Drowning in the Waves

Ch. 39: The Gift

Chapter Thirty Nine

Penny’s POV:

After an hour of pulling myself together, I put on my bathing suit and grabbed a towel. Clover hadn’t come up to my room to check on me, which I was grateful for. She should be enjoying herself, not being bothered by me.

I peered out of my bedroom door to see if anyone was there but found an empty hallway. I sighed and started on my way to the stairs.

“Hey, you okay?” Trevor said coming up the stairs toward me. I held back a sob and plastered a smile on my face.

“Yeah, I’ll talk to you later about it okay?” I said pushing past him without his response. I looked around and when I found no Colton, I made my way over to the deck. There were people all around me, talking, dancing, drinking, eating and having a good time.

I found Clover in the pool, in her bra and underwear… “Clover?” I screamed over the music. She smiled sheepishly up at me. Ryan swam over and wrapped his arms around her.

“I didn’t want to bother you,” She said when she saw my expression.

“So you went in the pool in your underwear?” I questioned her logic but shrugged it off. Everyone was probably drunk or on their way there.

“Yup,” She said laughing, “Oh hey wait, Penny,” She said calling me back to the pool ledge after I started to walk away. I didn’t feel like swimming anymore.

“Yeah?” I said once I was close enough to the edge.

“Theres something left on the living room table I think you’d be interested in seeing,” She said and ducked under water after Ryan.

I sighed and maneuvered my way over to the living room. I finally spotted a wrapped box completed with a bow on the table. I frowned. What was that? Walking over, I saw it had my name written on it with a heart.

I picked it up and decided it would be best to bring it up to my room to open it. Once I was safely upstairs, I turned and locked my bedroom door. I set the box on the bed and looked at it.

I brought my hands to the bow and pulled it off. I ripped apart the wrapping paper as well. Looking at the plain brown box, I slipped the lid off and gasped. Inside there was another little cube box and homemade book.

On the front cover was a picture of me and Colton. I don’t know where he had taken it but I was looking at the camera smiling happily leaning my head on his chest while he had his arms wrapped protectively around me. He wasn’t looking at the camera, he was looking at me with a look of admiration on his face.

I slowly pulled the book out of the box, ignoring the smaller box for now. I opened the first page and there was me and Colton again, the night we all stayed up at the bonfire, I was snuggled against Colton’s chest sleeping soundly with a smile on my face. I felt tears start to drip down my cheeks. The next page pictures that me and Colton took at the carnival he took me to. Flipping through those pictures, I came to the pictures of my and Colton when we went to the baseball game and then the pictures at the amusement park.

I flipped through all of the pages crying and not even halfway through the book the pages were blank. Stopping at the last page of book, it read “Penny, You are the most beautiful and caring person I have ever met, I will forever love you with all of my heart. Love Colton”

I gently set the book down on my bed and let the tears roll swiftly out of my eyes and down my nose. Sniffling, I picked up the tiny box and opened it.

Inside, there was the most gorgeous diamond heart necklace. Engraved on a small plate, that fits behind the heart, it said “I love you Penny”.

I started to cry more knowing, he probably doesn’t love me. Not enough to not kiss Sarah anyway.