the book shop > j.l < MID EDIT

forty one

john

upon getting back to penelopes they both decided that they would spend the night together one more time and the next day they would shop for penelopes dress and go back to johns afterwards to choose a suit.

they showered and got changed into nightwear, penelope wore white shorts with short yellow vest meanwhile john wore the same tartan bottoms as the previous night without a shirt due to the temperature still being high.

•

penelope lay with her head resting on johns lap as he carefully stroked his fingers through her hair.

"i had such a good day today," john said quietly moving his hand to her cheek.

"me too," she replied back smiling up at him, "it made me realise how much i can trust you."

"always, with anything," he spoke back quietly admiring her. he gently traced the scar above her eyebrow.

after hearing that her face became serious and she sat up turning to him, she kneeled close to him and said, "do you trust me?"

"of course i do," he replied confused.

she nodded her head and cleared her throat, "good. i'm glad you do, so this means that i can tell you anything?"

he nodded his head furrowing his eyebrows, "course, is everything ok?"

she shook her head and looked down to her hands which were messing with the rings on her fingers.

"i haven't been completely honest with you," john straightened his posture sitting up, she avoided johns eyes as she carried on, "i haven't been completely honest with anyone."

"what do you mean?"

"about my dad, he uh, he didn't die before i was born. he's still alive, he lives in wales actually," she briefly looked at john to see if he was annoyed with her for lying but he had a neutral expression prompting her to carry on. she stood up from the sofa and walked over to her book shelf. tiptoeing, she reached to above the shelf and struggled to pull down a box. once she'd retrieved it she walked back to john passing him the box.

she nodded towards it making him open it. the box was full to the brim of photographs, letters, postcards and cinema tickets. souvenirs.

she pulled out a photograph on top of the box and held it so john could see it too. it showed an unknown man and penelopes heavily pregnant mother. they were sat on a sofa leaning into each other smiling brightly with hands on top of the baby bump. the man appeared to look a lot older than penelopes mother who looked barely twenty.

she pointed to the man, "that's him. his names caleb eastman."

upon this information he began to notice the similarities between penelope and him. they shared the same big eyes and features.

"why did you lie about him?" he asked quietly.

"because telling the truth makes it real," her eyes looked into his with a sadness he'd not seen before, a different kind to when she talks about her mother.