Pretender (Posie)

Chapter 20

"I have to take this," I said walking towards where Penelope was.

"Penelope?" I called out.

"Josie, I couldn't talk to you in there with them listening," she said.

"Yeah?" I asked curiously.

"I just got a lead," she states, "They told me they want meet up, they said they know where the person who killed my father is."

"Really? that's amazing Penelope!"

"And I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?" She asked

"Yeah, of course I will go with you! When do they want to meet up?" I asked.

"Saturday morning, if you can't go I completely understand," she stated looking me in the eyes.

"No, I can go I'm sure if it," I state, we don't ever do anything on the weekends my dad never wants to do anything on the weekend. Unless we have something for cheer we don't do anything.

"So for tomorrow, what time should I pick you up?" She asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Does 6 work?" I ask.

"6 is perfect, umm should we go back in?" She asked me.

"Yeah but you should go first," I said. It's not that I don't want people to know about Penelope. I just don't want Lizzie to know because I'm scared of how she is going to react. I'm scared that dad is going to send her away again.

"Yeah," She said as she went back into the diner. I waited a minute or two to go back inside. I took my place next to Penelope and the table became quiet or maybe it was already quiet. A few minutes later the food arrived and everyone started eating. I'm pretty sure that I heard Lizzie growl at Penelope at least once but I just ignored it and didn't bring it up. Dinner was really weird especially with Lizzie's glaring.

"So, Penelope how was your first two days her?" Hope asked.

"Umm... great actually I met someone and I really like her and the other students are cool too," Penelope responds looking at me.

The rest of dinner was awkward with my sister glaring at Penelope the whole and whenever someone tried to start a conversation it quickly turned back to awkward silence.

"So, Penelope how was your first two days her?" Hope asked.

"Umm... great actually I met someone and I really like her and the other students are cool too," Penelope responds looking at me. Lizzie's expression changed when Penelope said her and she looked at me then at Penelope and then back to me.

"What lead you to moving out here?"Lizzie asked with a forced smile on.

"This was my mother's hometown but she moved out when she went to college and she wanted me to go to the same school she did," Penelope looks down and it became silent again. I check my phone to see what time it is and I notice that I have a few text from my dad.

Dad: WHERE ARE YOU?!
Dad: Are you with your sister?!
Dad:Why aren't you responding to me?!
Dad: Josie?!
Dad: If your not home in an hour I'm going to call the police
Dad: Josie I'm worried
Josie: On our way now.

That text was from 45 minutes ago! Crap!
"Lizzie we have to go," I tell her.

"What? Why?" She asked.

"Dad just texted. Ms. Palo can we have the check?" I asked,

"Yes of course," Ms. Palo says as she walks over to us and hands us the check. We all quickly pay for our meals and I check the time, Lizzie and I have 7 minutes to get home.

"Can I drive the bike?" I ask Penelope.

"Yeah, of course," She says and we both get on the bike. It took about 3 minutes to get there on the bike. We got home and I had 2 minutes and Lizzie wasn't there yet.

"I had fun with you today, I'm so sorry that Hope and Lizzie were there. I love my sister but everything felt kinda awkward at dinner," I told her.

"No, it's fine but I still don't understand why Lizzie hates me so much... Is it something that I did?" Penelope asks. Was it something that she did? What did she do to make Liz hate her so much? I thought it was because she was new and becoming popular but I don't think it's that anymore.

"It's not you don't worry, Lizzie just has been through a lot and I actually think that you guys would be good friends if you gave each other a chance."

"You think so?" She asked crossing her arms.

"Yes I do," I responded to her.

Hope's car made its way around the corner and Lizzie jumped out of the car and ran to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow?" Penelope said as she saw Lizzie.

"Yeah," I said as she hops onto her bike and rides away.  Lizzie and I both walk inside to see our dad with his arms crossed looking angry but at the same time relieved.

This is probably going to be bad.

"Thank god," He said running up and hugging us, "Where were you? I was so worried!"

" We went to the diner that down the street with Hope," Lizzie said.

"Okay, please text me next time," He said sitting back down on the couch and taking a sip of his beer.

"Okay," we said together.  He needs to stop drinking he is not himself. He hasn't been himself for months now. I just don't want the same thing that happened to mom happen to him, I don't think that we could handle it.

Lizzie and I went to our rooms and I was going to take a shower but Lizzie was already in there so I decided to go on my phone. After about 20 minutes Lizzie got out of the shower and I hopped in.

(With Lizzie)
Lizzie went to her room and to her surprise Hope was sitting in there. "Hope? What are you doing in here?"

"I want to talk to you," She said in reply.

"Okay?" Lizzie was scared for some reason. She felt like Hope was going to break up with her. Is that even what you can call it? She didn't know if she could handle that,
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I'm sorry for not updating but I'll start now