Rich Kid in Disguise

Disguise 36: The Signals

Previously on The Bickering:

Much to Penelope's chagrin, Jeremy appeared. Like usual, they talked and bickered, with Penelope self-reflecting as she prepares herself for her departure. However, though Jeremy's sudden appearance was already questionable as it was, Penelope did not prepare herself from the Ford heir uttering three words.

I like you.

~~

Rich Kid in Disguise

The Signals

Disguise 36

-Penelope's POV-

My eyes did not remain on his eyes; it traveled to his hands, which were the only thing that displayed the same emotion as his eyes, only much less heavy compared to the weight that his brown orbs carried as he realized his own words.

Shock, perhaps to his bluntness. Regret, maybe due to the timing. And then, completely replaced by anticipation, his hands relaxed from the stiff state it was in.

If given the option to do so, I would be willing to pay a hefty price just for me not to know-- or even imagine -- what he looked like in that moment.

"Tiffany."

I looked up, reacting to the name I now wear like a second skin, meeting his eyes once again. His eyes whom I've always concluded to burn intensely no matter what he did. It was always what I secretly marvel about him.

The window to an unwavering soul.

He must have called me again, as I recognized the movement of his lips, and I must have not answered for a long while because those eyes, for the first time, mellowed the fire enough for me to be engulfed in a comfortable and warm trance, a side gentler to the scorning Jeremy I'm used to know.

Even so, my mouth felt like a desert along with my brain's cooperation reacting slower than a snail.

Jeremy realized this. He sighed and gently said, "Look, I just wanted to let that out of me. It's weird, I know, to have lived in each other's lives like water and oil, and for me to still end up liking you. But yes, I like you..." He scratched the back of his head, awkwardly, before continuing, "... and that's that."

"Did you rehearse that?"

"Huh?" He blinked, caught off guard, and now it was as if the Jeremy moments before was placed back and hidden someplace else. "Yeah, well, maybe a little. Was I exaggerating too much?"

"What?"

"What?"

My eyebrows furrowed, and closing my eyes briefly, I dragged myself back to the current situation and asked. "Are you still in character?"

"What do you mean?"

"Because I was, in character." I said, adding the last two words for clarification. With my momentum now gone, my lips pursed in slight disappointment. "You weren't, were you?"

"I was!" Axel defended, raising his hands up in surrender. With me unconvinced, he pouted before opening his mouth to reason. "But I became confused whether you asked it as Penelope that day or Penelope today."

"Well, that was a line for the scene, Wesley. A diss, to be specific."

He nodded in understanding. "Yeah, well, sorry about that." He grinned sheepishly before letting his lips form an amazed smile. "But wow, Duck, for someone so opposed to my idea of acting it out, you were really immersed."