Pretender (Posie)

Chapter 35

"So, Penelope?"

"Yes?" She asked. She didn't want to admit it but she was sort of scared of her girlfriends dad.

"How did you meet my daughter?"

"Well, I first noticed her at the end of summer break but I didn't talk to her. Then I saw her staring at me on the first day of school so I went up to talk to her...We have first period English together and got partnered up and now here we are." Josie noticed that Penelope left out a lot of stuff but she didn't blame her.

"Hmm..." Penelope was terrified of what he was going to say next. She didn't want to say the wrong thing. "English partners, that's actually how I met Josie's mom. God she hated me but obviously she came around." He was smiling.

"Mom hated you? I thought you two were soulmates."

"We were. But, yeah she hated me at first, I didn't really even do anything to her only some light flirting." That made Penelope raise an eyebrow.

"That sounds like someone I know," Josie says quietly.

"Eventually she gave into going on a date with me and some other stuff happened and now we're here," he looked a little sad when he finished.

"Dad..."

"I'm fine sweetie. Just miss her."

"Me too."

"I'm sorry for not being there for you and you're sister, I should've been there."

"Dad, it's okay and it's in the past. You can't change it now."

"I know, I still should've been there. There's a lot of moments and memories that I missed out on."

"Well you're here now and that's all that really matters."

(2 weeks and 6 days later)

Penelope was in the car with Josie driving to see her dad for the first time in years. She was nervous, very nervous. She had so many questions she wanted to ask him. What if he didn't like her. This might even just be a horrible prank.

She was very happy that Josie was coming with her though. She believed she couldn't go without her. "Penelope?" Josie asked noticing that her girlfriend seemed off. "Are you okay? I know that this must be hard."

"I'm fine, just nervous. I haven't seen him in years. What if he doesn't like me?"

"He's going to like you. You're his daughter," she states.

"I know but what if he doesn't?"

"Penelope," She said sternly, "he's going to like you."

"Okay," She takes a deep breath, "Yeah he's going to like me, and if he doesn't, well then that's too bad for him, because I'm pretty amazing." She then parks at the town boarder. She takes another deep breath and looks at Josie. "I'm so happy you're here."

"Me too," she grabs a hold of Penelope's hand. A few minutes later a motorcycle rides by and stops right at the sign. He takes his helmet off to reveal a face that Penelope recognizes immediately.

"It's him." She opens the door to get out of the car but Josie stops her.

"Are you ready?"

"I'll never be," she takes another breath and kisses Josie before she fully gets out. Josie opens the other door and follows her. "Dad!" She shouts causing the man to look her direction.

"Penelope," He gets off his bike and runs to his daughter. He immediately pulls her into a tight hug. Josie watched the interaction.

"You're alive...you're actually alive," she takes in this moment.

"I'm alive, god I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," she pulls away from the hug.

"I have so much I want to ask you. How's your mom? Your brother?"

"They're both fine. Did you tell them that you're back?"

"No, Penelope. I only reached out to you, I heard you were looking for the man who murdered me."

"I was... Which brings us to my question...why did you do it?"

"I had people after me, they threatened to kill me and you if I didn't pay them back. But, I didn't have the money so the only way I could keep you safe was to fake my own death."

"You left us."

"I know and I'm sorry but I wanted my family to be safe... I wanted you to be safe, Penelope."

"You don't really even know me."

"...I want to."

"Alright."

"So umm who's your friend?"

"This is my girlfriend, Josie."

"Girlfriend? So you're gay?"

"Yes, is that a problem?"

"No, no, not at all it's just you were always liked boys."

"I was 10, heterosexuality was shoved down my throat. I didn't know what the hell I was saying."

"Okay...How do you know that you won't like a boy? You might meet-"

"Dad," she warned but he kept going, "No!Mom gave me this talk too many times and I'm sick of it. I don't want to meet a nice boy and have two to three kids and maybe get a dog. That's not what I want, Okay?"

"I'm sorry. It's just that I didn't raise my daughter to be gay."

"You didn't raise me to be gay!? Oh that's awfully funny coming from a man who left his family," She stated sarcastically, "And yeah you didn't raise me to be gay. You didn't fucking raise me at all!" She walks over to Josie, "this was a bad idea, let's go babe."

"Penelope!" He yelled as she shut the door of the car, "Fuck!"

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