On Saturday night, I’m sleeping alone in my room. Stella texted me at around nine at night telling me that she is going to stay the night with Drew, so that gives me the room alone, which is kind of nice, I guess. After I left Penn at around ten, I came back here to the room because I was so exhausted with all of the confessing and talking. It’s really a lot of work for me to tell people things, so I’m proud of myself for telling Penn even that little bit about my home life. Anyway, after I told him all of that stuff, we kissed a lot and that was also pretty tiring too, but it was so worth it.
I fall asleep in my top bunk at about eleven at night after receiving an adorable ‘goodnight’ text from Penn. I’m only asleep for what feels like ten minutes before I’m woken up and that makes me mad. I’m not woken up by Stella’s chirpy voice or my alarm clock like usual though which is weird. What wakes me up is a rough hand clasped over my mouth. My first instinct is to scream, but the hand is pressing so hard against my mouth that nothing comes out. In a panic, I start to thrash around but it’s so incredibly dark in the room that I have no idea where the person is or who it is and that’s aggravating. The hand that’s not holding my mouth is holding my hands down on top of my belly so I can’t swing them at all.
“Don’t freak out,” The person says in a hushed tone. It sounds like Anthony and I can feel myself start to grow even more irritated than I already am. “If you don’t freak out, I’ll let you go. Okay?”
I nod because I don’t know what else to do and when I do, the hand releases my mouth, but he keeps my hands pinned down which is probably a good idea because I’d punch him in the face or something. My breathing is heavy and I don’t know if that’s because I just got the shit scared out of me or if it’s because I’m so pissed off at whoever is waking me up in the middle of the night, especially if it’s Anthony.
Suddenly, the lights turn on and I blink a few times so that my eyes can adjust to the light and when I’m finally adjusted to it, my eyes land on Anthony as he is kneeling beside me on my small upper bunk. Before I can say anything, he hops off of the bunk and stands by the door of the dorm as if he’s trying to make sure that I can’t leave.
I stay on my top bunk and glare down at him, trying to catch my breath. “You have about two seconds to tell me what the fuck you’re doing before I murder you,” I snap at him.
“Calm down,” He hisses in a whisper. “I just want to talk.”
“And you felt like sneaking in to my dorm to just talk? Are you insane?” I wonder incredulously. My phone is under my pillow, so if he tries to climb back up onto my bunk, I’ll text Penn or something. It’s a little bit damsel-like of me, but I don’t like being in a room alone with this guy even though I’m fairly confident that if I need to, I can win in a fight.
“It’s the only way you’ll listen,” He says. “And I’m really tired of trying to get you to listen.”
“Maybe I won’t listen to you because you’re a psychopath,” I suggest, sitting up so that I can glare down at him.
“You can call me all the names that you want, just listen to me first,” Anthony reasons, sitting down at Stella’s desk, spinning the chair to face me.
“I don’t really have a choice right now,” I mumble, running my fingers through my hair before putting it up in a messy bun. I’m very conscious of the fact that my pajama shorts are very short and my pajama tank top is pretty tight and I don’t want to have to get out of this bed and have to kick his ass because I’m barely wearing anything, which is another reason that I’m ready to call Penn at any second for help. The dorm buildings aren’t far apart at all, so it wouldn’t take him that long to get here. Hopefully though, the text bing on his phone will wake him up if he’s sleeping already. “You have five minutes starting right now.”
He takes a deep breath and then starts speaking. “Okay well first off, I just want to make it clear that I don’t really care if you like me or not. I’m not trying to appeal to you, I’m trying to appeal to my sister and for that to happen, I have to appeal to you so that you can talk her into giving me a chance. Anyway, I’ll start with before you were even here, when Stella first started to hate me. It wasn’t because of Gianna though. It was because of her freshman year best friend, Carmen. Anyway, I dated Carmen for a little while but she wouldn’t put out, so I broke up with her. I realize that it’s not the noblest thing to do, but I would rather just break up with her than try to put her in uncomfortable situations. So yeah, I broke up with her and then she was really upset. Like, so upset that she dropped out and went back to her home town to go to school there. Stella was really mad at me and she wasn’t talking to me, so I tried to get her attention by dating Gianna. I was only going to stay with her until Stella started talking to me again, but she only got madder so then I started to get mad at her for being mad at me, so I stayed with Gianna. It wasn’t totally my fault. And then I went back to Gianna- just as friends though- after she still wouldn’t forgive me after I broke up with her just a little while ago. So yeah, just tell her that I’m really extremely sorry for being a dick and tell her that she should forgive me, but don’t tell her that I told you to tell her to forgive me. Got that?”
“Maybe she’d forgive you if you didn’t do something stupider after you do something stupid. Buy her something, become a decent human being or something. Don’t sneak into somebody’s dorm and have them do all of the work for you. Asshole,” I grumble with a tired eye roll. “You’ve pushed me into a wall, nearly drown me in a pool, and now you’ve almost given me a panic attack by breaking into my dorm room at… whatever ungodly hour it is right now and if you think that I’m going to help you win your sister’s forgiveness, you must be on some type of illegal drug or something.”
He glares at me and I decide that I should get him out of my room now, but I still don’t know how without getting out from under my blankets. “I’m not your biggest fan either, Red. And are you ever going to stop whining about the pool thing? I was still there, hiding behind one of the trees. If Brian didn’t go in and get you, I was there. It’s not like you were ever actually in danger of dying. It was just a prank.”
“I’m aware that you don’t like me,” I say. “And I’m also not asking you for any favors either. Get out of my dorm.”
“What if I don’t?” He challenges, stepping closer to the bed.
