Chapter Text
Maybe it was all just one big coincidence. Some might call it fate. Cheryl wasn’t quiet sure what she would call it. She just knew that it was supposed to happen. If you were to ask Cheryl a few years from now, she would tell you how thankful she was for all the shitty people she had encountered in her short lifetime, for they had led her to her soulmate.
If she really looked back on it, Cheryl realised that it all probably started in high school. But really, she could trace it back to any number of things, which lead to another and another, and then ultimately led her here. But to put it simply Cheryl would say it started with school. She was smart. Too smart for her own good. Which ultimately, alongside a combination of childhood trauma and genetic predisposition to mental illness lead to her hating school. Depression, boredom and a lack of any real connection resulted in a generally apathetic view of the world, which was often reconfirmed by the shitty experiences she had. She tried for as long as she could to keep going to school, she really did. And she got good grades. But eventually the lure to stay in bed began to win on more mornings than not. And once she started hanging out with a certain group of girls, they introduced her to weed and that was that. They would smoke before school and on the oval during lunch. So Cheryl had found some kind of connection with others but only through drugs.
Eventually she made the decision to not go back to school and complete her senior year. Her parents were less than happy about her decision and were quick to cut her off. She spent a couple of months staying between her stoner friends houses. While they went to school she would clean their houses, do washing or cook dinner in exchange for them letting her stay. She finally managed to secure a job as a receptionist for a local car dealership. She made enough to be able to rent out a room with a girl she found on Craigslist. It didn’t work out and Cheryl lived in a few different places but fast forward a few years and she finally had a comfortable living situation with a girl she met at work.
That was Kendall. Somebody who I guess you could say, played another big part in this story.
She was fine; really. It was just that the more Cheryl got to know her. The less she liked her. And that was really difficult when you lived with the person. They got along well enough but were quiet opposite. While Cheryl still struggled with inner self-turmoil, she didn’t speak to her family, had few friends, she spent a lot of time in her room and liked the house to be kept very clean and quiet. She wasn’t very social and she much preferred to smoke a joint by herself than to get drunk with people. Kendall was....not like that. She was a party girl. Loud. Messy. A social butterfly who was almost so oblivious to life and it’s realities that Cheryl often envied her carelessness. Kendall had lots of friends in lots of different groups. She would often have people over running amock to all hours of the morning. Cheryl joined them sometimes. But others she just couldn’t be bothered socialising or pretending to want to have a conversation with these strangers so she just isolated herself in her room.
Another thing that really annoyed Cheryl about Kendall was the boys. Cheryl had never had a boyfriend. She’d been on a couple of dates. Made out with plenty of boys (and a couple of girls, when free drinks were offered) but had always freaked out and pushed them away as soon as they had shown interest in taking things further. I guess you could say she kind of preferred one night stand type relationships. It was her own doing, so she really had no right to get angry at Kendall for so easily allowing men into her life. She really was generally a good friend to Cheryl and was always happy to let Cheryl third wheel but Cheryl was moody and often refused the kind gesture out of spite.
Even given all of this, Cheryl felt she was at a relatively decent place in her life. She had stable employment, a stable house that she felt safe in, she was in a mentally positive place having found the right medication and a decent therapist recently, and she had an adequate amount of social interactions. She was making an effort to come out of her shell a little more and meet new people. She generally only broadened her horizons as far as the people Kendall invited over, but baby steps were fine.
This particular night Cheryl was sitting outside on the back porch with Kendall, her boyfriend of the moment Tobias and 2 other girls whose names Cheryl couldn’t remember. They were all a few drinks deep while Cheryl had already smoked a decent amount and was feeling rather relaxed and comfortable. This was generally what her socialising consisted of, although every now and then she would drink with them if she was in the mood. It was a rainy winter night and Cheryl was feeling awful content as she took another puff and wrapped her fluffy blanket tighter around herself, finally tuning back into the conversation.
“So I’m probably just gonna wear the white tights and not worry about high heels coz we all known I will end up barefoot anyway!” Kendall said before laughing out loud. She took a puff of her cigarette and blew out a plume of smoke while looking Cheryl straight in the eyes.
“You’re not bailing, are you Cheryl?” She asked.
Cheryl had no freaking clue what she was talking about and can only presume that she had agreed to some sort of commitment with Kendall when she was too high to remember.
“Erm, no. Nope, not bailing just...trying to remember what it is I agreed to doing!” Cheryl responded with a sheepish grin. Kendall rolled her eyes and ashes her cigarette before sighing.
“Emma’s birthday. Tomorrow night. Her 21st! The Mad Hatters Tea Party! How have you forgotten about this!?”
Cheryl gulped. “Oh. That. Yeah, no I remember I just thought it was next Saturday, that’s all.”
