Drowning in the Waves

Ch. 24: What's Our Story?

Chapter Twenty Four

Colton’s POV:

    I woke up sprawled all over my bed. I looked at my phone for the time and found that I had 2 missed calls from Penny, a missed call from an unknown caller and another missed call from Clover.

    I decided to call Penny first. Before I called I checked the time she called and found it was around 4 in the morning so she might still be asleep. Not wanting to bother either of the girls I decided to check my voicemail, seeing that all of the caller’s left voicemails. I clicked Penny’s first which it said, “Colton,” She was whispering, “I don’t know where I am, this room is dark. I think I was kidnapped and if you couldn’t find me last night that’s why,” She said and it cut off. I deleted it knowing that she was perfectly fine at Clovers side in bed.

    I clicked on Clover message next thinking it has something to do with Penny. She said, “Colton, I tried calling Ryan two times tonight and both times it went right to voicemail. I’m worried about him knowing he was drunk last night, please call me telling me if you hear from him. Penny’s fine, we had an episode in the middle of the night but I calmed her down. I’ll see you when you come over,” It stopped and I frowned.

I hadn’t heard from Ryan. I tried calling him and his phone went to voicemail and I frowned again. I hope he’s okay. I went back to my voicemail and listened to the last voicemail. It was from Sarah “Hi baby, I just wanted to tell you that I was staying the night at Tristan’s. Kisses,” was all she said. She’s so pathetic, she honestly wants me to be jealous of her being with Tristan who just spiked Penny’s drink. I think not.

I got out of bed and showered it was around 10 o’clock by the time I got out of the shower and slipped my shoes on. I stepped outside and walked over to Penny’s house not bothering with knocking knowing that Claire wouldn’t want me to. I walked into the kitchen to find her there, which I expected.

“Good morning, Claire,” I said and looked around to find only her and Ben.

“Good morning honey,” Claire said, “Why don’t you go get the girls up?” I forgot that Claire and Ben didn’t know about last night. Come to think of it, Trevor and Gavin didn’t know either.

“Sure,” I said finding my way up to the girls room. Both of them kicked the blankets off of the bed. Penny was snuggled against the pillow, her eyes were puffy, my guess from crying. I walked over and rubbed her arms. Her eyes shot open and settled on me then softened. Tears started running down her cheeks.

“Shhhhh,” I said and caught one in the middle of her face. I hugged her and said everything was okay.

“Clover?” Penny said and Clover’s bloodshot eyes opened slowly and looked over. She moaned and then sat straight up. “Did you hear from Ryan?” She asked and checked her phone. Her face fell when she found nothing. I frowned. That’s not usually like him.

“No, I didn’t hear from him yet,” I said looking down. I sure hope he was okay. Well if he was really that drunk last night then he would be so hung over he might sleep through today. He wouldn’t do something that stupid.

“He’ll be okay,” Penny said, her voice rough and groggy. I grabbed the still full cup of water and handed it to her. She gulped the whole thing down and the lightly smiled at me.

“Better?” Penny asked through a nervous laugh. Penny turned to her and smiled.

“Guys, Claire, Ben, Gavin and Trevor know nothing of what happened last night,” I said looking from Penny’s face to Clover’s.

Clover frowned. “What are we going to tell them?” She asked looking at Penny who shrugged.

“We can say that she had a small allergic reaction to something last night,” I said shrugging. I just threw an idea out there, but from the looks the girls gave me, I’m guessing it was a good idea.

“Perfect,” Clover said jumping out of bed. Penny stood up too and walked to the bathroom. I was left sitting on their bed. I pulled my phone out and saw that Ryan had texted me. The text read ‘Hungover. Tell Clover I’m fine. Head hurts. Can’t talk for long’. I breathed a sigh of relief. I texted back saying ‘Ok. We need to talk. Soon. It’s about ur bro. Text me when u feel better’. Clover walked back into the room with sweatpants and a white tee shirt on, her hair in a ponytail.

“Ryan’s fine. He just texted me saying he was hungover so just let him sleep and call him tomorrow,” I said and saw her relax and she smiled.

“Thank god,” She said and sighed a relief. Penny walked out of the bathroom with all makeup off of her face and her hair also thrown in a ponytail like Clovers.

“So what’s our story?” She said sitting down looking a lot better than she had before.

“Well, if they asked what happened to you, we say that you had an allergic reaction to something, we don’t know what. So Colton took us home and we went to bed,” Clover said and shrugged. It was so simple that it might just work.