Knight In Leather Armour

(38)

TONI POV:

It's been a few months. We finally moved to LA, Cheryl is in college, I have a well paying job, we live in a 1 room apartment. For once everything has settled. "Toni, maybe we should." She rubs my stomach. "Cheryl, I want to be the parents ours couldn't but, we're not even married." I cup her face. "Your right." I kiss her cheek and we go back to the movie. Cheryl slowly falls asleep on me. I've never been this satisfied with where my life is. It's just Cheryl has really been pushing the whole baby thing. I want to have kids with her really badly just, I don't think I'm ready. I don't think Cheryl 100% isn't for this responsibility either, even though I don't think anyone is fully ready for kids. Are people? "Toni." I look at her. "What?" She pauses the movie. "Your thinking out loud again."
I god. She sits in front of me. "You don't think I'm ready for kids?" She ask. "I don't think either of us are ready for kids." I take her hand. "Your still in college, we're not even married yet. I think we need to wait a few more years that's all." It's true, I'm also horrified of having kids. "Ok." She lies down next to me. "I love you." I kiss the top of her head. "More." Cheryl goes back to sleep shortly after. She was sleeping peace fully until she starts tossing and turning. Hold her and rub her back. "It's ok I'm here." I whisper, she slowly stops panicking.

"Cheryl." I walk behind her and kiss her neck. "I was thinking we could have a date night." I continue kissing her neck. "But maybe that date night ends with some fun." She finally turns around. "I thought you hated the thought of sex?" She whispers. "Yeah but I still have a sex drive. But more for you than me, you've been so stressed recently with school and work I was thinking you need to relax." She pulls me into a kiss. "If your comfortable, we can just do the date part." I say quickly realizing that I can't force her to do anything. She cups my face. "I'll think about the second part." She winks and goes back to what she was doing.

CHERYL POV:

"So I made pasta with sauce and cheese. You really picked a bad person to date." She says pointing at the food. "I offered to cook." I smile at me both sit down. "I know but I thought I could make something decent and I almost burned myself." She takes my hand. All of a sudden her phone goes off. "Toni if you take that." She looks at her phone. "It's Fangs he tried calling earlier but I was busy. This is actually like the 7th time he's called me, it must be important." I give up on this fight. "Fine." She get up and takes it. "Hey what's up?" She walks into the kitchen. "Yeah you kinda did." She always yells on the phone it's hilarious. "What?" She gets serious. "Yeah I'll be there as soon as I can." She walks back in. "Um, Sweat Pea." She shakes her head and starts crying. I get up and walks over to her. "He, he." I cup her face. I try to calm her down. "Toni what happened." She cries into my shoulder. "He killed him self." I hug her titer than I have ever. I rub her back. She pulls away and wipes her tears. "We need to head to Riverdale." She starts to walk away but I stop her. "Hey, go to the bathroom and take a shower, I don't care if you actually shower or you just let the water hit you while you cry. I'll go get plane tickets and pack for the both of us. Ok?" She nods and goes to the bathroom. I go and get plane tickets, once I'm done with that I go to the bath. "You ok in there?" I ask, there is a moment of silence between us. "No. Can you come in here? I don't really want to be alone." I open the door and come in. I quickly undress myself and go in the shower. She turns to me. "I'm alway going to be there for you." I don't know if was the heat of the moment, but she kisses me. I kiss back, she quickly picks me up and pushes me up against the wall and kisses my neck. I let out a soft moan. She move her hand to my core, she starts thrusting her fingers in me slowly, rubbing my clit with her thumb. "Toni." I moans out. She quickly stops. "Wait do you want to stop, I shouldn't have ju-." I kiss her so she'll shut up. "Go faster." I smile at her. She fingers me faster than ever. Moans quickly fill the bathroom.

"Toni." I take her hand as we wait for the plane to take off. She looks over at me tears in eyes. "Why do you think he did what he did?" She ask me softly. I shake my head. "I don't know. I talk to my mom she said she would let us stay at Thistle House when we get there." I stroke her cheek softly. She nods. "Ok this plane can go." She looks at her watch. "Everything is going to be ok. It might not seem like it, but it will." She looks like she was about to pass out. "Toni." She takes a deep breath. "Cheryl I need to tell you something." She looks at me. "I've never been on a plane before." She looks down. "I can tell." I laugh.

