Better on our own - English

Emergency Meeting

This morning I was on the phone with my mother, who had once again begged me to come home, and I had promised her that I would do it on next weekend. I hadn't really realized that I had already been here for four weeks. Time was flying by, but given how the last week had turned out, I could really use a day or two away.

Somehow I'd been pretty disillusioned since Penny let that mayor kiss her on the doorstep over a week ago, and the thought that he would soon be coming here maybe every second weekend, when Cody wasn't here, and romping through the beds with her gave me goosebumps in disgust. There were things I just didn't want to find out, so maybe it wasn't a bad idea to go to my parents' house on the weekends when Cody was with his dad and look for an apartment in the meantime, in case the mayor came along at some point and want to move in with her. Or would Penny want to move in with Cody with him and that's why she would sold the house?

I kept catching myself thinking these things, even though I knew Penny wasn't the kind of person who would break something like that. But throughout the week she received a few messages on her phone throughout the day and each time she smiled quite happily as she read and replied to them. That wasn't a good sign. It was even less good that the mayor had picked her up for lunch all week and always gave her a rose afterwards, which she kept in a vase on her desk. How cheesy!

Penny was really happy about this and she actually seemed to be developing a crush on this man, the way she enjoyed his attentions and laughed quietly when he whispered something to her that wasn't meant for our ears. I couldn't tell you how many times I'd done it myself, or how many times I'd caught Arnold and Trixie rolling their eyes at it, and Elliot had stuck his finger down his throat more than once to indicate how he felt about this sentimentality.

It became clear pretty quickly that they weren't happy with the mayor - not because they didn't think he was good for her. He did, without a doubt. But even Elliot admitted towards the end of the week that they all really believed that she would get back on track with Mr. Jones - of course, for the boy's sake, Elliot said he wanted that - oh well! Should I start a fan club? Surely I would get enough members.

I hadn't been afraid of this weekend because the mayor had invited her to his place and Penny had actually gone to see him on Friday. All I noticed was that she had left with a backpack in the evening, which surprised me for only one dinner. However, she hadn't come back until today and when Sarah asked this morning in the chat group how things were going with the mayor, I wrote that Penny had stayed out for two nights and had just sent a message asking me to feed the cat. Sarah immediately called an emergency meeting at Pontypandy Park for lunch today - and I was now on my way over there.

From a distance I could see everyone sitting at our usual table group, while smaller children were playing around in the playground and a few teenagers were taking advantage of the sunny and warm Sunday at the beginning of October to use the outdoor pool one more time. I walked over to my friends and noticed that the only empty seat was next to Sarah, while I noted with a smile that Susen was almost sitting on James' lap because she was leaning against him while he had his arm around her. I gave her a cheeky grin and she flashed me an equally cheeky grin, but said nothing. We still texted each other regularly, but she never told me something about this, no matter how hard I probed. All I ever heard was that I should mind my own business.

"So, Niall. Enlighten us!" Sarah asked me directly, as soon as I had briefly greeted everyone and she turned to me eagerly. But what I had to say wasn't anything that would improve everyone's spirits, which is why I had held back from reporting too much to the chat throughout the week.

"So Penny is pretty happy, it seems. The mayor picks her up from work at lunchtime for dinner and when he brings her back he gives her a rose every time. They text each other several times a day and talk on the phone in the evenings when Cody is in bed. On Thursday evening I noticed that she was shy on the phone because things were moving too quickly for her. So I think that he had offered her to spend the weekend with him. That she actually did. It shows pretty clearly how convincing he seems to be," I told them and everyone looked at each other in shock.