The Quiet Kid: (choni)

23: Lodge Lodge

TONI POV:

Cheryl drops her bag in my hands. "Cheryl really?" She looks back at me. "Sorry." She grabs her bag. We all walk into the house. "It's not much." Veronica shrugs. "Really?" She turns around. Cheryl just takes my hand. "You live in a pretty big place, right?" Veronica ask innocently. "Yeah. It's just still for me, a cardboard box is big for me." I don't feel like bringing up my past. Cheryl looks at me. "What are you talking about?" She ask. "Nothing. I'll explain later." Veronica claps her hands. "We should all take a dip in the hot tub." Veronica suggest. We go up to our rooms. I close the door and Cheryl let's go of my hand. "What?" I ask quietly. "What were you talking about?" I take a deep breath. "It's nothing, just childhood traumas." I go to my bag and find swim trunks, I quickly change into them. Cheryl walks out of the bathroom in a red bikini, of course. "Ready?" We go out to the hot tub. Cheryl gets in as I rip my shirt off. Veronica comes out with frozen margaritas. "I don't drink." I say get in. "It's ok. Yours is just a slushy." She hands me mine. "Thank you?" I say awkwardly. Veronica and Betty get in. I take a deep breath. "You ok?" Cheryl rubs my thigh. "Yeah. I just- I'll be back in a minute." I get out and grab towel. I run back into the house. I take a a deep breath and panic for the next ten minutes. I go to the booze cabinet. "Toni." I stand up to Veronica. "Please don't say anything to Cheryl!" I panic. "It's ok." She whispers. "I can't do this." I walk over to her. "What's wrong?" She ask. "I just haven't really come out to anyone ever and incase you haven't noticed my scars are pretty visible and when my pants are wet, you can see that I have nothing down there." I point to my pants. "I just don't want Betty asking me any questions." I say awkwardly. "Why her specifically?" She ask quietly. "I don't know. I don't know." I rub my eyes. I take a deep breath and we go back outside to the hot tub. "Everything ok?" Cheryl ask quietly. "Yeah, just worried about nothing." I whisper. "I have a question." Betty says out of the blue. "Toni, why were you in the girls locker room?" I sit back. "I... have no choice." I say awkwardly. "What do you mean?" Betty ask. God I hate that she's a detective. "I was born a girl and the school doesn't want to acknowledge that I don't identify as a girl." Cheryl takes my hand. "Oh, ok. I'm sorry I pushed it." Betty apologizes. "Oh, it's- it's fine. I don't usually tell people unless they ask." I place my arm around Cheryl's shoulder. "Do you have anymore questions, or do you need a few more drinks?" I joke. "I need to few more." Betty laughs.

We walk into our room, a few drinks later Cheryl is completely drunk. I help her onto the bed. "No! I have a boyfriend." She panics. "Cheryl it's ok, it's just me." I try to calm her down. "Please don't hurt me." She pleads as she slowly falls asleep. I take a deep breath. "It's ok." I whisper as I lie down next to her. I rub her back. She leans into me closer. Veronica quietly comes in. "Is she ok?" She mouths. "She will be." I whisper. I get up quickly without waking Cheryl up. I walk out and close the door behind her. "What happened to her? She kept yelling at me not to hurt her." She takes a deep breath. "Has she ever mentioned a guy named Nick?" I think for a minute. "Oh..." I realize. "I would give her time." Veronica whispers. I open the door slightly and check on Cheryl. "Did she tell you what happened?" I nod. "Yeah a while ago, it just really hasn't effected our sex life. It's usually me." I look down. "You don't need to know that." I say very awkwardly. "I have an idea to get your mind off of this." I look back to Cheryl and than at Veronica. "What?" I close the door. "You should paint your nails." My eyes widen. "Why?" I ask. "Because you would look great, I have black."

Cheryl walks out into the kitchen. "Hey, guys." She sits down next to me. "What happened last night?" She ask. "You pretty much kicked me out of bed, you were pretty drunk last night." She takes a deep breath. "That's it?" She ask. "Yeah." I lie. I take her hand. "You're lying to me." I take a deep breath. "I'll explain to you later." I whisper. Veronica hands her some some water and painkillers. "Take this you're hungover." Veronica and I look at each other. "Hey, Cheryl you and I should go shopping, well once you're not hungover." Veronica suggest. "Ok. I'm going to take this and take a nap." She takes the painkillers and goes back to our room. "You should be the one to tell her Toni about last night." I look up. "Yeah." I take a deep breath and get up, I walk into our room. "Hey." I close the door quietly knowing how she probably feels right now. "What really happened last night?" She ask as I sit at the edge of the bed. "You got drunk and kept pushing me away thinking I was going to hurt you." She sighs. "I've done everything to forget about that night." She whispers rolling over. "I've already told you what happened." I nod. "It's ok." I move hair out of her face. "Do you want to talk about it again?" She shakes her head. "I almost broke last night. Over something really stupid. But, I didn't because Veronica stopped me. I was going to make it sound like I had this come to Jesus moment but I didn't." She laughs quietly.