Chapter 10

* 2 days earlier *

Amy paced up and down anxiously in Howard and Bernadette's house as her smaller blonde friend relaxed on the couch, sipping her wine slowly as she thoughtfully took into account the rant that her chum was going through.

"Now, she's probably broken off her friendship with me!" exclaimed Amy, obviously affected by the unpleasant experience of her 'bestie' calling her out for sticking up for her boyfriend.

"What did she expect me to do Bernadette? Penny knows I've never achieved social success. Our social group is my first real set of friends, Penny… is my best friend," she paused hesitantly before sticking with the more uplifting theory that Penny was still her best friend, rather than accepting the loss of her 'bestie'.

"Sheldon is my first boyfriend; I truly care about him and wasn't willing to sacrifice our relationship for Leonard's sake! But Penny absolutely flipped out when I asked her if Leonard could be more sensitive to the current issue, concerning both his and Sheldon's nominations," Amy continued, her emotions beginning to well up, as she recalled the dramatic encounter.

"What should I do? I am not on speaking terms with Penny at the moment. I later called her mobile eight times and I have also sent her six texts but she has not acknowledged any of them! I don't know Bernie. At first, it was just me and her, caught in the centre of a quarrel between our boyfriends. Now, we are being caught in the crossfire and it has really damaged our friendship," Amy sighed, as tears threatened to form in her eyes.

"What should I do?" she asked, sitting down in a beige chair, opposite to her friend.

Bernadette swallowed the last of her wine before turning to her desperate, troubled friend.

"If I was in your position, I would stick up for what I think is right and not back down Amy," Bernadette said. "If you truly believe that you are making the right choice and it's what you really want, then I think you should stick up for Sheldon, even if it means scrapping your friendship with Penny. I guess though that she's in a similar position, and is willing to stick up for Leonard, even if it means she will have to no longer be friends with you".

"I guess I can live with not having Penny grace me with her presence," Amy murmured, sadly.

"But you share the same group of friends, so you will eventually have to confront and acknowledge her. It's not healthy to prolong the inevitable Amy. I think you should try to reconcile soon," Bernadette encouraged, softly.

Abruptly, her phone rang as she quickly said, 'Sorry, I'll just take this quickly,' before disappearing into the kitchen, picking up the call.

Amy nodded, silently as she mulled over her options, attempting to seek the optimum choice. She factored in the possible future encounters with Penny and apart from the scenarios where she grovelled for forgiveness; the future didn't look too bright.

Amy sat up, trying to piece together the puzzle of her problems. Maybe she had gone too far, Amy thought. She knew that Penny cared fiercely for those who were closest to her, especially Leonard. Penny had already been pretty on-edge, since Sheldon had been nominated and was elevating his glory to new heights whilst downplaying Leonard's.

That had evidently angered her bestie. Amy mentally kicked herself as she realised that she probably had pushed Penny past her breaking point, when she asked Leonard to tone it down a bit.

But she had a right to care for herself, didn't she? Sheldon being happy meant a lot to her, and him feeling scared and vulnerable made her upset and feel less secure. Generally, when it came to Penny, Amy was very selfless. But in a rare glimpse of her wanting Penny to kindly oblige to something else, her friend had completely taken it the wrong way, leaving her feelings towards Penny conflicted, making Amy scared, angry and confused.

What had Penny really done for her? Not much; she had introduced Amy to her friends group though it would probably have been like that anyway, being Sheldon's girlfriend. Amy struggled to think of anything else.

She wondered whether their whole friendship was a lie; a joke to everyone else who could see the clear truth: a popular, pretty girl, constantly being burdened by her embarrassing, socially awkward, needy self proclaimed 'bestie'.

"Come to think of it," Amy thought, a revelation suddenly occurring to her, "She's never actually called me that".

Sadness instantly eclipsed Amy. Intense emotions flowed through her blood as she felt her face heat up. Was their friendship real? Did Penny just go along with it to profit from something else? Or did she simply put up with Amy for the sake of it? Or did Penny actually like her?

Amy dismissed these negative thoughts, but some lingered painfully in her memory. Surely, she would have known if Penny didn't like her? Her friend wasn't one to beat around the bush. Even so, Amy was unsure.

She tried to condense her thoughts, as tiring ideas bothered her exhausted mind. She looked again at her phone. Eight calls and six texts. She began to type out another text to Penny. In this one, she was apologising for her actions, declaring them out of order, begging to be friends again. Amy read it again before promptly deleting it. It was too needy. She tried another. In the second one, she was calling out Penny for her furious response, stating that it was rude, out of order and that she was the one to blame, criticising her view on the whole matter, announcing that her ignoring was childish and immature. She deleted that quickly too.

Amy slumped back despondently, sinking into the luscious velvet material. It seemingly wrapped around her body, comforting her in a warm manner, engulfing her and her worries.

Bernadette returned to the room and sat down quickly.

"Penny just called," she explained as Amy flinched at the name. "She invited me over tomorrow for a girls night in".

Truth be told, Amy felt hurt. Whilst they were still fighting, she considered it betrayal to invite Bernie, the neutral. It was as if she was trying to coax and lure Bernadette onto her side. Amy hoped that Bernadette would decline the offer.

"I accepted," Bernadette said watching Amy's face fall, "but I have an idea".

"You can come too. Then at least talk it out. Even if you don't return to being friends, you would have tried and gotten it over with, without having to worry whether it was the right or wrong thing to do".

Amy thought about it for a few moments.

"If she is being uncooperative, I will leave and go home," Bernadette assured her.

Amy nodded, a small smile forming at the corners of her mouth.

"Alright," she said, "alright., I'll give it a shot."

10 chapters, let's go people! Thank you to everyone who views this story and thanks even more if you drop a review. As I've said before they really brighten my day and I really appreciate them. I do have a plan for the next couple of chapters but please suggest any things you would like to see happen, any characters you want me to add or anything else at all. Thanks very much!

Darkstarre (DS)