This is Us [ Elijah Mikaelson ] 2

nineteen [penelope]

"To start again,

 to try again, 

to love again, 

to open up again."

-Healing

"Florida?" Penelope asked as they saw the 'Welcome to Florida' sign on the interstate. "We're going to Florida? Do you know what's in Florida?!" Penelope asked, looking over at Rebekah.

"The beach?"

"Alligators," Penelope corrected. "Alligators, and Florida Man. Oh my God we're going to be in a Florida Man news headline!"

"Penny you have nothing to worry about with Alligators, and we have those in New Orleans too."

"What about Florida Man?"

"Florida Man will answer to me if he tries anything," Rebekah assured her, then glanced at Penelope confused. "Who is Florida Man?"

"You know, Florida Man! Florida Man crashed car on the roof of a suburban home. Florida Man robbed bank with Alligator. Florida Man stabbed by a fork by Florida Woman over a burrito!" Penelope told her and Rebekah shook her head.

"I think we'll be okay," Rebekah assured her and Penelope looked down at her new phone. She smiled at the lock screen, and her heart felt heavy. Elijah had gotten her a new phone yesterday and he had set it up for her this morning as she was packing. She and Rebekah had only left two hours ago and Penelope was already missing Elijah terribly. She wanted so desperately to text him how long this car ride seemed to be and from the GPS there was still at least another hour or so to go until they got to their destination. "Don't do it, Penny."

"Do what?"

"Text Elijah."

"I'm not going to, don't worry."

"It looked like you were."

"I want to...but I won't. I said I could last a week, and I'm going to do it."

"Oh?" Rebekah asked, not believing her. "And what's your incentive to actually go through with it?"

"...I get to call him," Penelope answered in a small voice.

"So, your reward for not talking to him...is to talk to him?" Rebekah asked and Penelope nodded. "That doesn't make sense."

"Well, I get to video call him." Penelope corrected herself. "If I can go a week without texting him or calling him, I'll let myself video call him for five minutes."

"That's long enough for an orgasm," Rebekah replied and Penelope's face burned red as she looked at her friend with shock.

"Rebekah!" She exclaimed and the blonde only laughed. Penelope tried not to smile as she looked out of the window. The rest of the drive wasn't as long, until they got onto a bridge and Rebekah cursed, not realizing it was a toll bridge. Penelope pulled out her purse and handed Rebekah a five dollar bill from her wallet and Rebekah begrudgingly paid the toll worker. The traffic from the bridge to the main highway, Penelope thought was ridiculous. Stop and go, stop and go, and right when they were able to go faster than ten miles per hour, they had to stop and sit in traffic for thirty minutes without moving. It was only one-thirty.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Rebekah hissed as she moved to look out of her window with a scowl. Penelope noticed flashing red and blue lights from behind them and Rebekah tried to get over on the shoulder as much as possible to let the ambulance through. Then there were more flashing lights and multiple police cars drove past and Penelope watched in wide eyes.