Be Mine - Completed

Chapter 20

"I'm sorry I've been such a shitty friend," Penny said as soon as Daniel answered the phone.

"Well, hello to you, too." Daniel chuckled, not expecting that to be the first thing out of her mouth. "How have you been a shitty friend?"

"I've barely talked to you all week! God, I'm sorry I suck. My mom was here on Sunday, turns out she just missed me and was worried about me with everything going on here with Georgia, so that was nice and she stayed until Monday. Then I had an exam on Wednesday and Thursday which I spent all day Tuesday studying. Then, Thursday night was girls night with my little, g-little, and a couple of other friends. Then, we just had a meeting at the house about Georgia's investigation and what's happening with that and I just got home and I'm sorry."

"Penny, take a breath." He heard her suck in a deep breath, causing him to smile. "You're rambling and I don't think you took a breath at all during that. You don't need to apologize. You've had one hell of a week, it sounds like. And it's not like you went radio silent on me, we've texted a couple of times and you've kept me up to date about being busy. Everyone has those weeks; this one was yours. I get it. But my real question is, are you okay? After that meeting?"

"Yes." She immediately said, pausing afterward. Letting out a sigh, she recollected her thoughts. "No. I don't know. I think so, but maybe not. Ugh," Penny groaned, wanting to bang her head against the wall.

"Want me to come over? We can have a movie night and you can talk about it?" The thought made Penny smile, knowing that she'd probably feel better if she got to hang out with Daniel.

"As long as you bring me wine and popcorn and we can watch bad rom coms?" Penny said hopefully, knowing that it was a long shot to hope that he would have a classic girl's night with her.

"Whatever you need to feel better." He chuckled again, causing Penny to blush. "Red or white wine?"

After Penny told him her wine preference, they hung up the phone and she laid on her bed, thinking back to what the police said in the investigation. All the leads have been a dead-end, the evidence trail has dried up. They don't know much more than what they did that day 3 weeks ago when they first talked to them. When she walked in and saw Officers Waterman and Williams there, Penny prayed to God that they were there to tell them that they caught the guy. Instead, they were nowhere near catching him.

The police said that they think he skipped town since there hasn't been another murder since. They're not sure why he did it, but they don't think it was a personal attack. They'd already interviewed everyone in the house multiple times, as well as anyone who's name was given as a potential 'enemy' to Georgia. Everyone checked out. They all had alibis. On one hand, Penny was happy that it didn't seem personal and that they didn't think anyone else was at risk. On the other hand, maybe if it was personal, they would have caught this guy already and they could know, really know, that they were safe, rather than assuming.

Penny was pulled from her thoughts when there was a knock on the front door. Smiling to herself, she got out of bed and went to let Daniel in. Her roommates had gone out to dinner after the meeting with Brynn, Thea, Lily, and much to Vivian's excitement, Evelyn. They tried to get her to tag along, but she was in no mood to pretend to be happy and be extremely social after the news they got.

"You're an angel!" She smiled at him, seeing him hold up microwave popcorn in one hand and two bottles of red wine in the other. "This is exactly what I need right now, thank you so much for coming over!"

"I'm always happy to stuff my face with popcorn and watch cheesy movies." He smiled at her. Every time she's with Daniel, she can see where there could be romantic potential, but she feels like it's just not quite there. This would be an extremely cute date, but it feels just like a best friend hang out. She watched him search through Netflix for a movie while she waited for the popcorn to be done, just thinking about her feelings and whether or not they were there. The microwave beeping yanked her thoughts back into the present, causing her to shake her head and remind herself to just enjoy the moment.