Chapter 8

Penny looked at Stan's pictures from when he was still a kid. It was in one long oak shelf with a lot of pictures of him and his family. As she paced around looking at them, she felt Stan's warm hands around her arms and she rested her head on his chest.

"It's okay, it's just detention." He said.

"Yeah, I know. It's just that, I don't know why I need to get it."

"Well, just forget it. That's just how high school works. And, we'll be out of here in like a month already." Stan said, as his family planned to move out after graduation but he never planned to tell Penny just yet, since he was still waiting for her answer, which he hoped would be a 'yes'.

"What do you mean out of here? Like, this town?" Penny asked, nervously.

"Well, maybe." He said, and pulled away and paced around the living room.

"Wait, so you're moving out? Back to LA?"

"Actually, my parents planned to go back to LA or Spain." He said, as he faced her, and saw Penny looking disappointed. He felt his heart skip, thinking that she didn't want him to leave. "But it's not yet final."

"Oh, okay." Penny said, looking calmer.

*---*

"Johnny, have you seen your sister?" Judy, Penny's mom, asked.

"As usual, in Stan's house." Johnny said. Penny was usually hanging out with Stan these days.

"Well, if you know the number of that boy's house, please call her. Stefan and I will have a word with her." Judy said, holding her car keys.

"You're leaving?"

"I just have to go somewhere. I'll be back before dinner." She said, and rushed out of the house. "Good-bye, Jonathan."

"Bye, mom." He said, and started looking for Stan's number in his phone book.

*---*

"I just hope things would work out before we graduate." Penny wished, as she sat down on Stan's bed.

"I wished for that too. And, I don't even know what to expect yet." He said and sat beside her. Penny placed her arm around Stan and kissed his cheek. He looked at her, a bit startled but smiled and kissed Penny, without thinking of letting go. Penny kissed him back and wrapped both of her arms around him. Stan pushed her on to his bed and kissed the edge of her jaw until he started to bite it. Penny held the edge of his shirt faced the other way to breathe.

"Am I going too fast?" he asked. Penny responded by sitting up and placed her hands on his face and kissed him passionately. She started to feel his teeth on the edge of her jaw and his body on hers, making her lie back on his bed.

"Stan, you're really buffed." She said, and he sat up and got out of his bed. He stood at the end of his bed and stared at her. Penny sat up and looked at him and then at his side table. Stan just looked at her, thinking about when she will ever plan to answer him, since she hasn't answered him yet.

"What's wrong?" she asked worriedly and stood up and approached him.

"Nothing. I just remembered something." He answered, and looked down.

"Well, what did you remember?"

"Penny, do you realize what we just did?" he asked her and held her shoulders.

"What? What do you mean?"

"Do you love me?"

"Stan, I don't understand." She said, and held his hands and shrugged it away.

"No, just answer me. Do you love me?" he said again.

"I-don't know. What if I can't?"

"You can't? So, you don't love me." He stated.

"Stan, I can't just love someone right now."

"If you don't love me, then why are we doing this?" he asked, frustrated.

"Stan, please understand. I'm in this situation and I don't know how to get past it." She reasoned out, asking for a chance.

"Just give me a chance. I thought when you did that, I thought that I finally got you, that I finally made you love me too. Because I always did." He said, and walked away.

"I'm sorry but I can't just do this right now. But I always liked you." She said, and grabbed his wrist. He looked back at her, still doubtful. "You'll always be the most understanding and funniest person I've ever met."

He smiled and faced her this time and said,

"Thanks." And placed his arms around her waist and hugged her. He covered his face on her hair and kissed it.

"I'm sorry." He said, while kissing her hair. Penny gave a small nod and rested her head on his shoulder, feeling its warmth. Stan's phone on his table suddenly rang. But they were still wrapped with each other. It rang for the second time and Stan pulled away to answer it.

"Hello?" he answered. "Hey, Johnny, man, how's it going?"

"Great." Johnny mumbled on the other line. "Hey, listen is my sister there with you?"

