now tell me, how did all my dreams turn to nightmares?

Chapter 16

Cheryl paced back and forth in her bedroom, anxiously awaiting Jughead's arrival. She had texted him the moment she got home, asking the boy to come over to brainstorm theories.

"Okay," he said as he entered her bedroom, having let himself into the unlocked trailer, "what's this big emergency?"

"I'm cursed!"

Jughead raised an eyebrow, "Come again?"

"This... whatever this is," Cheryl gestured around the room, "is a curse. My curse."

"What?"

The redhead huffed, "Keep up, Jones! This nightmare world I'm stuck in... What if it's a curse?"

"Like some fairy tale shit?" he asked.

"Precisely! And how does one break a curse?"

Jughead shrugged, "Are you wanting to brew potions or something?"

"True love's kiss," she seethed, getting annoyed that the boy couldn't follow her train of thought.

"Oh! Like Once Upon a Time," he nodded, finally understanding.

"That was a TV show, right?"

The boy nodded, "It started out with the whole town being under the Evil Queen's spell, but only one boy, Henry, was aware of the curse. He went to Boston to find his birth mother, and they had this code name for the mission to break the curse. Operation Cobra, I think it was."

"Jughead, I don't care about the show!" Cheryl exclaimed, getting tired of his summary.

"Right," he acknowledged, "but you're right. By the end of the show almost anything could be solved with true love's kiss."

"If you knew this already, why didn't you say anything?"

"I watch a lot of tv," Jughead shrugged, "and I'm only an amateur sleuth. So is that the theory we are going with now? Everyone is cursed?"

"I think it's just me," Cheryl answered. "Who knows. It could be everyone?"

"I guess anything is possible."

Toni invited Cheryl to hang out the next day after school. The pinkette drove them both on her Kawasaki, fulfilling her promise from their date. The pair went to Toni's bedroom, which was Cheryl's former.

It was strange being back there. She had ran through there briefly the night she burglarized the house, but the last time she spent any real time in the room was the night she burned Thornhill to the ground.

"How about some music?" Toni asked. Cheryl nodded, and the shorter girl took out a box of records. "It's nice being able to play my music for other people."

"You haven't before?"

Toni shook her head, "Not for a while. You know who didn't really like this kind of music. I only ever got to listen to what she deemed appropriate."

"Of course," the redhead scoffed. "I'm sure whatever you put on will be great, Toni."

"Yeah," she nodded. "Something tells me you'll enjoy this." Toni slid one of the vinyl records out of its sleeve and placed it on her player, adjusting the needle so sound began to play through the speaker.

Cheryl nodded along to the rock music. It wasn't what she'd typically listen to, but it wasn't awful. She wondered why Toni thought she'd enjoy it so much. "They aren't bad. Who are they?" she asked.