Page 143 of Oblivion

“Hey, I’m not making you stay. If you don’t want to be here, Penny, I won’t force you to be.”

Tears shimmered in her baby blues, and fuck it broke me a little bit more.

“I want to be, but I can’t pretend I’m not upset about whatever happened with Sadie.”

Fuck.

I returned to my back, and pressed my thumb and forefinger to my eyes. “I know, babe. It sickens me that it happened.”

“So, youdidsleep with her?”

Disgust pulled my mouth into a downward arch. “No. She, uh… She gave me a blow job. But Chen put a stop to things before it went too far.”

Penny’s voice trembled. “So, if he wasn’t there, you wouldn’t have stopped it?”

I tore at my hair. “Fuck, I dunno!”

She rose from the bed and shut herself in the bathroom. The water ran for a few minutes and she blew her nose multiple times before re-emerging.

“Look, I know you don’t owe me anything, but I thought that we had a thing. I thought…”

“What, babe?” I gently urged, rising to one elbow and leaning across the bed.

She took a deep breath. “IthoughtI meant something to you.”

I was up and off that bed, fighting through the head-spin, before she managed another word. Cupping her face in my hands, I implored her with my entire soul.

“Youdo,Penny. You mean more to me than anyone else. When I think of my life, I see you in it. Iwantyou in it. As mine.”

“Thenwhydid you let her? You didn’t even spare three seconds to text me saying something had happened and you had to go out of town for a few days. Instead, you disappeared, fucked around with someone else, then told me you loved me. Love is not cheating on someone.”

I recoiled and took a step back. “I didn’t fucking cheat!”

“I know youtechnicallydidn’t, but it still fucking hurts, Dante! How would you feel if I ignored you all weekend, then went out and slept with someone else?”

Her words cut deep, kindling ever-present anger. Bile rose up my throat and I deserved every ounce of guilt twisting my insides.

“Yeah, fucking stings, doesn’t it?” she sneered.

I ran a hand down my face. “I’m no fucking better than Sadie. I did to you what she did to me. And your parents…” I shook my head bitterly. “And now, I’m in your bed, asking foryour comfort when I don’t deserve a single second of it. I gotta go.”

With my chest burning from the unexpected onset of emotion, I hurried across the room and braced myself on the bedside table until the world stopped spinning.

“You’re not going anywhere, Dante. Call me stupid, but I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to. Iwantto help you through this, just like you helped me through my shit.”

I waved a hand in dismissal. “This is different. I’ll call Jenny. He can come pick me up early before we head down south.”

By the time I found my phone, Penny was standing on the bed, towering over me with her hands set firmly on her hips.

“This isnotdifferent, and you will not be calling Chen this early in the morning.”

“Watch me,” I snapped, as I touched on his number and brought the phone to my ear.

Penny launched from the bed and slapped the phone from my grasp. I blamed my lack of reflexes on how disgustingly hungover I was. A second later, my hand cut to my stinging ear.

“Thefuck,jailbait!”

“I said you didn’t need to call Chen.”

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