Todd and I got out of his car in front of Penny's house. I looked at Otis'. He sat on his porch with his grandmother and he looked shocked to see me get out of Todd's car. He quickly stood. I walked up to Penny's house and rang the doorbell, folding my arms. Peter answered the door. "Penny doesn't want to see you right now, Dalta. I'm sorry."
My jaw hit the welcome mat. "You're kidding. She doesn't what to see me?"
"Dalta." Otis walked up the porch behind us. "What's going on?"
"You'll find out in a minute." I pointed at Otis, then turned back to Pete. "Pete, I need to talk to your sister."
"Why?" He shrugged folding his arms.
"Are you honestly asking me that question after I saved you from going to jail-"
"La! La! La!" Otis shouted. "Dalta-"
"Step aside, Pete!"
He groaned and stepped aside. "Don't blackmail me-"
"Shut up." I marched up the steps with the three boys behind me.
"Uh-," Todd touched my shoulder," I don't think this is a good idea. You're drunk on emotions right now. You should cool down."
I turned back to him and they all stopped on the stairs. "You didn't want me to cool down half an hour ago."
Otis squinted. "Wait...-what happened half an hour ago?"
Todd looked at him. "Uh..."
I rolled my eyes, then I made my way down the hallway. I knocked Penny's door, then pushed it open. She quickly stood up from her study desk. The little bits of heart I had left suddenly hit the floor and shattered. I stared at her with tears in my eyes. I was about to change my mind about confronting my supposed best friend, when I noticed the look she was giving me; Her screwed lipped, glare eyed, brow lifted look of disgust. She began to slow clap. "Beautiful, Dalta. Just brilliant. You burst into my room after ditching me to go cry to Todd about God knows what."
Otis suddenly appeared in front of me. "Crying? To Todd? You told me you were fine-"
I wiped my cheeks. "You knew I wasn't, but you suddenly get a girlfriend and you forget I exist -"
"Can you hear yourself? You told me to date her-"
"Until I saw the wig and sunglasses in her car!"
Otis froze. "...What!"
I froze then sighed. "I mean, I wasn't sure if it was her car before. But she tried to blackmail me and that conformed it-"
"Blackmail you? With what?"
"Why I'm here." I turned around and glared at Penny. "I've had people call me Klutzy for two years and now I'm hearing that I'm Boy body too?"
Penny's eyes grew. She turned to Otis. "You told her?"
I looked at Otis. "You knew?"
He shrugged angrily. "I told her to tell you. I wanted you to hear it from the devil's mouth-"
"Horse's." Penny sassily corrected him.
"No, the devil. Because that's exactly who you are."
I rolled my eyes at Otis' sass, then looked at Penny. "You sent a picture of me in a swimsuit to Betty, and Betty sent it to Taylor, and she decided to use it to blackmail me."
"What?" Penny stepped forward. "Wait, why is she blackmailing you?"
"It doesn't matter-"
"Yes, it does! You never tell me anything anymore-"
"Because you do things like share pictures of people and talk about them behind their backs!" I clenched my fists. "I always ignored it, but I never thought you would do it to me!"
Penny began to cry.
I rolled my eyes.
"I'm sorry-"
"Whatever. I figured you'd be. I need some time away from you." I looked at Otis. "From all of you."
"What?" He grabbed my arms. "Dalta, I just found out that Taylor's working with Chad from you. I need you more than ever now-"
"Chad as in Betty's ex!" Penny shouted. "You guys need to tell me what's going on!"
Otis turned to Penny with a titled head and an open mouth, prepared to, as he would put it, "tell her about her forefathers" when Todd began to chuckle.
"Wait...," he laughed and shook his head. "You guys do know what Chad is Taylor's brother, right?"
Otis and I looked at each other.
"And here I was thinking there was some sworn secrecy between Taylor and some secret cult. Would've been a better story though."
Otis furrowed his brows. "How didn't I see that? She drove a red car before and started taking the bus after you blew his up."