“Right, so what costume are you planning to wear?” Kendall asked
“I’m going as the queen of hearts,” Cheryl said the first thing that popped into her head. She was already regretting her stoned self agreeing to this.
“Nice! Sounds super cute. Can’t wait to see what you come up with! Anyway, the party starts at 7 so Tobias is going to pick us up around 6.30!” She explained to Cheryl.
“Alright, awesome sounds good. Anyways I’m gonna head to bed I’m so exhausted from this week. I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Cheryl said and she stood up and wrapped her blanket tighter around her shoulders
“Night Cheryl,” Tobias called
“Sleep well queen of hearts,” Kendall called after her. Cheryl flipped her the bird and walked to her room, shutting the door behind her. She flopped down on her bed with a big sigh. Great, she had planned to do sweet, sweet nothing this weekend and now she had a stupid social obligation she’d committed too. Not to mention she also had to come up with some sort of acceptable costume. She got under the covers and turned Netflix on, searching for ‘Alice in Wonderland’ in hopes of gaining some sort of costume inspiration. She smoked by herself in her bedroom for a while, while waiting for her night medication to kick in. It helped a lot with the nightmares and so did the weed. She fell asleep before the movie was even half way through.
-
Cheryl was woken up by a knock on the door the next day. She rolled over to face the door and groaned out an acknowledgment.
“Dude. It’s like 2pm get up! Some people are gonna come over here for pre drinks in like an hour and then we’re all going to the party together, so....get up!!” Kendall basically yelled at Cheryl before slamming the door shut again. Cheryl rolled her eyes before stretching out in her bed. She had dreamed up some costume inspiration last night and quickly moved to her closet to pull some things out to start bringing her idea to life.
-
She thought she was doing really well for time. Really, she did. And yeah okay, maybe she was taking a little longer with her hair and makeup to avoid having to socialise before going out to socialise (who invented pre drinks anyway?) but Kendall was getting mean.
“I’m serious Cheryl hurry the fuck up before we leave you here!” She screamed whole simultaneously banging on the bathroom door.
“Please do,” Cheryl mumbled under her breath
“You have 2 minutes Cheryl, I’m serious!” She yelled before storming off and Cheryl heard the front door slam, before Kendall started muttering angrily to Tobias.
Cheryl finished tousling her hair and checked herself one final time in the mirror before sighing to herself
“It’s gonna have to do I suppose” she muttered to herself. She grabbed her clutch and shoved her phone in it, along with some weed and a lighter. Her essentials. If the party was really bad she could just sneak off and smoke somewhere until Kendall was drunk enough to want to leave.
She grabbed the bottle of cheap champagne she treated herself to for the occasion (who doesn’t love a $5 wine buzz?) and went out the front door.
“Finally!!” Kendall called out, beeping the horn from her spot in the passengers seat of Tobias’ car.
“You look good! Which you should after how fucking long you took, now let’s go!!” She called out. Cheryl got in the back of the car next to two girls she had never met before taking selfies. One was dressed as Maleficent and the other was some kind of elf? Why was Cheryl so stressed about her costume? Geez. She had ended up in a black sequin dress that she had managed to stick a bunch of red heart playing cards too. She’d done dusty hearts on her cheeks using red glitter, and had on red fishnets with black wedges. She knew she looked good but part of her was still extremely self conscious. She decided that if the girl next to her could get away with being whatever the fuck she was supposed to be, then her own queen of hearts outfit was perfectly acceptable and she had no reason to feel anxious and that she was going to make sure she had a good night. It was at that same moment Cheryl decided to pop the bottle of champagne and gulp down half the bottle right there in the back of the car. Kendall cheered loudly
“Yaaas girl drink up, tonight is going to be one to remember! Or forget, we shall see!” She called out. She turned the music up loud so Cheryl could feel the base vibrating through the back seat from Tobias’ excessively large speakers. Cheryl just held the bottle up to cheers Kendall while knocking back another two mouthfuls.
They arrived at the party around 8pm thanks to Cheryls antics. It was already in full swing and the pumping base could be heard from down the street where they had had to park Tobias’ car. The group of them walked up the street together towards the house. Kendall was talking animatedly to the other random girls about how she knew Emma (the birthday girl) and the trouble they used to get into together. Cheryl was feeling pretty good thanks to her earlier decision to skull cheap champagne. She had a slight buzz going on but was hit with instant anxiety the moment they got to the front of the house. There were people everywhere. Like, a LOT of people. And Cheryl didn’t really like lots of people. It was overwhelming and made her feel suffocated. She’d been to a couple of Kendall’s friends parties before but they were never like this. She didn’t know if she could go in. But she was too anxious to say anything to Kendall. Fuck. She debated with herself internally before just deciding to suck it up and following Kendall into the party while keeping her eyes firmly glued to the floor.
