over with you tonight? I don't really want to be alone." I ask slightly embarrassed. "Yeah I'll find a movie we can watch or something. You ok though? You seem upset." She ask quietly. "I'll talk to you when I get there. Can you also get a ice pack ready and something for my nose to stop bleeding?" I ask. I put my phone on speaker and start driving. "Yeah, is evening ok?" She ask again. "Yeah. I'll see you in a few." I avoid more questions and hang up. I drive to her apartment and go inside. I ring the door bell and the door quickly opens. Something Cheryl is really good at. "Toni, what happened?" She takes my hand and drags me in. "I talked to Sweet Pea who has the temperature of a nat." I sit on the counter and she cleans my face. "Surprisingly, he only punched me once. Which is a new record!" I say happily. "You shouldn't be taking this abuse." She whispers putting ice on my face. "I know." I take deep breath. "First in the bathroom, than this." Oh right I lied to Cheryl and now she thinks some of the serpents beat me up in the bathroom when it was really the football team. "Yeah, because that's what happened." I say more to myself. "What do you mean?" I shake my head. "It's nothing." I shake it off. "Toni." She makes me look her in the eye. "Cheryl." I whisper. "Tell me." She rubs my cheek. "Cheryl, please don't make me." I whisper. "Toni Topaz tell me what happened that day in the bathroom." She insist. "No." I say slightly pissed off. "Please I don't want to talk about it." I look down and play with my hands. I get off the counter. "Why?" I shake my head. "No. Can we just lie down and watch a movie?" I ask. She nods. We go over to the couch and watch a movie. "I'm sorry. I don't want to talk about what happened." I speak up. "It's ok."