Okay, so I'm still in love with Penn and Blake's love, can you blame me?
Set this year, no AU element, everything that has happened up until now has happened in this story..but if you like, you could imagine it set at any time in the future...you'd just have to ignore a few small details.
Hopefully there are still some Penn and Blake shippers out there...reviews will help me keep writing this story so please let me know what you think and if you're still in love with them like me, but for now, enjoy the first chapter. :)
Chapter 1.
The music was deafening. The crowd swayed and chanted with every word, every beat. The lights were a dim shade of rose. The song was moving, the kind of music that made you want to do something you'd never done before and never look back. Somehow despite the fact this band simply were not to her taste she had become one of them. One of the strangers standing among her. The effortless lyrics and the slow strumming of the guitar had encompassed her with emotion. The moving lights occasionally catching the sparkle of her engagement ring as her hand swayed and rolled to the music.
Her eyes drew from the stage, "same again, mate?". His strawberry blonde, somewhat disheveled hair flew around his face like curtains in the wind as he brushed passed the young couple standing in front of her. This man who perhaps didn't care too much about his appearance created a clearing in the crowd. Her eyes caught the man the question had been aimed at. His presence had been disguised and concealed all night by the young drunken couple in front, who had shuffled to the right to create a path for the strawberry blonde. His head turned towards his friend as he nodded in his direction. The strobe lights slowly glided over his face in that moment. A few stray curls were dangled over his forehead. She gulped. She stiffly turned to her friend who too had seen the same figure materialise from the crowd, her face said it all. Eyes wide and lips halted firmly shut. She turned away from her friend, her eyes back to the figure she daren't look at but daren't look away. There were a mere thirty or so inches between them. She was stuck. Feet glued to the floor and eyes fixated on the man in front. At the moment, he was blissfully unaware. Bobbing his head to the sounds as they rippled through the room. His black cotton sweater tightly framing his upper half. White cargo pants below. She gulped. Soon the disheveled friend would return, drinks in hand and another head tilt too far in the wrong direction and it would be game over. Their paths crossing again.
"Here you go, pal." Minutes had passed and she had barely moved. The friend had returned. He tapped on his arm to pass the cold beers to his hands. "I'll be back in a sec" he uttered, already shuffling through the crowd in the direction of the toilets. "Wait a second, mate, where are you going?" He yelled. You had to, the noise was overpowering. It was too late. Time could not have moved faster in this moment. His head turning further and further, his feet guiding him into a 180 to follow his friend pass through the masses. His slow and soft movements jolted abruptly to a stop. Her long blonde locks cascading over her shoulders. A navy blue v neck and black jeans covered her figure. Their eyes locked into a stare but just for a second or two. "Blake..".
"Hi." she muttered awkwardly, a little too quiet for their surroundings.
He swallowed in uncertainty. His lips pursed forwards as they curved into a small almost smug looking smile. Now the pleasantries were over with...what next? He took a few steps forward closing the somewhat substantial gap between them.
"Um, what are you doing here, you hate this kind of music?" He was right. The turn of her head signalled to her friend, Anna. "Wow, hi." his face edging backwards slowly in surprise. "Hi, it's been a long time.." she almost feeling more awkward than her friend. "..I love this kind of stuff" she confessed. "I'm gonna go..um.." she signalled vaguely with her thumb, twisting it in every which way. No idea where she was headed, she disappeared into the background as the song drew to a close and the interlude ensued.
Her eyes averted his gaze, catching sight of everything but him. The slight tension was palpable. He was coming over uncomfortably hot and suddenly the choice of a sweater didn't seem like a good one, but then was it ever at a gig?
"So how've you been?" not the most original line but it was the best she could come up with.
"Yeah, really, really good" he declared slowly. "I uh, I got married and...I'm gonna be a Dad" She didn't know.
"Wow." she paused. "Congratulations Penn." Would it be strange to tell him she was shocked?
"Thank you." he nodded. "As did you...and you're uh, you're a Mom. That's incredible."
A smile dispersed over her face at the thought of her children. Interruption ensued. "Sorry, went to the bathroom. Queue the length of The Great Wall Of China" Andy had always been a bit of a comic. Blake smiled nervously at the sight of the intruder. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't pleased to see someone new join the conversation. Andy's head wavered back and forth between the pair, quickly realising who was standing opposite his friend. This was awkward.
"Hey.." he stretched out his hand towards the curly haired blonde. "Blake Lively, nice to meet you." "You too" she smiled a genuine smile in return.
"So I guess there's no need for introductions.." Penn joked.
"Are you kidding? The Savages, brilliant film" Andy's ease and comfort at the situation was something to be admired. She laughed a small laugh. They all did. It was more recognition of his ability to make light of the situation over the statement he had made.
Penn's lips moved in a thousand ways, somewhere between a grin and a smoulder. For a second, just a split second, it effected her in a way it did years ago and in that moment a bolt of nerves struck in her stomach.