Quickly, I text a quick ‘help’ to Penn under the blanket so that Anthony doesn’t see it and then I get out of my top bunk, plopping onto the carpeted floor. I’m self-conscious of my short shorts and tank top, but he’s pissing me off and I want him out. “Just leave.”
“Not until you agree to talk to Stella for me,” He demands, continuing to glare at me and he takes a step closer to me and his fist is clenched by his side. He’s really irritated apparently, but that doesn’t make any sense because I’ve literally done nothing to him that wasn’t self-defense or something.
“Are you going to hit me?” I wonder with a laugh. “You go ahead and do that, Anthony. Won’t be the first and it won’t be the last so just go ahead and hit me. See where that gets you.”
He glares at me for a moment and seems to ponder what I’ve said and I’m holding my breath because I don’t want him to even try to hit me. I keep saying that I can kick his ass if I want to, but now that I’m standing face to face to him, he seems very large and I’m not so confident anymore. “Whatever,” He mutters before turning his back on me and going back to the door that he just broke into a little bit ago. Once he’s gone, I let out a shaky breath of relief and lean against the post of the bed. My knees are too weak to actually climb back onto my bunk, so I just stand there for a moment, closing my eyes and trying to regain my composure.
When there’s a knock on the door, I jump a mile out of my skin and then remember that I texted Penn so it might be him. I look through the peep hole first just to be sure and I see that it is indeed Penn, looking like he just got up with his messy hair and pajamas (sweat pants and a t-shirt). I swing open the door and he steps inside.
“What’s wrong?” He wonders tiredly.
“I, um, there was a thing,” I say. “I didn’t think you’d actually wake up though.”
“I wasn’t sleeping,” He says. “I also had a thing. What was your thing?”
I try to decide if I should tell him about Anthony and then I finally decide against it because I don’t want him to freak out on the guy at practice, even though Anthony deserves it. “Not important anymore, it’s over. What was your thing?”
“I was talking to my sister. There’s a time difference and everything,” He explains and then pauses for a beat before adding, “I told her about you.”
“Me?” I squeak.
He grins at me and then nods. “Yes, you. She told me to tell you ‘hi’ and that was about it. She’s coming home at the end of the summer, so that’s really cool.”
“That is really cool,” I agree. “Hopefully I get to meet her before I leave.”
“Hey, yeah speaking of that, I want to ask you something but you have to promise me not to get upset or anything about it, okay?” Penn wonders.
I nod hesitantly. “Okay then, I guess.”
“You’re here for money, right? To get money to bring back to your mom and Jo?”
I nod again. “That’s correct.”
“Why doesn’t your uncle just give you money? I mean, that would be so much easier, wouldn’t it?”
I shrug. “He said it would mess up his election or something? I can’t remember the details of it, but that’s pretty much it.”
“That’s pretty terrible of him, to not want to help you and your mom- who is his sister, which you obviously know- but yeah, that’s just terrible,” Penn informs me.
“I guess so,” I sigh. “I don’t really think about it like that though. I’m just grateful that he got me in here.”
“Let me give you the money,” He says randomly. “I mean, it’s not my money, it’s my family’s, but whatever it is, it’s money and I can give it to you.”
“I don’t want you to do that,” I tell him with a small laugh. “I really appreciate it, Penn, but I have a problem with you paying for my meals- I’m not going to let you pay for plane tickets and rent money for an apartment for my family. It’s way too much.”
“I’m not letting you go back there,” Penn says with a serious look on his face. “I’m serious. At least not alone. I won’t let you go back to Georgia knowing what’s waiting for you there. I don’t care if I have to lock you in this room, I won’t let you go back.”
“I have to,” I say.
He shakes his head. “Not if you let me give you money and then your mom and your sister can move out here to California and you can finish high school here and I’ll be at UCLA, which isn’t very far at all from here.”
“How would I get the money to them?” I ask. “Even if I did accept your money, which I’m not saying that I would, I can’t mail it to them because he checks the mail. The only contact I have is through a pre-paid phone under Jo’s bed.”
“I’ll figure it out,” Penn assures me, unexpectedly wrapping his hand around the small of my back. “I’m not going to be like your uncle and just sit back and do nothing, okay? I can’t sit back and do nothing.”
“Penn,” I say, finding breathing a difficult task with his lips so close to mine.
“I’m serious,” He insists.
I’ve never been anybody’s girlfriend before, but I think that I like Penn a lot more than I should like Penn after only being in a relationship for a week. I think that I like Penn more than I should like Penn after being in a relationship for even like, a month or something.
“I’m not a damsel that needs saving,” I inform him in just above a whisper with a shakiness in my voice.
“Baby, you’re not as strong as you think you are,” He whispers just before pressing his lips to mine. I kiss him back, feeling a fire in my tummy that makes me kiss him even harder than he was kissing me.
“You’re pretty amazing,” I say softly when I have to come up for a breath.
He grins against my lips and pulls away a little bit more. “I think I should probably bet back to my dorm now so that we can both get some actual sleep tonight.”
I start to think of Anthony and I start to fear that he’ll come back and I think that he’ll like, attack me again and try to throw me into the pool or something or just drown me in the fountain because he knows how spooked I get when it comes to water. “Can you stay?” I find myself asking Penn as he turns to leave the room. “I-I mean, I’m not trying to… I just don’t want to be alone tonight.”
“Sure, okay,” Penn nods and then we climb up into my bunk because my knees aren’t so weak anymore and I feel safe because I’m with Penn and I just like him a whole lot.
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Hey! So I know that this one is super short so I'm going to post another chapter tomorrow (May 9th) :3
Also, for all of those people who hated me for going to meet the TFiOS cast, you can unhate me now because I didn't go :(
So yeah, thanks for reading! <3