My Best Friend's Best Friend

Chapter 18: Yarn

Did I leave the light on last night? Penny pressed her eyelids shut as she woke up. She had a crick in her neck and she didn't know why; was there something hard under her head?

She blinked her eyes open...and met Sebastian's. His deep blue eyes were inches from hers. Along with the rest of his face, of course. Yoba, he was handsome...

Penny gasped sharply and sat up.

Sebastian sat up more slowly, stretching and rolling his right arm, which she had been lying on. All night.

Neither of them said anything, though Sebastian looked somewhat amused.

How could he be so calm in this situation?

Penny crawled clumsily out of bed and smoothed her hair and skirt. "Um, wait here." She practically ran to the door of her room, catching her breath when she was around the corner out of Sebastian's sight. She unlocked and opened the door as silently as she could, listening for any hint of her mother. She peaked out and thankfully saw her mom fast asleep on the couch. She slipped back into the room.

"My mom's asleep," Penny whispered. "I think it's best you go now, before she gets up."

Sebastian nodded and pulled on his boots. He ran his fingers through his hair roughly, not worried about how it fell. His jaw was just slightly darkened from not having shaved. She had seen it like that before; when they'd gone to Zuzu City.

Penny led him out her door and they tiptoed through the kitchen. He stopped for a moment before leaving

"I..." he started, so low she could barely hear. Then he shook his head. "See you later."

He slipped out, and Penny caught the door so it wouldn't slam. She turned the handle silently as she shut it, then leaned her back against it.

Her heart raced. She put one hand on her chest, and the other she brought to her lips. She could still feel him there, if she closed her eyes.

Penny whipped her hand away, embarrassed with herself, and pressed the backs of her hands to her hot cheeks.

Did Sebastian really just sleep in my bed? With me in it? Penny hardly knew what to think.

Did she...like him? Well, she did, obviously, or she wouldn't have wanted to kiss him. And she wouldn't be standing here thinking about kissing him some more.

Penny pushed off the door and went back to her room to get ready for work. Jas and Vincent still needed to be tutored, no matter how much Penny wanted to curl up in a ball and hide the rest of the day.

But she stopped in front of the bookshelf, and took down the Solarion Chronicles. She flipped to the page with the poppy bookmark and threw it unceremoniously in the trash. She hadn't meant to keep it; she really had just forgotten about it. Then, for good measure, she pulled the bookmark back out of the trash, tore it in half, and tossed it in again.

Penny was over Sam. She didn't know how long getting over someone was supposed to take, but she was pretty sure that she was. It had been, what, two weeks since she saw Sam and Maru kiss? And four weeks since she began to suspect? Maybe that was short to other people, but it was enough for her. During all those years when she'd been hoping something would happen, she'd always been preparing for the day that it didn't.

Still, Penny wanted to be sure that she truly liked Sebastian. And liked him in the right way, and for the right reasons, whatever those might be. He was so good to her; too good to hurt. She wanted to be careful.

The way Penny felt about Sebastian was so different from the way she'd felt about Sam. She was familiar with unrequited love, but had no experience with requited...whatever this was.