"Well it was um, really nice to see you, Penn." She nodded with a half smile. "Nice to meet you, Andy.."
His eyes narrowed in surprise. He wasn't expecting them to stand there for hours chatting but he wasn't expecting their meeting to end so soon either.
She turned, her back quickly facing the two as her feet dragged her away from her past. As he watched her blonde, messy curls dance away into the blur of people, the beats of a new song began creating an echo of nostalgia creep into his veins.
The flood of strangers slowly dispersed through the exits, leaving a trail of litter as they went. "Bar?" Penn looked over at Andy and shrugged in the direction of the alcohol.
Twenty minutes and three beers later the two men sat at two bar stools, arms sprawled across the bar chatting loudly. Blake had dragged her hair into a loose ponytail that was riding down her spine. She squeezed through the somewhat sweaty stream of people making her way back to her friend. "Blake, I'm so sorry, that was Mike, Ella's not feeling great, I have to get back."
"Oh gosh, are you okay?" Concern washed over her face as she grabbed her friend by the arm.
"I'm fine, he says it's nothing but wants me to come and check on her. You stay."
"No, I'll go with you!" Blake insisted.
"You just got two more drinks. You never go out without the kids, or your husband for that matter, just, have a good time, okay? I'll see you later" her friend kissed her on the cheek and made a bee line for the exit. Blake shrugged as she lopped onto her claimed seat at the bar.
Swirling the olive round the glossy martini she tried to enjoy the moment of feeling alone. She downed the drink in one and hollered for the bartender to fetch the bill.
His head shook to the left at the familiar voice to find her once again just a breath or two away.
He sniggered to himself before he rose from his seat to scoot over to the recently vacated stool that had freed the space between them.
"Hi." This time it's a little easier. The alcohol and the fact it's for the second time tonight almost makes it enjoyable. Whether he should feel this way or not, he's kind of pleased to see her again.
"Hi." She too fired a genuine and warm smile in his direction. The drink's have done them both a favour.
"So this is kinda strange, huh?" By this time, Andy has spotted what's going on and decides to leave them to it.
"Just a little." They're smiling and it almost feels natural.
"Can I get you another drink?" His eyes pointing towards her empty glass.
"No, no" she shrugs humorously, she's had one too many already.
"Come on, one more. We haven't seen each other in eight years, that's gotta be worth a drink."
The minutes creep by and before they know it it's been over an hour. Andy left long ago along with most of the others occupying the bar. The only people left are the drunks and the ones looking for a good night. They're looking at each other. The last signs of her laugh displaying clearly on her face and he's doing that thing with his lips that used to make her knees weak. He lets out a small cough and looks down to the ring his drink has left on the bar. The silence is long, it hasn't been this long all evening. Their smiles are quickly fading.
"I think maybe we should go…" he says with an ounce of reluctance in his voice.
Her phone buzzes in her pocket, you can almost make out who's calling as the light of the screen shines through the fabric of her jeans. A wash of guilt glides through her, she knows who it is. She shouldn't feel guilty, she hasn't done anything wrong, but somehow having drinks with an ex, the ex, feels like she's broken an unwritten rule.
The comfortable ease that had been sitting between them soon vanished. She gulped awkwardly as she watched the light from her phone fade away.
"Yeah, we should" she acknowledges.
They both rise from their seats in near synchronisation as Penn tosses a chunk of change from his pocket towards the bartender. This is the awkward part. It's swelling through their system as each fleeting second passes. Their eyes meet again, sharing a small exchange of smiles.
"Well it was um, really great to see you...Blake" he means it.
"You too, Penn." she means it too.
They linger in paralysis. He wonders what kind of goodbye is most suitable for this moment. A kiss on the cheek? Too intimate. A handshake? Too formal. A hug?
He leans towards her almost cowardly, reaching his arms out as she steps towards his torso. Her arms slip around his shoulders while his wide hands grip her back gently. He catches her perfume in her hair as his nose glides through the loose curls by her ears. He doesn't like the fact he enjoys it. The embrace has lasted less than three seconds and they are moving away from each other, their faces almost brushing against each other in the process. She gulps uncomfortably for probably the fourth time that night.
She's nodding in his direction with a small smile escaping from her lips. He's wondering how she's getting home, in a way any gentleman would. He's not going to offer to take her home of course. He contemplates asking for a good second, his head and heart are in battle. His head is sensible, he shouldn't. His head is impulsive, it's the right thing to do. His heart wins.
"How are you getting home?" She turns, taken aback. "I'm not...offering. I just, your friend's gone and…?"
"That's okay, Penn. I'll get a taxi." She feels the most uncomfortable she's felt all night. She knows he's not asking because he wants to, just the whole bizzarity of the evening is slowly taking over her and the guilt is setting in for good.
He watches her walk away for the second time that night. He shakes his head in some sort of disbelief. Thoughts running through his mind like fire blazing through woodland, fast and demanding. He brushes the hair from his face, downs the last drops of liquid in his glass and too makes his way to the exit.