Shattered Smiles (A Choni Story)

Chapter 17

Veronica's POV
"Hey."
"Hi Toni. Can I come in?"
Wait. Shit. Is that Betty?
"Yeah, of course Betty, sorry."
God dammit.
I start running around the kitchen trying to clean up all my papers and work then bolt into the bedroom before she can see me.
I burst into the bedroom and see Sweet Pea half naked there.
"Woah. Why the hell are you bursting in here?" Sweet Pea asks me and hurriedly puts his shirt on.
"Betty's here," I say quickly.
"That's good, right? She is your girlfriend."
"I didn't tell her."
"What?"
"I didn't tell her I got kicked out."
"Uh oh. Are you going to?"
"I'm not sure," I answer him, "I might just walk out there and act like I've been hanging out with Cheryl beforehand."
"You technically have been," he shrugs.
"So I won't be lying to her."
"Oh no, you will be."
"Ugh, not helping me Sweet Pea."
"Why don't you just tell Betty?"
"Betty is an angry person. Her and Toni are the same. It's just that Betty controls her angriness better, she saves it for the right time. She's like a ticking time bomb, hurt her or someone she's remotely related to and you're going to wish you never met her. Does that make any sense?" I try to explain to Sweet Pea.
"How bad is she?"
"If she knew about Hiram, she'd lure him into the forest with this crazy elaborate plan and try to kill him herself."
"So she's worse, Toni would at least call for help."
"Don't get me wrong, Betty's extremely smart and very level headed but never ever seriously piss her off. She only has so many things that can cool her down. But don't worry, not a lot fazes her unless it's very serious," I try to cover for Betty.
She really isn't bad, just angry.
"So we just tell her very carefully?"
"Yes, that is why we need to tell Toni. We need her to help us come up with a plan while Betty talks to Cheryl.
"Are you just gonna walk out and drag Toni in here?"
"That was the idea, good job," I pat him on the back then walk out of the bedroom.
"Oh hey babe," I play dumb when I see Betty.
"Veronica? I mean I saw your car but assumed that Toni was just using it. I didn't know you would be here," Betty says.
"Oh yeah, I, uh, came over early in the morning."
"Huh, ok."
"Well, Toni can I talk to you?" I say and wave her over to the room.
"Oh yeah sure," she answers me then turns to Betty and says, "I gotta go deal with Veronica but Cheryl is very happy to see you so go ahead and hang out with her."
She walks in the bedroom and notices Sweet Pea here with me.
"Ok, what the hell type of intervention did you drag me into?"
"I didn't tell Betty," I blurt.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"She didn't tell Betty about, you know," Sweet Pea tried politely hint.
"No, I don't know so please don't waste my time any longer and just tell me what's happening."
"We've been stuck in this trailer skipping school since Tuesday, we have all the time we need," I fire back.
"Whatever, I just want to get out there and make sure Cheryl is ok."
"If you want her to be ok, give her time to talk with her cousin comfortably without you watching over her like a hawk," Sweet Pea interjects.
"Fine, just tell me what's going on."
"So, I haven't told Betty that I got kicked out."
"Dude, that happened like what, 2 days ago?"
"Yeah," Sweet Pea confirmed.
"She'd be stupid to overreact."
"But you know how she gets."
"You'll be fine. You are overthinking this. Just sit down and tell her. But not casually, that will upset her more. Prepare her, like just say "Hey babe. Sit down, I need to tell you something.".
"Just rip the bandaid off, it's not like she'll hurt you," Pea agrees.
"You don't know that."
"Whoa. What is that supposed to mean?" Toni asked, obviously getting defensive over her friend.
"Will she really not hurt me?"
"Veronica, I get you were abused by your crazy dad but Betty is a good person. She's gentle with everyone, just not the people that really piss her off," Toni tries to reassure me.
"Wait, Hiram put his hands on you?" Sweet Pea asked me, visibly frustrated.
"Oh yeah, but when in 8th grade and Toni was initiated into the gang, the fact that she now had access to so much leverage over my family because of the Serpents scared the shit out of him. He knew Toni and I were extremely close so he knew she knew about the abuse and he stopped hitting me. Toni was my hero."
"Now," Toni cleared her throat, "We got that all figured out, right? You just sit Betty down and tell her that Hiram's punk ass kicked you out and that you are staying with Sweet Pea. No biggie."
"Yeah," I huff, "No biggie."
"What do we do now?" Sweet asks, getting bored with my worries.
"We wait," Toni sighs.