The Lonely Hearts Club

Chapter 2

I started to smile as I turned the lights on.

“Surprise!” I called out.

Nate popped up from the couch with a look of panic on his face.

“Hi . . . ” I said meekly as I dropped the robe on the floor.

Then a second head popped up from the couch.

A girl.

With Nate.

I stood frozen, not believing my own eyes. I looked between the two of them as they fumbled for clothing. Finally, I reached for the robe and put it on, trying to cover as much of myself as possible.

The girl started giggling. “I thought you said your sister was gone for the evening!”

His sister? Nate didn’t have a sister. I tried to tell myself there was a good explanation for what I was seeing. There was no way Nate would do something like this to me. Especially in my own house. Maybe this girl had been in a car accident right outside and Nate had brought her inside to . . . um, comfort her. Or they were just rehearsing a scene from a summer production of  . . . NakedRomeo and Juliet.  Or maybe I had fallen asleep, and it was only a nightmare.

Only . . . no.

The girl finished putting on her clothes, and Nate, avoiding my eye, walked her upstairs.

Such a gentleman.

After what seemed like an eternity, he returned.

“Penny,” he said, putting his arms around my waist, “I’m sorry that you had to see that.”

I tried to speak, but couldn’t find my voice.

He ran his arms up to my shoulders and started to rub them through the robe. “I’m sorry, Penny. So sorry. You have to believe me that this was something so stupid. I’m an idiot. A complete idiot.”

I shook my head. “How could you?” The words were barely a whisper, my throat was tight.

He leaned in. “Honestly, it will never happen again. I mean, nothing did happen. Nothing.  It was nothing. She was nothing. You know how much you mean to me. You’re the one I want to be with. You’re the one I love.” He moved his hands down my back. “Maybe this will make you feel better? Tell me what I can do, Penny. I would never want to hurt you.”

The shock was slowly wearing off, revealing the anger underneath. I pulled away. “How could you?” I said. “HOW COULD YOU?” (I screamed the last part.)

“Look, I already apologized.”

“You APOLOGIZED?”

“Penny, I’m so sorry.”

“SORRY?”

“Please stop doing that and just listen to me. I can explain.”

“Fine then.” I sat down on the couch. “Explain.”

Nate glanced nervously at me — clearly he hadn’t expected me to actually sit down and listen to what he had to say.

“Penny, that girl is nothing to me.”

“Didn’t look like it was nothing.” I tightened the belt around my robe and grabbed a couch cushion to cover my legs.

Nate sighed. A full-blown sigh. “Oh, here we go with the dramatics,” he said. Then he sat down next to me with his arms folded. “Fine — if you aren’t going to accept my apology, I don’t know what I can do.”

“Apology?” I laughed. “Do you think saying ‘sorry’ is going to erase this? I thought you said I was special.” I looked down at the floor, ashamed of myself for even bringing it up.

 “Penny, you are special. But, c’mon, what did you think was going to happen?” Nate’s face turned bright red. “I mean, here’s the thing. You and I . . . we’re . . . we’re . . . well, it is what it is . . .”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The Nate from just a few short days ago was gone and some . . . beast had taken his place.

“What does that mean?”

“Jesus Christ.” Nate got up from the couch and started to pace. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. Look at you, sitting there like you did when we were little and didn’t get what you wanted. Well, I wanted you for a long time, Penny. A very long time. But even though you think you want me, you don’t want me. You want your childhood sweetheart version of me. The holding-hands-kiss-on-the-cheek Nate. Well, that Nate grew up. Maybe you should, too.”

“But I . . .”

“What? You what? Put your sister’s nightie on? That’s child’s play, Penny. In your mind, it’s a perpetual wedding day, no honeymoon, no taking off the wedding dress, nothing. But guess what. People have sex. It’s not a big deal.”

My body began to shake. It was hitting me.

Nate shook his head. “I should’ve known better than to get involved with you. What can I say? I was bored, and it was much easier to give in to your fantasy than to fight it. And, I will admit, you do have that cute little suburban thing going for you. I just never thought you’d turn out to be nothing but a tease.”

I felt sick. Tears started to streak down my face.

“Oh, come on.” Nate sat down and put his arm around me. “Just yell at me some more and you’ll feel better. Then we can move on.”

I shook myself free and ran upstairs.

Away from Nate.

Away from the lies.

Away from it all.

But I couldn’t run away. He was living in our house for two more weeks. Every morning I had to get up and face him. Watch him leave the house, knowing he was probably going out with her. Knowing that he had to look elsewhere because I wasn’t good enough for him. He would never see me “that way.”

Every day I was reminded of what a failure I was. How what I’d wanted for years had ended up hurting me more than I could imagine.

My older sister Rita was the only one in my family that I told, and I swore her to secrecy. I knew this would hurt my parents’ longest, deepest friendship, and it didn’t seem fair for Nate to destroy that, too. Plus, I was embarrassed. I couldn’t bear to let my parents find out how stupid I was.

Rita tried to comfort me. She even threatened Nate’s life if he came within ten feet of me. But even a hundred feet would’ve been too close.

“Penny, it’s going to be okay,” Rita promised as she wrapped her arms around me. “We all run into a few speed bumps along the way,”

I didn’t run into a speed bump. I ran into a brick wall.

And I never wanted to feel that pain again.