Stan looked at Penny, who just looked at him and said, "Yeah, she's here."

"Well, she has some family matters to attend to and her mother needs her. I'm picking her up." Johnny said.

"Hey, I'll just take her home." Stan offered, as he didn't want Penny to leave yet.

"Nah, man. I can handle it." Johnny said, and hung up.

"Okay." He said casually and faced Penny. "Your brother's gonna be picking you up. I think you have some family stuff."

"What? Oh, no. I think this is about mom's boyfriend." She guessed.

"Yeah, well, c'mon, I'll take you downstairs." He said, and accompanied her downstairs. They stood before the door and Stan said,

"Don't worry. We'll still see each other at school."

"Yeah." Penny said, and for one last time, she placed her hands on his broad shoulders and rested her lips on his. She had this feeling for him whenever they kiss. She was curious if she loved him too, since she couldn't. She didn't want to anymore. But she couldn't hide that feeling anymore.

Stan pulled away a few centimeters away from her; his eyes still closed, and rested his forehead on hers. He smiled jokingly and kissed Penny's nose and she felt his arms moving around her waist, becoming tighter. Stan moved quickly to kiss her neck but failed to when he heard a car honk on their driveway. Penny pulled away and stepped out of his house. She looked at him again and waved goodbye.

"Bye. Good luck with your family." He said, as Penny dashed to Johnny's car. She stepped into the car and looked at Johnny with a straight face.

"Hey. So, did you have a good time?" he asked casually, when he noticed her.

"Yeah, I always do. Now, what's wrong?"

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong."

"Then why are you so eager to talk to me?" Penny asked.

"Okay, first of all, nothing's wrong; second, mom's the one who's eager to talk to you and not me. Because, why would I even wanna talk to you?"

"Nice one, okay, I get it. And please don't act like having PMS, I hate that." Penny demanded, having a very rare conversation with Johnny.

"C'mon, you act like this yourself."

"At least I have a reason. And I hope you don't have yours."

"Hey, you're talking to me, not to mom." He reminded her, since he wasn't a girl. They were five minutes away from their house when Penny saw Chris sitting with Gordie, Teddy and Vern in Gordie's house. She saw Gordie stare at her and tapped Chris, making Penny look away.

"Feeling awkward when passing by your ex?"

"No. Now, stop asking." She demanded and looked through the window when they left the street. It was almost 6:00 and the sky was getting dark. They got home and Penny saw her mom's car arrive too with her boyfriend. She entered the house and went straight to her room, avoiding her mom's boyfriend.

"Penny? Penny, would you please come down here?" Her mom requested from downstairs. Penny quickly obeyed and went down. She stared at Stefan, her mom's boyfriend and faced her mom.

"Stefan will have a word with you." She said.

"What? Why?"

"Not just her. Also Jonathan." He said. Johnny looked at him curiously and just nodded casually. They both sat on the dining table which looked like a conference table.

"So, children, I came here to talk to you. To let you know something." He said formally. "But I have to divide these into two."

"First, your mother and I are getting married."

"And second, we're moving to Boston."

Penny's and Johnny's eyes widened to what they heard. Move to Boston? Penny thought. How about my life here? How about College? How about…Stan?

"When are we doing this?"Johnny protested.

"Right after Penny graduates."Their mother said. Penny had a blank expression in her face and just stood up and walked out. Johnny looked at her as she raced up the stairs.

"She isn't upset. That's just a common reaction for her." Johnny explained and followed Penny to her room. He gave a knock and gently opened her door. She was squatting on her bed, looking problematic. "So, I see you don't want to."

"No, it's not that I don't want. Actually, it's a good thing they thought of that." She said. "It's just that, it's so hard to leave the things in this town."

"You mean like, your friends? C'mon, Pen, you'll meet a lot more friends in there."

"Not just my friends. A lot of stuff happened to me here. And I don't know if I could leave the people that meant to me here. Like…like Chris."

