capsize me and douse me in your bay

chapter three

Frustrated, Toni put her phone face down. She knew Betty was only trying to help, but she wasn't being much of a help at all. She'd been texting back and forth with the blonde since she'd settled on the couch with her laptop, digging desperately for answers. She'd scoured articles, police reports from surrounding towns, anything that gave any kind of hint about who Cheryl was or where she came from. But each search brought her right back to square one. Betty could only provide so much information, other than the fact that the clothes Cheryl was wearing were the exact same ones that Jughead was missing from his laundry. And after harassing him for answers, he proved to be no help either.

Maybe she was crazy, taking in a stranger who seemed to not even know her left foot from her right. Especially here in the city where you can't be too careful with who you trust. But Cheryl seemed harmless. The kind of harmless who wouldn't hurt a fly. And Toni couldn't help but feel responsible for her. The redhead was dropped into her lap like an orphaned puppy, she couldn't just abandon her.

Speaking of whom, she hadn't heard a peep from her for a while. It was nearing four o'clock. Unless she snuck out the window and climbed down the fire escape, she'd been asleep for nearly three hours. Veronica was going to be home soon and Toni had no idea what to do about Cheryl. She would let her stay with them, but Toni couldn't take her to work in the morning and she couldn't exactly leave her with Veronica.

With a sigh of defeat, she decided to decide on a plan for the morning when the time came. Instead, she needed to focus on now, starting with waking Cheryl up. She closed her laptop and padded back to her room, pressing her ear to the door before opening it slowly, peeking inside. Cheryl was still fast asleep, lying peacefully, albeit sloppily on her back. The blanket looked like it had been kicked around a bit while she slept. Chuckling quietly, Toni stepped forward to wake her. But a gleam of gold shined in her eyes as it caught the light from outside.

After getting a closer look, she saw a small locket hanging from a thin gold chain around Cheryl's neck. She hadn't been wearing that before. Not that she had seen. Furrowing her brow, she crouched down beside the bed to get a closer look at it, hoping that it would give her some answers. It looked so...familiar. For some reason, just looking at it brought a warm feeling to her chest. But she brushed the feeling aside, her fingers reaching for it in curiosity.

"Toni."

The pink haired girl let out a yelp as she retracted her hand and stumbled back, looking up at the brown eyes that were now staring back at her.

"Hey, Cheryl. You scared the shit out of me, how long have you been awake?"

The redhead just sat up with a yawn and a stretch, humming contently, "Hey, Toni."

"Um...how'd you sleep?" she asked, wiping her palms on her jeans as Cheryl just looked at her with a blank expression, "Did you sleep well?"

"Well," she nodded back, stretching again.

Toni glanced around the room awkwardly, unsure of what to do or say. And Cheryl staring at her wasn't making things any easier. "So, um...that...that locket around your neck...where'd you find that?"

Cheryl reached up to clutch the locket in her fist, casting her eyes down to the grey and white rug under Toni's feet.

"Cheryl?"

The younger girl opened her mouth to say something when she was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and closing, causing her eyes to go wide as she smiled and jumped off the bed, running into the hallway before Toni could even react.

"Cheryl!"

"Good afternoon, Manhattan, my name is Cheryl!" she found the redhead standing in front of a very confused Veronica after she chased her down the hall.