Halfway through the flight (once Toni stops having a panic attack), she falls asleep. A flight attendant walks over. "Is everything ok over here?" She ask. "Yeah."

We're back in the one place I never wanted to return, Riverdale. The only time I would want to return is for our wedding. I knock on the door. "I'll be there in a minute." Toni takes a deep breath. "Really don't want to be in this stupid town." The door opens. "Sorry about that, I was cooking. Come in." We both walk, before anything else Toni goes straight up to our old room. "Is she doing ok?" My mom ask. "No. She was up all night crying. We are probably going to go over to Fangs later." She nods. "How are you doing?" I take a deep breath. "Better. Can I excuse myself?" I ask. She nods as I go upstairs. I knock on the door. "Toni, can I come in?" I try to open the door. "Toni unlock the door." She opens the door. I've never seen her this defeated. This beaten down. I put my bag down. "We're going to Fangs." I take her hand and start to walk out. "Wait we just got here." I turn around. "We need to go he said it was important." She gives in and we head to Fangs house.

"How's Veronica doing?" Toni ask as she sits on the couch. "She isn't doing well. She should be here any minute now." As he says that Veronica comes through the door. I immediately goes to hold Henry. "Hey buddy. He's gotten so big." I sit down and play with him. "How are you doing?" Toni ask softly afraid of what's to come. "Better than before, but still having a hard time." I look over a Fangs and he looks like he is about to explode. "Toni, Sweat Pea umm, he left something for you. Well no he left a few thing for you." He get up and goes to his room. Toni and I look at each other. He walks back and hands Toni a box. "I don't know what's in it I didn't look." She opens the box. She immediately closes the box and puts it down. "Of course he did." I move and open the box. "I always told him that he was going to get himself killed, anytime I said that he told me he would give me his jacket if he died." I take Toni's hand. I hand her a note that was in the box. She reads the note. When she's done she gets up. "I need some air." She walks out. I quickly hand Henry back to Veronica and run out. I haven't seen her cry this much. Like she's been crying but not like this. "It's all my fault." She turns around to me. "No it's not." I reassure her. "Really because I think it is?" She yells. "Why do you think that?" I ask. She sits down on the steps. "Before we left, on graduation I told him we were moving, and we got in a really bad argument." I step in front of her. Why didn't she tell me about it. Like she doesn't have to tell me what she does with her best friend. "I should have told you, I know it's just I was still getting over what happened and I just forgot." It's like she reads my mind sometimes. She stands up and walks closer to me. "Thank you for being here for me. I can't imagine how I would get through this without you." I rap my arms around her neck gently. "I know how close you guys were. And your my girlfriend so I have no choice." She looks down and smiles. I felt bad for her because Sweat Pea was like her brother. And yes I was friends with him, and yes this is hard for me. But I'm here for Toni. She's taken care of me for a while I should return the favor.

We walk into Sweat Pea's trailer. It feels cold, empty, it feels like death. "Why do you think he did it?" I ask Fangs. He shakes his head. "He was going through some things, it doesn't surprised me that he did. His mom is sick and he had just talked to his mom for the first time in a while and she gets sick. He also lost his job and dropped out of college." Fangs says. I look over at Toni, I've never seen her with such a blank expression. Probably unable to process where we are. "Toni."  She looks at me. I think she's cried all the tears she can. "I think we'll be heading home." Toni says quietly as she walks out. "I've never seen her this heartbroken. Bye guys." I walk out Toni is already in the car, that's when I realize she took my keys. I get it the car and drive off. The car had the comforting silence, until Toni Broke it. "I think we should get married soon, like before we leave this town soon." I can feel her looking at me. We pull in the Thistle House. "Are you serous?" I ask softly. "Cheryl you are the love of my life, we both have been through so much and been there for each other. I can't live without you by my side. When I went to Toledo I was miserable, and I know you were to." She takes my hand. "Tomorrow we'll go down to city hall and make it official." She gives me a goofy smile, the first time I've seen her truly smile. "I love you."