Page 6 of Punishing Penelope

Liam raises his eyebrows. “At least not like Sandra and Cole.”

I shrug. “No one fights like our old trustworthy CoSa.” As I say it, I realize with horror which cutsie name they’d make up for Pen and me if we ever got together. PePe!

“How long d’ya figure they’ll last?” Penelope twirls, then grabs her sister and links their arms.

“Before what? Before they kill each other?”

“Yeah, either that or… okay, yeah, that.”

I glance behind me at Cole, who’s fallen out of the group, waiting for Sandra to catch up. He puts an arm around her waist before he pulls her to him. A little jolt of envy shoots through me, and I glance at Pen, drinking in her wide smile and happy eyes.

“Hey, whose car can we use?” She seems to have already forgotten the topic. “Ain’t your dad, like away?”

“Mm,” I say, noncommittally. My dad would go bananas if he knew we took his car. Like Cole, I’m working the whole summer, saving up for my own ride. M and C of the Donalds, here I come!

“Ride! Let's get some beer and get going. Fuck school! Fuck youuu!” She turns and flips off the by now distant school building with both hands.

I laugh. “Someone’s happy to get out.”

“One more year,” she moans.

“Only. Then you’re free forever.”

Her face darkens a little. “Free to do wha—”

Stephan comes up to us on his bike, the loud roar of the engine drowning out Pen’s last word.

“What’s with the pissy mugs, guys? I’m gonna enjoy my first day of forever with nothing on the horizon. It’ll be me, my ride, and no one ever telling me what to fucking do again!”

“You lucky bastard,” I say.

“It is what it is. Time has come. Luck has been earned and received. I will use it well.”

Penelope gestures at him, herself, then the bike. He gives a barely-there nod, and she jumps up, sticks her tongue out at us—me specifically—and off they go, her blonde hair whipping around her head, no helmet.

That tiny jolt of envy turns into roaring jealousy with a force that surprises me. I look at their quickly disappearing backs—his, broad and leather-clad, and hers, slim, a perky ass in a tiny flowery dress, always pushing the school dress code, and tan, toned arms she wraps around his waist.

I make a promise to myself then and there. Penelope Wilder will be mine before the end of summer. I will have her. She’s my first love, my only love, and I’ll explore this thing between us if it’s the last thing I do. I know she feels it, and I’m not letting this slip.

She’s mine. It’s as simple as that.

We each buy something small at the café since all of us are always short on money. Penelope perches between Stephan and me, straddling a chair she turned backward, and man, I want to be that seat so badly.

Stephan has a cig behind his ear and is engaged in discussion with Cole.

I nudge Pen. “What’re you doing this summer?”

She throws out her hands. “Ain’t got nothin’. Heard you’re gonna be a hardworking man.”

I like how she says, ‘man.’

“Think most of us are gonna be slavin’.”

She tilts her head at the entrance where Lexi appears. Liam shoots up to meet her, intertwining his fingers with hers.

“Not her. She can’t.”

“She’s still sick?”

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