My Heart's Choice (On Hold)

Chapter 24

"Let us get this straight," Penny says, folding her arms over her chest and leaning against the door of a bathroom stall. "Nora Williams cooked up this crazy master-plan so that things between you and Mason would come to a speedy ending?"

"As much crazy as this sounds, that is like the only thing I can do if I want to get out of this mess, fast," I reason.

"Okay! Let's just say that Nora is smart and her master-plan is all great. Fine! But why go into such stupid lengths to help Mason get his girl back?" Penny looks at me like I lost my mind.

"I don't know," I say tentatively, trying to come up with a good reason than that.

"I mean that's Mason Young and Rhea freaking Evans!" she exclaims.

She has a point! I should be celebrating their breakup, their heartbreak and pain and all that. What am I doing helping them get back together?

"But Mason forced me. Remember when he beat me up to a pulp? And Rhea tried to do the same thing to me at the party, when I tried to tell her to, you know, to beg Mason for forgiveness," I remind her, watching the door to the Ladies' Room to make sure that no one shows up in the middle of our talk.

Penny shakes her head. Her eyes look tired and she massages the bridge of her nose a couple of times.

"I really hope that this master-plan of Nora's works out and I can finally pull my self out of all these," I say more to myself than to Penny.

"And then what?" Penny asks.

"And then, maybe go back to my earlier life. You know, doing their homework and all that and then that's it," I answer, "Writing their essays for them is much easier than what is happening now. I mean, it's - I don't know - more...like I'm very disconnected to all them than just their homework,"

Penny lets out a shaky breath. I don't know if it is because we are discussing Nora's master-plan here in the ladies' room or because of something else.

"Okay, Mason and the mess aside, what is Kenneth Williams up to? Is that part of the plan?" she raises an eyebrow.

Oh. That.

"No," I say quickly, before she can form any other wrong conclusions.

Perhaps that was too quickly to answer, for Penny's eyes flash a mischievous glint and her lips curl into a knowing smile.

"Look, Penny," I say sounding confident although I am miserably failing inside, "Kenneth is just Nora's brother. And my neighbor. That's all."

I flash her a threatening glare daring her not to show that annoying smile of her's.

"That's all," Penny repeats, rolling her eyes.

I glare at her again.

"What?" she asks innocently, her eyes doing that puppy-eyes look.

Gosh!

I sigh and let it go. I should learn to resist her puppy-eyes, soon!

"Fine, he did ask me if I want a ride home today, and...," my cheeks burn with the confession.

"And?" Penny prompts.

"And I said okay," I try to judge if that awkward smile she is flashing right now is because she thinks this is funny or because she has something else on her mind.

Penny claps her hands signalling the end of the conversation.

"This is some conversation we need to have after you are home from your ride," she says with a wink.