Antoinette 'Toni' Topaz has one rule: If you fall in love, do it properly. None of this sneaking into rooms at midnight, getting into fistfights over the object of your affections' honor, rescuing her from fires and asshole parents and oldass nuns, and your own goddamn family members.

"Yeah, well," Fangs pants out, while they are being chased down the highway to their bikes "Should have thought of that before you went and fucked it all up, huh?

"To be fair," Sweet Pea replies, on her behalf "It's not totally her girl's fault we're here, is it?"

"Thank you, buddy," she calls back at him, ducking as one of the Ghoulies chuck a stone at their heads. It whizzes past her ear "They're throwing rocks," she screams, at her friends.

"Thanks so much, Toni," Fangs huffs out, and how is he still managing to sound sarcastic in the middle of the most gruelling marathon ever? She turns to see a tiny cut on the side of his neck "We hadn't noticed."

They speed up, and finally reach their bikes, firing them up, and start driving.

After a while, wind whooshing past her, she speaks again "Think we lost them."

"Yeah."

Another pause.

"That was..."

"Don't you dare say it was fun, Toni!" FF screeches at her, and she and Sweets burst out laughing. It's one in the morning, and her bike is purring along the smooth stretch of road. The air is filled with their laughter, and the sound of the motors. It's cool, and her leather jacket, thick as it may be, still cannot keep the cold out completely.

"Goddamn Cheryl Blossom," he mutters, and she can hear him.

"Goddamn Cheryl Blossom indeed," she says quietly, and it takes her back to a tiny path leading to the woods, a canopy of trees, a flash of red, and a perfect morning "Goddamn Cheryl Blossom indeed."

How it started

This is how it starts.

You meet a girl. You think she looks hot. You ask her out on a date. You fall in love.

Alternate reality.

You see a girl. You ask you friend what her name is. You find out you are part of rival communities. She hates you. You fall in love anyways.

This is how it starts.

Toni sees her in the cafeteria. When she will retell this story to her children (three, four, a lot. She hasn't quite decided how many yet. She just knows it'll be a lot), she will use the words ethereal, and divine, and ange, and they will all cringe. But she will stick with it anyways, because she doesn't know how to describe Cheryl Blossom. Still hasn't learned.

The girl is sitting alone at a table, back straight, nose high in the air, eating her lunch primly. Regal, like a queen without her subjects. Not that she seems to need them anyway. She carefully spoons up her mashed potatoes, puts them in her mouth, and chews slowly, but with purpose. Toni cannot stop staring.

"Hey, Jughead," she asks him, and he turns to her, right arm still slung around Betty's shoulder.

"Yes?"

"Who's that chick?"

He follows her line of sight to the girl, and his face morphs into something best described as alarm "Ah. That's...Cheryl."

"This Cheryl have a last name?"

"Cheryl Blossom," he replies, giving her a look and that name strikes a chord of recognition somewhere."

"Blossom," she mutters "Blossom. Where have I heard that name before?"

She realises it right when FF opens his mouth "Her brother," she whisper-proclaims "That's it, right?"

Jughead nods slowly, going back to eating his fries, and she turns back to the girl again. Now that she knows who she is, it just seems different. She can see an air of melancholy surrounding her, the scent of loneliness in her aura. And yet, yet, it does nothing to her beauty. The girl, Cheryl, still is the most beautiful person in the place.

"Uh oh," Jughead says, like he's just realised something, untangling himself from his girlfriend "Oh no. Toni. No."

She frowns at him "What?"

"No. Absolutely not. I know that look. Fucking hell. You...Cheryl."

"You know what he's on about?" someones asks FF, nad she sees him shake his head no.

"You do not have the hots for Cheryl Blossom," he says, seriously, and she swats him on the arm.

"I...do not. I don't even know her. What the hell, man?"

He frowns at her even more, non-verbally communicating what clearly seems to be a 'Come on'. She matches his stare with a defiant one of her own.

"What's wrong?"

"You really should stay away from her," he tells her "She's...Northside, okay? Age-old rivalry? They hate our guts? Especially her. She's...got stuff"

"I wasn't planning on anything, dude," she reassures him "And I certainly don't have the hots for her. She's just, interesting."

"That!" he exclaims "That is exactly what I am worried about. You finding her interesting. Next..."

"Toni will be following her around, trying to talk to her," Sweet Pea joins in, a mischievous smile on his face.

"Then comes the talking," Fangs continues "The girl hates her, obviously, but our girl here, she persists."

Jughead, utterly bemused, looks on as the two idiots construct their idiotic story "Then, by some miracle, the angel, the girl from heaven, ignores Toni's ugly mug, and manages to fall in love, a la a Romeo and Juliet."

They end up on either side of her during their shenanigans, singing Billy Joel's The longest time and she pinches them both, hard.

"This is ridiculous," she says "I am not going to fall in love with her."

"Say it again," Sweet Pea declares loudly "Say it for glory."

"I, Toni Topaz, vow, never to fall in love with the girl," she laughs "I promise to neither follow her around nor talk to her, or serenade her. Happy?"

Their entire table bursts out in laughter, and she joins in, ignoring the faint twinge of disappointment that crops up in her chest when she realises that while all this was going on, Cheryl had left the cafeteria, and was nowhere to be seen.

Farewell, Cafeteria girl, she thinks, our romance was short lived and it ended before it even began. I will probably never see you again.

"If only," Fangs says, and she laughs again