Chapter 2 - Penny's Realization
Penny awoke about 9 AM, her head pounding, her mouth like sandpaper and her vision slightly blurred, she couldn't remember feeling this bad in a very long time. So when she started to lift her head, it only made the room spin which made her suddenly feel sick, that feeling forced her off the bed and out of the bedroom. The driving need to empty the contents of her stomach, masking her nudity to her senses, as instinct took over, from being in the guys apartment many times before. Penny barely made it to the bathroom and toilet in time, throwing up into the bowl then sliding on to the floor hugging the toilet for dear life. During the next half hour she threw up again and again, until nothing was left, dry heaving a couple of times and then finally falling asleep on the floor. Penny's mind being so muddled no thoughts of her situation or surroundings even questioned, merciful sleep being the only thing her body craved.
So it was almost 11 AM when Penny woke up again from being cold, now realizing she had no clothes on, staggering out of the bathroom and finally realizing where she was. Instinct took over again as she stumbled on her way over to Leonard's room, entering and immediately collapsing on the bed, then rolling herself up in the sheets, again promptly falling asleep. Her mind again still too fuzzy to even question why she was there, what happened, or what she was doing, sleep again the only thing her body desired.
Amy woke up at noon, her headache and dry throat driving her up and after slowly becoming alert, realizing where she was. She started out a little dizzy but realizing she was nude in bed with Sheldon drove her almost completely sober, and as she sat there, memories of the night came horribly back to her. Amy forced herself up and made her way to the bathroom, to find pain killers. then to living room to retrieve her clothes, finally dressing and sitting on the couch. Where now thoughts of what she did sent a chill down her spine as she remembered a lot of what happened the night before. What made things worse was those thoughts soon centered on what would happen when Sheldon woke up and what he would say, as she agonized and became scared about what she had done. It was over an hour later, after taking aspirin and water, that she fell back asleep on the couch, her body too tired to keep going and her mind now wore out from worry.
Sheldon woke at almost 3 PM, he wanted to just die, his head hurt horribly, his throat was dry, his mind dizzy and he was feeling horribly sick. His great brain was in shock and like every time before, when sick, he felt totally helpless. So like Penny, when overwhelmed like this he just fell back to instinct, yelling like many times before, "LEONARD, I'M SICK!"
It was Amy though that woke up to Sheldon's calls, feeling a little better, but now concerned about her boyfriend and immediately went to him. She spent the next hour with him in the bathroom, finally getting water and aspirin down him, and comforting him to go back to bed. It wore Amy out, making her really tired from helping him, and her head started to ache again, so she took two more aspirins and drank more water then laid back on the couch. Amy now rationalizing and convincing herself to wait for Sheldon to be more lucid before they talked. She fell asleep almost immediately, her own still nagging hangover and the stress eating all her remaining energy.
Penny woke up again, at a little before 7 PM, the sleep had helped but she still had a headache and her throat still felt like sandpaper. She was alert enough to think a little and looking around now she knew where she was, in Leonard's room, but where was Leonard? She continued to look around, trying not to lift her head from the pillow, and was surprised there was no water or aspirin close by, again the thoughts of Leonard not being there, disturbing her. The second surprise was when she finally pushed herself up on the bed, she was nude and had a sheet wrapped around her, so with all the strength she had, she got up to find Leonard. Penny only made to the hallway before her priorities changed, standing and walking only made her feel worse, her headache reminding her she was hung over, her need for pain killers and water now taking over.
Penny forced herself to continue on through the apartment, slowly turning the corner from the hall to the living room, to see Amy sitting at the kitchen counter. As her eyes focused on her friend, Penny's eyes locked on the aspirin bottle and water bottle in front of Amy. Penny didn't even notice that Amy was just staring ahead or that she had the note in front of her, her only thoughts being pain relieve and her dry throat, as she hoarsely said, "Amy you're a life saver, can I have the water?"
Amy broke her trance and looked at Penny, then finally, with no joy in her voice, "Yes, take it."
Penny spend the next minute drinking half the water, opening and taking aspirin, then drinking the rest of the water, finally sitting in a stool across from Amy. "Damm, I'm never drinking again." She now told her friend, a slight sigh coming from her lips as she now rested on the stool. Her immediate needs were now met, so her mind quickly went back to her previous concerns, wondering about Leonard, "Amy, have you seen Leonard?"
Amy sighed, "I'm sorry Penny."
"Huh?" Penny now looked at Amy confused, watching as she slid the paper in front of her to Penny. Penny read 'Roommate Agreement Termination' and tried to understand what she was attempting to read, looking at Amy and getting more confused as she saw the sadness in her friends face. When Penny looked back to the paper, she just scanned the words and as she saw 'moving out', 'girlfriend' and 'cheating', she started to get more and more worried. It took her slowly reading it three times before it sank in, the note doing more to sober her up than anything she had done for herself that day. "What's this?" she looked at Amy wide eyed.
