Author's Note: Here we go again. I'm beginning to think I ought to have combined these oneshots into one story, like what I've done on fiction press. It's another short one that I know can be applied to SWAC :). Let me know what you think.
Denial
Please don't let her take him.
It was a prayer Penelope found herself saying every night to a God she thought she didn't believe in. She could only seek solace in a mythical figure. There was no one else she could talk to.
It was a prayer often prompted when they were in bed, when he was asleep. She looked up at the white ceiling, imagining the stars beyond the roof, remembering how they were; what they were before her betrayal and his constant betrayals.
And then he said her name.
Penelope became well aware of who he was dreaming about. Before she had contented herself, thinking it was her. She was the one he returned to after every fling. She was the one he took home, the one he called his girlfriend. She was the one with the most honourable title.
However, she wasn't the one Chad Dylan Cooper thought of anymore.
At first she didn't see it. She thought the new girl was just another fantasy he was eager to play out in reality. She should have noticed the lingering stares, constant attention, the way he always watched her when she walked into the room and the way he turned, reluctantly watching her leave. He neglected Penelope every time she was in the room, but she assumed his fantasy had become just one of his many obsessions.
For a while she lived in denial. When her eyes were opened to the secret smiles she received, the different expressions on his face and the softer tones of voice, she closed them tightly. She only saw what she wanted to see. He continued to return to Penelope and she eventually learned to stop asking herself whether it was because she resisted every move he made.
Penelope's eyes were forced to open when they lay in bed together that night. When she looked up at the white ceiling imagining the stars above. When he said her name longingly.
That was when she knew.
That was when her perfect life was sinking before her eyes.
She was forced to ask herself the question she had been ignoring with all of her strength since he came back to her the first time:
Is it really worth it?
The next day, Penelope made her decision. She walked into school in her favourite red dress, her hair looking like a piece of black silk and her make-up flawless.
She told Josh Emerson – the popular guest star on The Falls - that she had a crush on him.
Penelope stopped praying to God that day. She had answered her own prayers the only way that she knew how. She watched as she told them about her date with the footballer. She watched Chad's expression hide the heartache that only his eyes showed. She felt his tight grasp on her hand loosen and she tried not to listen to the new question that her mind forced her to confront:
Was he in love with Sonny Munroe?
Author's Note: Yeah, I'm still waiting for the day when I write an extremely romantic ending to one of these oneshots, but I watched 'Sleepless in Seattle' yesterday so there's hope! :). Please let me know what you think in reviews!