Dying to Breathe

9.4: eat your heart out

A/N: OU boys. Any of you guys planning on getting or have gotten the covid vaccine? When i say i was out, i was OUT. I couldn't even concentrate long enough to give this a title let alone edit it, so i apologize for the longer wait than i promised. 

Hope you enjoy it!! I consider it the calm before all we get thrown into the shitstorm that is the upcoming chapters :)

Chapter 9, part 4:  Eat Your Heart Out

Penelope should have been used to lies and secrets by now, right? In fact, as she stood in the changing room with Nina, trying on outfits for the party, she didn't even have the energy to be angry.

Did Nina know? Was she also hiding the truth from her? At this point did it even matter?

If nothing else, Millie showed Penelope just how easily putting a mask on could be. And besides, what even was reality if not a subjective belief? Who's to say what she put on her face wasn't the truth—wasn't her truth? Wasn't there some truth in when you faked something for long enough, it eventually became real?

"How's this one?" Nina spun in the formal dress beside her, its almost transparent material covered in crystals that twinkled in the above lighting.

With her red hair piled on top of her head in curls and her lips a cherry red, she looked amazing—like her true form of a fairy. She was just missing wings. Honestly, she already looked ready for the party and she hadn't even done anything but put the dress on.

"It's perfect." Penelope gushed as Nina tugged at the low-cut front, revealing down to the top of her pale, toned abdomen.

She bit her bottom lip as she thought, touching the tantalizing slit up her thigh, "It's not too revealing? It's practically see-through."

Penelope chuckled, "Aren't you the one that said you'd make sure to absolutely seduce Elliot tonight? As long as you're comfortable in it, I think it's the perfect dress for that goal."

Nina exhaled loudly, looking down, "I can say that all I want, but you and I both know I'd never do anything to actually hurt Chlo—I'd never hurt any of you guys, you're my family."

Squeezing her freckly, narrow shoulder, Penelope gave her a small smile, "Whatever you choose to do, I have your back." She promised, "My vote is on this dress, even if you don't use it to get Elliot to notice you, it looks like it was made for you."

Finally smiling again, Nina swished the bottom hem at her feet, "You really think so?"

"Absolutely."

~~~

So... maybe Penelope wasn't completely unaffected by the deception.

By the time Poppy's driver dropped everyone off at the upscale house (mansion) on the hill, Penelope was beginning to accept the fact that she was maybe a little bit bitter. While everyone was dressed in their nines, with beautiful prom-like dresses and elegant makeup and jewelry (even the guys were wearing high-end suits), she looked like she had lost her suitcase on vacation and bought the first thing she saw... or was a raging bisexual.

Wearing mixed patterns, she sported a vintage floral denim skirt that showed off her sun-kissed legs wonderfully, paired with a purple vintage Hawaiian button-up tee that she tied up at her waist. She had thrown her hair up into a lazy updo, donned some bright-ass, one-toned, messily applied, yellow eyeshadow and black eyeliner, and wore white-translucent lace socks with her sister's chunky block heels.