Love Me (Choni)

CHAPTER ELEVEN, Kick em out:

Toni's pov:

It had killed me to leave Cheryl's side, with her still injured. But I had seen she was in good hands and I urgently needed to talk to Jughead. I approached him cautiously, as a dark look sat on his face. He had just finished yelling at Jake for the public commotion and attempting to dispersing the tight crowds that now stood scowling at the newcomers. It was scary the number that seemed to loath Cheryl and her friends.

"Jughead, we need to speak," I said firmly placing my hand on his shoulder. He turned and met me with worried eyes and a stressed out expression.

"Yes Toni we do," he agreed solemnly leading the way to the leaders hut. It was the only building we had assembled out of thick branches, sticks to fill gaps and tree trunks for support.

"I need to know what happened out there Toni, did Cheryl attack Jake or was it completely from his side?" Asked Jughead, pushing open the door to the shack and holding it open for me to enter.

I obliged and begun to explain everything down to the last detail, a stormy expression grew on his face and his knuckles tightly gripped the table he now leaned over. I could see that the cogs were going around in his head, desperately trying to find a way out of the situation, for us but also for himself.

"Toni, I don't know what to do, " he muttered after my story was finished.

"kick him out, please!" I suggested, with a hint of plead in my voice. If Jake was gone maybe I could finally move on from what he had done to me, finally forgive the world.

"Toni, you know I can't do that... No serpent stands alone and he is more serpent than your New girlfriend Cheryl" he sighed sorrowfully, My heart dropped I knew he was right. If he kicked out Jake there was most definitely going to be an uproar, a thing that the serpents excelled at.

"Well, what are you going to do? Some serpents hate the new comers, like dangerously hate," I questioned remembering the foul looks on the faces of those surrounding Cheryl and her friends.

"I'm going to do nothing," Jughead said a decided look on his face.

"That was your response to the increase in zombies we are finding near our camp too! I almost got killed yesterday." I said in alarm, desperately trying to make him see my side.

"well what good would announcing it do?! It would just panic people, I can't do that Toni." he explained, his face clammy and his gaze refusing to meet mine.

"You can't just ignore it, like these things never happened Jug." I said in exasperation, the spats with the newcomers were becoming increasingly frequent.

"Yes I can, look if it gets worse I deal with it then but for now we can just act normally," he returned dismissively, I turned and stormed out of the tent. Was he a great leader? Yes. However, I was sure his stubbornness to ignore possible problems, wouldn't help us in the long run.

It didn't take long for my theory to be proven right. Crossing camp I could sense the tension, it clung to the air massing like thunderclouds ready to orchestrate a storm. I knew I would have to pick a side soon but it would kill me too. Betraying the serpents would be instant exile, I would have to leave my family of sixteen years...

I started to make my way towards the tent area, what ever I decided to do I would have to inform the girl I had rapidly fallen for. Walking around an especially large tent I came across a close circle of people. I scanned them and my heart leaped when I saw the recognizable redhead in their midst.

I came to an awkward stop a few paces from the group, I wanted to cross immediately and check whether Cheryl had recovered from her run in with Jake. However, I knew she was weary about us showing affection around them, I needed to respect them.