capsize me and douse me in your bay

chapter seven

"Betts, I owe you one, seriously, thank you again. So much."

Toni sighed relieved into her cell phone. It was Friday and the week had flown by much too quickly for her liking. Not only was she busy with work, but she was starting to lose time to either find Cheryl a place to go or find a place of her own. She couldn't really be mad at Veronica's ultimatum. It was her apartment and Cheryl was a stranger that she invited in without her permission. But she had a day and a half to meet her roommates demands or else she would be out on the street. There was no way she was moving back to Riverdale.

"I'll see you in a little bit, I'll buzz you in," she smiled a bit sadly before hanging up. Betty was a lifesaver. Thankfully ever since her sister Polly went off to college years ago, the Coopers had an extra room. And while it took some convincing and explaining, Toni managed to convince Betty to take Cheryl in. It was the best she could do without kicking the poor girl to the curb. She just couldn't do that to her.

Now she just had to tell her...

Biting her lip, Toni walked back into the apartment from the hall, unable to help the smile that crossed her face at the sight of Cheryl sitting cross-legged on the couch, combing through her hair with a fork while she watched another ocean documentary. It seemed that shows about the ocean were the only way that Toni could get her to sit still and quietly, as any other time she was energetic and chatty. She didn't know what she had been watching while she went to work, but her vocabulary had been getting better over the last few days. Though, she still struggled with some words and their meanings.

"Remember how I bought you a comb for your hair?" The pinkette chuckled a little as she stepped into the living room, plopping down beside Cheryl, "It was so you would stop using the forks, remember?"

"Dinglehopper," the redhead corrected her with a smile.

"It's a-" Toni started, but stopped herself, shaking her head, "Right. Sorry." She watched Cheryl just smile and turn back to her show, combing contently through her long, copper hair as she giggled at a jellyfish getting sucked into a shift in the current. She'd be lying if she said she wouldn't miss her. Despite the chaos she brought along, Cheryl had made every day of Toni's monotonous life different and exciting. But she made a deal with Veronica and she wasn't the type to break a deal.

"Hey, I have a question," she piped up after a few moments of silence between them, "Did you like Riverdale?"

Cheryl nodded, putting the fork down on the coffee table, "It was very pretty. I ate cherries at Pop's."

"Do you remember Betty?"

"I remember Betty. She brought me here in her, um..." she mimed the act of steering a car with her hands, furrowing her brows as she tried to remember the word.

"Her car?"

"Yes. Car. There are many cars here. Very loud, even at night."

"Yeah, it's like that in the city, I guess," Toni smiled, leaning against the back of the couch as she tried to muster up the courage to tell Cheryl that this was her last day in the apartment. "So, I-"

"Do you not miss Riverdale, Toni?" Cheryl interrupted with a sad smile, "Riverdale misses you."

A bit caught off guard by the question, Toni's mouth gaped open a little as she thought of an answer. "I mean...not really. There's nothing really there for me anymore...except for Jughead and Betty."

"What about Violet?"

"What?"

"Your boat."

A lump formed in her throat. Violet, her father's boat that was named after her mother, had been docked for thirteen years. She was probably mossy and rusted and covered in barnacles by now. It was left to Toni, after her dad died, but she never had the heart to do anything with it except let it just sit there. Every day she told herself to go take care of it. To at least clean it up a bit so her dad wouldn't be disappointed. But each day made it harder and harder to even look it. Until eventually, she hadn't thought about it at all until now.