Even though they lived right across the street from each other for over half their lives, Eloise and Penelope still found themselves writing each other little letters and notes back and forth when they were children. As they got older and were finally given the freedom of their own computers, they emailed. Then they got phones and were talking and texting with each other constantly.
Right now, Penelope was supposed to be studying for her College Composition final, but she couldn't very well reject her best friend's call when her name popped up on the screen. Now they had been on the phone for almost an hour, and Penelope couldn't care less about her finals anymore. Time always seemed to slip away when she and Eloise lost themselves in the most mundane of topics. Except, the topic was no longer so mundane.
"Do you know what my brother's travel kick is all about?" Eloise asked suddenly.
"Colin?" Penelope swallowed. Just the mention of him had her heart racing. "No, what do you mean?"
"I don't know, it's just weird. I didn't think much of it at first because he's chaotic and unhinged and basically spins a globe to find his next destination but I realized that the last two years he's created a pattern with his trips," Eloise ranted, barely out of breath by the end of her sentence. She could talk and debate for hours and never need to stop for air. It was remarkable.
"Pattern?" Penelope asked, trying to hide her intrigue at her friend's questioning.
She heard Eloise shuffling around on the other side of the line. "Every place he goes to starts with the letter P. First it was Panama, then Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Peru-"
"So?" Penelope scoffed. "Those are all in South America. Maybe it was just a coincidence."
"Fine," Eloise relented. "But then there was Portugal and he just got back from Poland. Now he's talking about a trip to the Philippines and Papa New Guinea. It's weird!" She exclaimed.
"Eloise," Penelope laughed. "It's not that weird. I think you're reading into this. Maybe once Colin runs out of P countries, he'll travel to Qatar," she mused.
"Yeah," Eloise laughed too. "Or maybe he'll visit Pennsylvania...oh my God," she mumbled, her voice trailing as her shuffling cut out all background noise.
"What?" Penelope asked, concerned for her friend's stranger than normal behavior.
"Oh my God!" She repeated, sounding disgusted for some reason.
"What?" Penelope asked again, now worried and preparing to cross the street to see what was the matter.
"Colin!" She screamed.
"El, what is it?!" Penelope yelled back.
"I have to go. Bye Pen...elope," she said oddly.
"Eloise, wait!" But she had already hung up, so her decision was made to visit the Bridgertons and see for herself.
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Eloise came storming into his room while he was journaling, grabbed a pillow from his bed and suddenly started beating him with it. "Colin, why didn't you tell me?!" She screeched.
"Tell you what?" He asked, thoroughly confused. "Ah, Christ El!" He hissed when she got a particularly harsh hit in.
"You. Love. Penelope!" She explained, unrelenting in her abuse. She may have been small, but with a temper like Anthony and Benedict's lessons in boxing, Eloise was a force to be reckoned with.
Colin went slack jawed at her declaration. "W-what? I-I don't...what?"
"Oh don't play dumb!" Eloise groaned, dropping the pillow to his relief. He carefully tucked his journal into his desk and stood, trying to make sense of what was happening. "For two years, you've travelled to six different countries, all beginning with the letter P. Why would you do that unless you were obsessed with my best friend?" She said, pacing his floor so quickly it nearly made Colin dizzy. Then, she stopped and turned to him, a horrified look on his face. "Oh God, it is Penelope, right? It's not like Prudence or Portia?"
"No!" He yelled, equally horrified at the thought.
"So you are in love with Penelope!" She exclaimed, pointing a finger in his face as she sported a triumphant grin. It was then he realized his mistake.
"What?" He heard an all too familiar voice gasp from the doorway.
"Pen," he breathed, turning to her instantly.
"Whoops! M-my bad," she stuttered, her cheeks nearly as bright red as his must have been.
"Pen, I-" he tried to explain.
Penelope took a step away from him, stumbling into the hall. "I-I'm gonna go. Sorry."
"Pen, stop!" He yelled, desperate for her to forget this embarrassing incident.
"I'll get her," Eloise insisted, shoving him back into the room. He followed anyway, because he wasn't about to let his sister make this any worse for him. "Penelope, do not walk out that door," Eloise ordered.
Penelope tensed, her hand hovering over the doorknob. She slowly turned around, and he ducked behind a corner, too much of a coward to face her yet. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude," Penelope said, as if she had anything to apologize for. He should be apologizing. That definitely wasn't how he wanted Penelope to find out. "You just sounded so panicked over the phone and I wanted to make sure you were okay," she said to Eloise in that sweet, caring tone of hers that he adored.
"My brother does not deserve you," his sister snorted.
"Eloise!" He and Penelope shouted in unison, both blushing when they realized this.
Eloise groaned as if she were in pain. "You two are insufferable."
"Eloise, can you please give us a minute?" Colin practically begged.
"Ugh, fine," she relented. She squeezed Penelope's hand and ducked down to whisper in hear, pointed and loud as she was expected to be. "Holler if he's being too much of a creep," she said, glaring at him as she walked away.
"Pen," he began.
"What was that all about?" She blurted, pointing at Eloise. "Is she okay?"
"Eloise? She's fine, why?" He asked, confused. He really didn't want to talk about his sister at that moment.
Penelope crossed her arms over her chest, giving him a delicious view of her cleavage that he tried and failed to resist. "I don't know, she was just freaking out about your travel plans and what country you were visiting next. It was like the Whistledown discovery all over again," she explained with an amused huff.
"Yeah," was all he said, somewhat distracted with other...matters.
"So, was she right?" Penelope asked, fixing her gaze on his. Her ocean blue eyes sparkled with vulnerability and snapped him out of his daze.
"What?" He asked.
She smirked, dropping her arms so that her breasts jiggled the smallest amount. "Was there a pattern?" She clarified.
"Oh," he said with a nervous laugh, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Yeah," he confessed, his voice barely a whisper.
"Why P?" She asked, as if she didn't know. He loved when she did this. Teased him. "It's not a bad letter. I mean, my name starts with P, so I...Colin?" She gasped when she realized that he had closed the space between them during her mini rant. How could he resist her anymore? He needed to kiss her. He'd die if he didn't. So he pressed his lips to hers, softly at first. Then as he heard her-no, felt her sigh of pleasure-he deepened it, pouring every ounce of his love into the kiss. Penelope rose to her feet, desperate to reach him. She pulled back, frustrated and breathless. "Where were you gonna go when you ran out of countries?" She asked, giggling as she kissed his neck, the only part of him she could reach at this angle.
He crouched lower, wrapping his hands around the backs of her thighs and hoisting her into his arms. "Home," he said, diving into her sweet abyss.
