ᴍᴏᴍᴇɴᴛꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴘᴇʀꜰᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ

even at the beginning

the boston college days were every indication that trevor and penelope would be enemies for life, but when an unfamiliar penelope finds herself in a sticky situation at a well known bar there's one person who is taking the initiative to save her and everyone can see the sparks—everyone except trevor and penelope.

—————————————————————————

"i'm not going out with you—" penelope protests as celeste grabs the sleeve of her flannel covered arm in attempt to stop her best friend from walking away from her. penelope snatches her arm back with a grumble and dramatic roll of her eyes.

"keep rolling your eyes, you might find your brain back there. the brain that's lying to you and telling you that you don't want to go out—when deep down in your heart you know you do!" celeste shoots back earning a middle finger from her best friend for which she giggles at, jumping down on the bed to sit next to her.

"i'm not going out with people who don't want me there." penelope shrugs mindlessly scrolling through social media. celeste snatches the phone out of her friends hand and quickly gets off the bed, running to the other side of the room. "hey!"

"you're being ridiculous and you know it!" celeste points and accusing finger.

"i'm not cel and you know it!" penelope feels like screaming at the fact that her best friend of however many years won't listen to her protests about going bar hopping tonight. "no one want me th—"

"shut up, p! by no one do you mean trevor? who gives a shit about him. look—matt and spencer want you there, i want you there, jack is back in t—"

"that's great cel, you can go get your professional hockey dick—do whatever you need to do to make yourself happy but i'm staying in tonight. getting dressed in minimal clothing, walking from the dorms to the bars in heeled boots, all while trevor huffs and puffs about how he can't stand me? yeah—no thanks."

"what would make me happy is you coming out with me."

penelope shakes her head, snuggling further down into celeste's bed. "i'm staying right here."

the door to celeste's dorm swings open and on the other side reveals the man of the hour—the star rookie in new jersey. the one who celeste turns back to look at and finds her cheeks getting warm at the sight of his wings of hair poking out the sides of his backwards snapback, black jeans, a blue hoodie that makes his eyes pop, and a flannel thrown over top. she smiles softly at him and she'll never admit it but he's got her wrapped around his finger just as tight as she has him wrapped around hers.

"tequila shots on me if you get out of this bed, p." jack announces to the pitiful looking blonde in the tiny dorm room bed.

penelope's eyes shoot open wide as she throws the duvet off her body. she practically jumps off the raised bed and skips over to jack. "done!" she cheers giving him a platonic peck on the cheek.

celeste gasps in amazement because if all it took was free tequila shots to get penelope out of bed, she would have tried that hours ago. jack waits until penelope is out of the room and he hears the disgusted grunt from her when she passes trevor in the hallway to pull celeste into his chest.

"i missed you." he wraps his arms around celeste's head and stares down at her in his arms. her arms wrap around his torso, her nose nearly brushing his as she stares into his enchanting cerulean blues.

"how can you miss something you don't have?"

jack cocks an eyebrow. "and who's fault is that?"

—