Her safety net didn’t last long however when Kendall quickly disappeared and pulled Tobias away with her. The people they had came with quickly dispersed and left Cheryl to fend for herself in a house full of intoxicated strangers of whom she knew absolutely no one.
“Great,” she mumbled to herself, “and this is why I never fucking do things with Kendall,” She decided that she was going to try and have a good night anyway, regardless of being instantaneously ditched. She walked around the party, trying to stealthy suss out where any alcohol may be. She found a plastic cup and poured the remainder of her bottle of champagne in it and ditched the bottle.
Walking around the party, drink in hand Cheryl tried her hardest to seem normal. Though she never felt it, she did think this particular night she was doing quite well at blending in. Although, she couldn’t help but take in all the costumes people had seemingly thrown together at the last minute. Again she wondered to herself why the fuck she had bothered so much. There were a group of girls all wearing tutus and bikini tops, somebody in a hotdog suit and a bunch of people wearing onesies. Jesus. She saw Kendall, dressed as Alice in the typical white and blue dress, standing next to whom she could only presume was Emma who was also dressed as Alice, but wearing a tiara. “Definitely the birthday girl,” thought Cheryl. Apart from those two it really didn’t seem like anybody had made that much effort. Cheryl rolled her eyes at her self induced anxiety just as she spotted a 4 pack of Vodka energy drinks sitting unattended by the fridge. She stealthy looked around to see if anybody was paying attention before smoothly swiping them from the counter and holding them by her side. She was done with the party and was ready to find a place to enjoy her own company while drowning her thoughts.
Cheryl walked away from the noise and the makeshift dance floor in the lounge room and made her way out the back. She did a little jump for joy when she remembered she had brought weed with her but just as quickly frowned when she realised she had nothing to smoke it through.
“Dammit!” She cursed herself. There were a few people scattered outside smoking cigarettes and talking but mostly everyone was inside as it was a winters night. She looked around trying to see if anybody had any rolling papers but knew ultimately she was too anxious to ask a stranger for anything. Cheryl had almost decided to just give up on the whole night and call herself an Uber home when she noticed something. It was some of the onesie crew, 3 of them to be specific. They walked together down a path through the backyard to a small garden shed in the back corner. They all went inside. Cheryl was suspicious and simply put, nosey. She sat down on a garden wall and pulled out a can of the vodka she had acquired earlier while scoping out the onesie wearers. No more than 5 minutes later two of them emerged and walked back towards the party. Cheryl observed them from the distance but it was when they walked past her she realised what was happening. She would recognise that smell anywhere that they had just wafted with them.
Cheryl should have known. There was always one at every party. She was never the only one. And now her problem was solved because she had just discovered what she didn’t know what she was looking for. The stoner den.
Cheryl knew that one of onesie crew were still in there as three had entered and two had left but she didn’t know if anybody else was already in there. One person was fine. She could deal with that. But any more and she would probably make a fool out of herself and stumble over her words.
Cheryl took a deep breathe “it’s either get in an Uber right now and have another boring night at home, or be a big girl and ask a fellow stoner for some papers and potentially have a nice, normal kind of night” she told herself. It was an internal battle but ultimately Cheryl decided she was going to be brave because she had told herself she was going to have a good night when she necked that champagne earlier. She skulled back the rest of the can of vodka for some liquid confidence and made her way down the path to the back shed. The closer she got, the more her theory was confirmed. This was definitely the place she wanted to be.
Peeking slightly through the frosted window she could only see one shadow inside, so feeling extra brave Cheryl did a tiny knock on the door.
She heard a giggle before a raspy voice called out “What the fuck guys, come in!” so Cheryl turned the handle and opened to door to reveal a smoke filled room, fitted out with fairy lights and an old, but comfortable looking couch which was currently home to the wearer of an oversized Eeyore onesie. The hood was pulled up so the persons face was hidden in the shadows of the dimly lit shed.
“Oh, sorry. I thought you were somebody else,” the voice rasped out. Cheryl immediately realised she was in the presence of another female and her anxiety subsided significantly. She couldn’t tell you why.
“Oh, that’s okay, sorry to bother you I was just looking for somewhere to smoke and I followed my nose. I hope I’m not interrupting...” Cheryl replied
“ Not at all,” Eeyore responded, the owner of the costume pulled the hood down and revealed themselves to Cheryl.
“I’m always happy to accomodate a fellow stoner,” she said.
Cheryl was surprised to say the least. This girl was not what she was expecting see under the onesie. And Cheryl especially didn’t think she looked like a stoner. But then again most people didn’t think Cheryl did either.
She was pretty.
Like super pretty.
The kind of person that Cheryl instantly envied.
“I’m Toni Topaz, nice to meet you,” she gestured for Cheryl to sit next to her.
“Nice to meet you too...”