"Oh, so you still like him, huh?"

"I don't know. What about the college that I applied to?"

"There's college in Boston too you know." He said. "Is it just about those or there's still that feeling in there."

"What do you mean?"

"You know," Johnny hinted, and nodded his head rolled his eyes. "That dude you always hung out with."

"Oh, that." Penny remembered sadly.

"I don't get you. Is he your boyfriend or what?"

"Okay, that's the complicated part."

"Complicated? You like, met his parents, seen his room and all that and that's still complicated? I know he asked you already." Johnny said.

"He did."

"I knew it! And you said 'yes' to that crap?" he joked.

"No! Well, I asked him if he would give me a little time to think." Penny explained.

"Time? You know what, if you give that kind of answer to me, I would slap you." He exclaimed.

"He's really patient, I mean, I want to answer him but I don't know when."

"Try on graduation." Johnny suggested, and gave a teasing laugh.

"I won't fall for that. You know what, Johnny, I think I like our new dad's idea. Let's get out of this place." Penny said, and stood from her bed.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" he said, and stood up and they both did a high five."

*---*

"You guys are leaving?!" Jadey exclaimed, and slammed on her locker, making everybody look at them.

"He's gonna be my new father."

"What? And you said yes to that?"

"Actually, I like the idea of moving out. It'll give me a chance to change." She reasoned out.

"Well, what about him?"

"Forget him. Forget all those guys. I don't wanna do this anymore." Penny declared, closed her fists.

"Woah, woah, I don't think you can just say that. 'Cause here he comes." Jadey warned and walked out to give them some space.

"Who?" Penny asked, but Jadey wasn't there anymore.

"Hey, it's me." A guy tapped her. Penny turned around and saw Stan, smiling and looking bright today.

"Good morning." She said, and looked away.

"Hey, hey, hey, what's wrong?" he asked, held her shoulders to face him. She hesitated to answer him but she had to.

"Nothing, nothing. It's just that, "

"The finals? Yeah, I know, it's like almost coming and then after that, we're graduating." He quickly figured out.

"Umm, yeah, that." She said, covering up the fact that she's moving out after graduation, which she didn't want to tell him just yet.

"Don't worry, we can handle this." He said, as he placed his hand on her cheek. As Penny looked down, she noticed Chris pass by with his friends and spotted the two of them. Penny felt awkward and planned to change the subject.

"Okay, listen, I have to go. I'll see you later." She said, awkwardly and took his hand gently.

"Sure." He said, hesitatingly and stared at her as she left.

Lunch came so fast and only a few seniors were in the cafeteria since every senior student are still hanging in classes, and doing all the work they need to do. Some would sit on the cafeteria but never order anything but a drink. Penny showed up with her friends covered with sweat on their foreheads and temple and black and blue ink on their fingers. They sat on their usual table and had light lunches.

"Can we go back to the part where I forgot something again?" Roma complained, as her papers were all mixed up in one folder, but some were lost.

"Wait, I think we submitted that thing already, " Jadey thought, and looked through hers. "Right, we already submitted it."

"How 'bout the final report on history?" Penny asked, and opened her bag and poured all her stuff on the floor to find it.

"Next time, we have to put a check list about these." Jadey suggested.

"Right, it's still here."

"Hello, ladies. Mind if I sit with you?" Gordie asked, and grabbed a chair to sit with them.

"So, Gordie, how's Chris doing?" Penny asked him, and started eating.

"Beat up. Again. Cramming, right now. And honestly, Pen, he misses you. He's been telling me that he's sorry for what he did."

"Oh, I really wanna talk to him, tell him I'm sorry too." She murmured, feeling upset for him.

"It's okay. Now, can we all relax and enjoy lunch before we go back to hell?" he demanded, and sat back and started eating. All the girls nodded and dropped their stuff.

"Right, I wanna relax for a while before I ever think of moving on." Penny agreed sarcastically, making Gordie look at her confusingly, and Jadey and Roma frowning.