"It burned," I corrected him. "Not blew up-"
"You blew up Chad's car!" Penny screamed.
We all flinched.
"Oh, my goodness! Dalta, how could you! He leaked Betty's pictures because of that."
I turned toward her. "You spoke to Betty?"
"She called me about twice since she ran away."
"You?" I pointed at her and laughed. "She called you? Of all the people in the world, she decided to call Penny Dreadful?"
Penny and Otis gasped. I looked back at Otis completely confused.
He put his hand on his chest and smiled. "Don't mind me...I'm just a little proud...of something I shouldn't be proud of."
I turned back to Penny.
"Call me whatever you want, but I'm still a better friend than you are," she said proudly, wiping the running makeup off her cheeks.
"Oh really?"
"Everyone thinks so. The minute you come to our lunch table, the mood changes. You're pretentious, and high and mighty, and you constantly correct everyone and tell them when they're 'doing the wrong thing'," she made air quotes with her fingers.
"Because I care!" I screamed back. "Obviously! I'm trying be a good friend and help them! I tried to help Betty-"
"By what? Calling her names like everybody else at school, and telling her that you hope she learns her lesson and gets pregnant?"
I felt the air get sucked out of my chest.
"And what about taunting her ex too?"
"Look," I said, barely able to speak. "You don't know the full story-"
"Then why don't you tell me?"
I turned back to Peter. He slowly shook his head with wide eyes. I sighed and looked at Penny. "I can't. And I'm not sorry. Because whatever you call what we had is over. It was short-lived." I stretched out my hand to shake hers.
She looked at my hand, then at me. She walked over to her dressing table and sat down.
I stared at her, then I turned around and walked out of the room. The guys walked out behind me.
"Dalta!" Peter shouted. I turned back. Peter walked over to me and Otis. He looked at Todd. "Excuse us a minute."
Todd looked at me then he walked away.
"I told you guys to leave this alone." Peter shook his head. "Why won't you listen!"
"Because my friend is involved," I stated the obvious. "We're a part of this too."
"No, you're not. Have you two even listened to the news? They thought the people who robbed the gas station were four black kids."
I looked at Otis. He was just as shocked.
"Apparently, the only face the old man saw was yours, and I guess you looked like a little black kid to him-"
"Great," I threw my hands up," It's confirmed. I have the body of a teenage boy-"
"Dalta," Otis groaned. "You don't."
"Yeah," Peter folded his arms. "You have...," he gestured at my chest. He squinted and leaned closer to me. "I think you do-"
I sighed, giving up.
Peter chuckled. "I'm kidding."
"Kidding. Everybody's suddenly kidding when they say something mean." "I'm going home." I turned to walk away.
"Dalta," Otis chased after me. "You didn't mean what you said about needing a break from me, did you?"
I looked away. "I can't think about anyone else right now. I need to go home and... probably cry myself to sleep and try not to kill myself. If I could drink, I would do that...and become an alcoholic overnight and need rehab-"
Otis sighed then he pulled me in for a hug.
My brows fell.
"I'm really sorry that I didn't tell you about what Penny did. And I honestly think that I should've looked into Taylor more before jumping into a relationship with her." He let me go. "I'm all on board about looking for Betty, but we can't just leave town -"
"I know... I'll figure it out." I walked away from him rubbing my hands together. I took a deep breath. I had to start putting together a plan. I walked down the stairs. Todd quickly walked out of the kitchen with a soda. "Did you go in their fridge?"
He shrugged. "They've got lots of them. They won't miss it."
I rolled my eyes. "I need to get Taylor's phone."
"I can get it for you," Otis said behind me.
I turned around. "Otis...No. I don't need your help-"
"You do. Taylor carries two phones. One's her old iPhone. It has a pink case. The other, she got recently. It doesn't have a case. Which one did you see?"
I looked down. "The red one. It was the red one." I looked at Otis. "Thank you." I turned and started to walk away.
"For what?" Otis shouted. "Which phone was it?"