She looks down at the hoodie again. “Okay.”
She picks up the printout and walks back to the front desk. I don’t look up for the rest of the desk hours.
Penelope is at our table in the dining hall when I walk in. She has a salad bowl in front of her and a side plate of fries. She’s in her cream cardigan with her hair up.
“Hey,” she smiles.
“Hi.” I sit down with my plate of food.
“Are you still staying with your mom?”
I hesitate.
“Are you back with Gianna?”
I bite my bottom lip and shake my head.
“Lucy.” She furrows her brows. “Where are you staying?”
I start blushing, then she looks down at the hoodie I’m wearing. “Oh, my god. You’re staying with –– with––”
“Can I eat first?” I ask, throwing a small fry in my mouth.
“No.”
I laugh.
She leans in, eyes falling to the hoodie. “Tell meeverything.”
I tell her everything, starting from the beginning. I end up yapping her ear off for the entire twenty-minute lunch time. I might be overexplaining about how I feel, but I can’t help but tell her that this entire situation is just killing me. I didn’t mean to hurt Gianna, but I can’t help how I feel about Benson. Penelope has been sitting with an empty plate for ten minutes now while I go back and forth about if I’m wrong or not.
“My second bedroom is still open. You could move in today, and you literally don’t have to deal with either of them.”
“You think this is athemproblem?” I ask, feeling nervous that I’ve just become the shiny toy that the siblings are fighting over. It doesn’t feel like that with Benson, but I worry that his sister pushing back is making me seem more enticing.
“No,” she explains. “I think this is a Gianna problem, honestly. She sounds really protective of her brother.”
“Has she talked to you about it at all?”
Penelope shakes her head. “No. We’re not that close.”
I deflate a little and say, “I should probably talk to her.”
“She’s your best friend, right?”
I nod. “She’s been there for me through everything, but as I said, her brother is a dealCamdenker. She doesn’t want me to see him.”
She shrugs. “You should talk to her. It sounds like you and Benson really like each other.”
I nod, playing with the fork on my plate. I inhale, my nerves getting the best of me. “Yeah.” I grab my phone before I lose my nerve. “I’ll text her right now.”
Me:Hey, can I stop by later today?Gianna:Yeah, this is still your home, too.
I show Penelope my phone screen, and she shrugs. “See. That wasn’t bad. I think she’s had time to think.”
“Do you really think she’s not kicking me out anymore?”
“Well,” she looks down and starts cleaning her plate, “I’ll be bummed because I would love to have you as a roomie, but it’ll be good if you guys can work it out.”
