Hhheeyyyyyyyyyyy guyssss (*Awkwardly slinks back into room.*)

It's been a hella' while! And yea, let's just get the crappy excuse over with, shall we?

Some serious family issues, crappy work hours, playing spanish guitar in the sun to piss off my neighbors, and drinking some Cider as I did so. (NOT freaking Cidré! I tried it and it tastes the same, and the freaking ingredients are the same! The people I work with agree, but it's fun to say it with a posh accent! I work at a pretty prestigious golfclub ((Like £3000 pound a year fees)), and trust me, every chance I get I joke about some of the more eccentric clientele :P)

Saw a guest review today after not checking my email in months and they told me that they'd have to stop following the story, sorry I disappointed you, and it's sad to see, but I get it, it must get annoying to wait forever for an update, so again, sorry I upset you if you're reading this.

Short chapter, because I hauled-ass to just upload something because I feel pretty bad for not even trying much, so yea, it's short!

Hope you enjoy it, leave me a review if you like, and hopefully I can finally start writing some worthwhile stuff for you all :)

7: Tired of this game.

'Leonard, when are you coming home? x'

So torturous in its simplicity, but so beautiful, too. Something flared up within Leonard, excitement? Longing? Anger? Love? It looked like any other text she'd sent him when he'd been working late, but it was so different, Howard had talked to him just yesterday, and had told him just how badly Penny had been taking things, at the time Leonard felt nothing but indescribable rage, but now he felt pity for her. Leonard had seen her in a bad state before, but what Howard had described her as made her seem like just a husk, not the bouncy, lovable adorable Penny everyone loved, and so much he wanted to run back to Pasadena, wrap his arms around her and never let her go. He wanted to stop her crying, ever. Penny was perfect as far as Leonard was concerned, she always would be, no matter how often she wrecked his heart and left him wallowing in her wake.

But there was nothing left for him there. She would never open up to him, would never tell him the truth, would treat him coldly when all he ever wanted to do was help and make things better. Hell, all Leonard ever did for anybody was help, and the one person he did it for out of true want, rejected him. Did she have any idea how much that hurt him? To push away someone she claimed to love.

He slammed his hand down onto the bedside table and let out a strangled cry as his insides tore at him. How dare she have the audacity to contact him out of the blue, with no other premise than that of missing him? She was the one who made their relationship fall apart, and now she was the one who was going to have to face the consequences, Leonard was done with that game.

Locking his phone, he slipped it into his pocket. Maybe he could get over Penny, as hard as it was, she only seemed to bring him down, and as much as he loved her, and oh God did him, it just wasn't worth it. Lips turning up into a ghost of smile, Leonard's mind was somewhat starting to formulate a plan, he was finally going to make something of his life, and this Stella Karin was going to help him do it.

It must've been hours since Penny had penned out a text to Leonard, and she'd received nothing in return. She tried to think rationally, maybe he had his phone off, maybe it was out of charge, or maybe he was busy. The thought of Leonard being busy with another girl flitted through Penny's head, and almost made her reel at the image inside of her head. She couldn't imagine it, it was impossible, Leonard and Penny were the pieces that fit together, they melted into each other, there was no way Leonard could replace that.

Was there?

Penny wanted to cry, but moreover she wanted to cry into Leonard's arms. But since she wanted to cry over Leonard, it made her wish moot. Instead she rose from Leonard's bed, blood rushing heavily into her head as she immediately became disoriented. Pushing past the nauseous feeling Penny stormed into his kitchen looking for some sort of alcohol, if she was ever going to do anything without moping about Leonard, she needed to drink, it was better than nothing. She was unsure of what was making her so damned dramatic, it was if Leonard had suddenly disappeared and Penny was the weeping widow left behind. In reality it was nothing like that, he was just a few hours away on a plane, but Penny couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't coming home. At first, she'd been sure that he'd just needed time to cool down, that it was just some kind of over-reaction; he'd always been like that.

It hit Penny like a ton of freaking bricks.

She had always done things like this to him. Criticize all his little flaws, push him away and make something out of nothing. He only ever wanted to do what was best for her, all the fucking time. He was always right about sleezy guys or drinking too much, but no matter what, no matter how many times she screwed up, he was always there. What had she done to repay him? Never open up to him about a single thing, and then proceed to time and time again break his heart. Suddenly the realisation hit her that maybe he purposely didn't text her back, that he really meant what he said about leaving Pasadena. It wasn't just a nightmare anymore, it was full-fledged possibility, and it was terrifying. Feeling sick to the stomach, she left the apartment, now scared to even return to the room of her ex-lover. Going straight through to her room, leaving all of 4A's cupboards ransacked, she picked up the snowflake, lay on her bed and thought about better times. It was all she had now.

Leonard knocked nervously on the door, palms clammy and head sweaty. Before long it swung open and he was met with the smile of one of the most beautiful people Leonard had ever seen. Long dark hair fell graciously down her shoulders and accentuated her incredible sparkling grey-ish eyes. She was Leonard's height, but held herself with such confidence that she was blinding in her beauty.

'Hi!' Stella chorused sweetly, energetically throwing her hand out for Leonard to take. As he went to shake it she didn't let go, and instead pulled him into the room before pulling away and gesturing for Leonard to take a seat.

'I'm Stella, nice to meet you-' she looked over at her folder 'Leonard Hofstadter!' She beamed. Her positivity was amazing, and Leonard couldn't help but want to smile at how upbeat she really was.

As he started to introduce himself, Penny was the last thing on his mind, all he could focus on was a stunning woman that seemed to genuinely want to help him who actually laughed at some of the feeble jokes he made in his current state, maybe things would be just fine.

Ohhh yes, Stella is most certainly gonna have some involvement with Leonard, and oh, her and a certain someone may or may not have known each other years ago, but that's a secret! Til next time!