Happily Ever After

24: Across The Universe

TONI POV:

I can't sleep. I never can, I don't remember the last time I actually got enough sleep. I get up from the bed. I grab my camera and walk downstairs, I write a note explaining my whereabouts and walk outside. I take some photos for about a hour until I get bored and find a comic book shop. I walk in and find some books I like and check them out. I check the time and it's been 3 hours since I left the house so I walk home. I check to see if I have a key and I don't. "Shit!" I ring the doorbell and Cheryl opens the door. All the color from her face is gone. "Where- don't you- don't you- h-have a k-key?" She stutters out. "No I- I forgot it." I whisper. "You ok?" I ask concerned. "I don't know." She let's me in. We sit down at the counter, well I do she  paces around the kitchen. "Cheryl just tell me what's bothering you." I insist. She takes a deep breath. "You know how we broke up, for that week?" I shake my head. "Which time?" I ask quietly. "About a month ago." She says nervously. "Oh yeah. What about it?" I ask quietly. "Well, Sweet Pea and I may have gotten drunk and may have had unprotected sex." She whispers. My heart drops. "Cheryl that's my best friend. You had sex with my best friend!" I yell. "It was one night." She whispers. "Are you?" She nods. "I just a test and it said positive. I- I don't know what to do." I get up and walk over to her. "Everything is going to be ok." I whisper to her. "You're ok." I pull her into a hug. She starts crying. "Shh. You're going to be ok." I hug her tighter. "It's ok." I whisper to her still in shock.

"What made you. 1) not tell me about you and Sweet Pea? 2) not tell me about the possibility of you being pregnant?" I ask still processing this. "Because I didn't think I was pregnant until I realized I was 2 weeks late." I take a deep breath. "Ok." I look at her. "But what about you and my best friend?!" I ask frustrated. She stands up and walks over to me. "It was one time and I didn't think anything about it." She whispers. "So you slept with my best friend and think I would have a problem with it?" I ask getting worked up. "You slept with Veronica, we used to be best friends until she met Betty and latched onto her. You don't think I have a problem with that? Him and I was me getting back at you but it went to far." I walk away from her and walk around in circles. "She was your best friend. Sweet Pea has been there for me since I can remember, we were in diapers together. He was the first person I came out to when I was questioning my sexually and even my own gender!" I confess. God! Why do I keep saying shit I don't want people to know?!  "What?" She looks at me. "You wonder why I go by Toni and not Antoinette or Ann or anything along those lines. It's because I feel more comfortable with a more masculine name. I'm not saying that I'm trans, I just-." I sigh. "I don't know. I just want my mom to be proud of me, and I don't think that's the way to do it." I say honestly. She walks over to me. "If you need to transition to feel more comfortable as yourself. Your mom shouldn't be holding you back." She cups my cheeks. "I don't know, I really don't want to talk about this right now, today has been really overwhelming I need to decompress." I walk upstairs needing to breathe and get away from everything. "Toni-." I stop her. "Please for once leave me alone for a minute! Can you worry about something or someone else for once in our relationship?!" I yell. She looks down. "Yeah, I'll give you some time to process." She walks out. I slam the door and sit on the bed. I take a shaky deep breath holding back tears. "Damnit!" I throw a remote across the room. "For fuck sake." I whisper getting up and try to put some of it back together. I get up and walk downstairs. Cheryl is sitting at the pool with her feet in the water. I walk outside and sit next to her. "I'm sorry for yelling at you." I say calmly. "I know. You broke something didn't you?" I nod. "I threw the remote across the room." I look at her and she giggles. "Yeah I heard the yelling and smashing of the remote I just assumed you got pissed off." She smiles. "I'm not mad at you, well I am but not about the you and Sweet Pea thing. It's just you should have told me right after. Well maybe not right after but when it happened. You know what? You should have told me sooner because I wouldn't have gotten as mad at you." She smiles. "Did you really do that to get back at me?" I ask quietly. "Yes and no. We were drunk at I was talking about how I wanted revenge for you and Veronica and he kissed me and I think you can guess what happened." I nod. "I still love you." I whisper. "I love you too."