"Leonard must have come back when we were all still in Sheldon's bed and found us there." Amy simply stated.
"We were in Sheldon's bed?" suddenly Penny strained her mind as she went over bits and pieces of the morning, and as some of those pieces came back to her, she gasped. "I was nude in Sheldon's bed!"
Amy just nodded, giving her a sympathetic look. "We all were."
"Oh My God! Leonard came in this morning and found me nude in Sheldon's bed!" Penny cried, again seeing the sad nod of Amy's head, again.
"Oh My God! Leonard!" Penny jumped up grabbing her clothes and keys, then threw her robe on to run out the apartment, tears streaming down her face, the pain in her heart now exceeding any pain from her hangover.
Penny was sobbing by the time she reached her bed and it took her a long time to calm herself, she didn't remember the night before but that morning was all coming back to her and the more she remember the more she was scared. It took her a little while to get off her bed and look into the mirror, finally opening her robe, to discover the horror of what she dreaded dried around her crotch and thighs, and it was then she wanted to die. Penny ran into the shower and scrubbed the shame off of her, but knew the shame in her could never be cleansed, as she stood in the shower until the water turned icy cold, as she painfully washed and rewashed herself. By the time she done, she was cold and was shivering, leaving the shower, trying to quickly dry the cold water off her goose bump covered body as she when to the bedroom to pick up her phone. It only to a second to hit the speed dial, Penny hoping, beyond hope, there was some way to fix this all, some way for Leonard to forgive her, as her life just seemed to now be just dissolving before her eyes.
Penny knew she would do anything, beg him to forgive her, she would promise him everything, if he would just forget this, she told herself in her mind. She loved him so much and she wanted to marry him, the thought of not being with him now, not even an option, and the hope he felt the same way gave her the strength to call him even now. However that all disappeared as the call went to voice mail, and Penny had to pour her heart out to a soulless machine. "Leonard, I'm so sorry. I never meant that to happen. I drank too much, I know that's not an excuse, but that wasn't me that did that. Please Leonard call me. I love you Honey. I love you." After she hung up, Penny then just stared at her phone, wishing there was some way she could will it to ring. But it was late in the night when she finally fell asleep, on her couch, never a phone call or text received.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxWRONG BABYxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
That morning Leonard had driven around a while, barely thinking about anything else except what he saw, and wondering why Penny would do that. So it was when he just sat at a traffic light, after it turned green, and cars started honking, that he realized he needed to get off the road before he actually hurt someone. Leonard had turned in the first hotel parking lot he found and rented a room, thinking he would sleep and after he rested, somehow things would make sense to him. However, sleep did not come to Leonard, because every time he closed his eyes, the picture of Penny in Sheldon's bed would return to his mind.
Leonard couldn't help but question his and Penny's relationship, as he laid there, insecurities he had his whole life now coming back to him and haunting him. He always knew he wasn't good enough for Penny and their engagement only happened because she thought he was good for her. Those words now preoccupied his mind, she said he was good for her, a good choice in her life, there was nothing about her being madly in love with him or that she couldn't live without him when they got engaged. He had kept at her for years and now he thought all he really accomplished was that he wore her down, it made him feel ashamed of himself and so pathetic, he even rationalized that she wasn't really in love with him. He found himself comparing himself to other men he hand seen Penny with and, as he belittled himself in his grief, he found himself lacking. He was a short nearsighted asthmatic geek, he felt he was obviously on the bottom of the gene pool, and he knew if it had been born a few thousand years ago he would already be dead and gone, never having mated with a female, and in effect, nature would culled his genetic code from human race.
Those thoughts, from his mind running wild, made him keep rolling back and forth in the bed, only making him feel worse, until in his mind he told himself to man-up, like his mother told him years ago. It was what he needed to do, accept who he was and go on with his life, he needed to be realistic too, girls like Penny were not for people like him and he needed to accept that too. It was a hard pill for him to accept but he knew it was the way things were in the real world and accepting it was the only logical path for him to follow. It had finally took four hours but eventually with those thoughts Leonard succumbed to a fatigue driven sleep, and when it finally came, it was mercifully deep and dreamless.
Leonard had slept through the rest of the day and into the night, finally waking at dawn the next day, confused to find himself not in his own bed, but quickly remembering why. The clarity he thought he would get after he rested, was painfully not there and as Leonard sat on the edge of his bed, he cried, as he realized all his hope and dreams for a future with Penny were now gone. It was mid morning when he checked out of the hotel, after an hour in the shower, and began his search for a living place he could rent with weekly rates, to start his life over.