MUSICAL #23: RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA

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23: I NEVER REALLY PEGGED YOU FOR A MUSICALS KIND OF GIRL

« we're just planning a little get together, nothing fancy. just family, a few close friends, and all the eligible young women in the kingdom. »

THREE DAYS AFTER shit goes down with Toby, Allison goes back to school, and doesn't see him once on the first day – or the second, or the third. She thinks a lot about texting him to check if he's okay, but never carries through with it, which results in a lot of despondent staring at the screen at the last texts they'd exchanged (some argument about whether kittens or puppies are cuter).

"Do it," Lydia says, standing beside her. Allison locks her phone and looks up at her. "...or don't," she finishes.

"It's not that I don't want to, it's just..." Allison trails off, not finding the right words.

"You're still kind of mad at him?" Lydia finishes.

"Yeah," she admits, because, well, she is. She knows now that Toby was upset about his mom when he hurled those words at her, but it doesn't mean they don't hurt any less. And they hurt a whole lot.

Daniel ends up calling her, eventually, one night on the first week back when she's struggling through Calculus and aggressively not thinking about Toby or what's up with him.

Turns out, what Toby told her was pretty true: his mom got into an accident years ago that left her with long-term amnesia. What he didn't tell her was that for the next two years, his mom couldn't even begin to remember Toby or Toby's dad. She ended up living with them and feeling like a stranger in her own house. Eventually, it became too much, and she ended up being diagnosed with depression. So she'd left; gone out of state.

"I think she went to Washington, or something," Daniel says. "I don't know. Someplace far away. Toby was like, thirteen. She promised him that if she remembered she'd come back. But I guess she didn't. He knew – I mean, he knew it wasn't her fault, or anything. But his dad ended up working himself to death to try and forget about it, and Toby was just – alone. Like, I guess it might even be worse than your mom dying. Your mom not even remembering who you are."

"She never remembered anything?"

"Nothing," she can practically hear Daniel's shrug over the phone. "All her doctors were going batshit crazy about it. Toby – Toby was kinda...I mean, he had to redo his last grade of middle school. That's when I met him and stuff."

"That's why he's a year ahead," Allison murmurs in understanding.

"I mean, if you ask me, he didn't need it, or anything – I mean, you know Toby, he's on the honor roll and everything without even having to try, but his dad insisted."

"What's his dad like? I mean – I've never even met him –"

"He's a good guy. He – I mean, he loves Toby, obviously,  he just – I mean, I think maybe he forgets – forgets that –"

"That Toby needs a dad," Allison finishes, thinking of Lydia.

Daniel sighs. "Yeah. Basically."

There's a pause. "Thanks for telling me," Allison says softly.

"It's okay. I mean, I don't know why he didn't tell you in the first place. You guys are practically joined at the hip or something, he's always talking about you and –"

"Wait, what?"

" – it's just like – I don't know. I was kinda waiting on him to ask you out, to be honest."

Allison feels dizzy. "You were?"

"Obviously," Daniel says, as if he'd be stupid not to have been waiting on them. "You guys are literally married."

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