Chapter 14

Chris stood frozen and confused. He first thought that maybe it was just a vacation or something but Gordie's tone didn't sound like a vacation at all.

"Chris, say something." Gordie said, worriedly. Chris walked away and left the house without saying a word. He passed by Teddy who was laughing and teasing Vern for spilling the beer on his shirt while opening it.

"Oh, hey, Chris, c'mon, where are you goi-" Teddy said, and discontinued what he said as he saw Chris leave quickly without saying a word.

"That doesn't look good." Vern said, nervously. Gordie came out of the door and yelled after Chris,

"Why don't you say 'goodbye' to her?"

"Do you think it's that easy to deal with?" Chris complained, while facing them for a while and turned his back and left the yard quickly. Gordie followed him and ran after him and held unto Chris's back.

"Get off me, man!" He yelled, but not sounding too offending for Gordie and dashed away from the place before Gordie could catch up.

"He can't deal with goodbyes." Gordie stated, and sat with them, catching his breath and grabbed a bottle.

"Well, what are you gonna do now?" Teddy said, and smoked a cigarette. "Guys want some?"

"Yeah, thanks." They said altogether and lit their cigarettes.

"I don't know what Penny will say about this." Gordie said, planning to stop by Penny's house tonight.

Penny was sitting on her bed that night. It was around seven in the evening and she was listening to the Beach Boys on her radio, thinking of stuff that happened this morning, and about the future. She had this sort of temporary anxiety about the future. She closed her eyes and rested the back of her head on her headboard and closed her eyes. She heard a stone hid the side of her window which made her almost jump from bed. She stood up and opened her window and saw Gordie below, holding three stones in his hand.

"Do you have to throw those or are you just trying to break our window?" she said.

"Just let me in." he demanded impatiently.

"Fine. Give me a second." Penny said, and went in to her closet to look for some old blankets. She found four and tied them all together. She dropped the long tied-up blankets down from the window.

"It's too short."

Penny used her own blanket and added it to the rope made of blankets.

"Is that better?" she asked.

"I'll try." Gordie said, and held on to the rope. "Make sure you securely tied this altogether."

The rope blanket was tied on to her window and Gordie made it all the way almost to it. He hopped inside her room and pulled in the rope before anyone could see it.

"Alright, I have to tell you something." He said urgently, and sat on Penny's bed.

"Okay." Penny said casually and sat on her bean bag and turned down the radio.

"Beach Boys?" Gordie asked, when he heard what Penny was listening to.

"Yeah, I love them and their song Surfin' Safari." She said.

"Oh, I didn't know you loved those guys." He said.

"Well, now you know." She said, and smiled. "Now, speak."

"Okay, when I came back to Vern's house, Chris was back." He started. Penny listened with her legs and arms crossed.

"So, that's when I asked Chris if we could have a one-on-one inside." He continued.

"Go on."

"I didn't actually stick to the plan because things were going too quick and stuff. But I told him that you're leaving." He admitted.

"So you're saying that you didn't remind him about the promise thingy and went straight to telling him that I'm leaving?" She asked, almost sounding like she was about to attack Gordie.

"Yeah, yeah, something like that. Hey, could you relax?" He said, feeling awkward with Penny.

"Anyway, when I told him, he didn't talk or anything. He just stood there and after a few seconds, he just left."

"Like, walking out?"

"Yeah. "

"Well, what did you guys do?"

"I went back after him but he didn't want, so I just let him go and think of another plan." He said confidently.

"Okay, Mr. Plan. That was quite tough for you. I'm sorry. " Penny said, and stood up and sat beside him on her bed.

"It's alright, Pen, it's alright. And I also forgot to tell you, I told him to say 'goodbye' to you but he said something like it's hard to deal with goodbyes." He remembered.

Penny didn't speak for a moment and breathed heavily.

"I think we should go to him." She stated.

"Now that's why I'm also here. I'm not just Mr. Plan, I'm Mr. Encourage."

"Encourage? For what?" she asked confusingly.

"Well, maybe you should be the one to remind Chris about the promise thingy and talk it off. I would be honored to accompany you to him but I promise I'll give you guys some space." He offered.

"I love you, Gordo." She said, and stood up and put on her shoes and threw down the rope blanket through the window.

"Wait, we're going now?" he asked, as he stood from her bed and put back on his shoes.

"Yeah. C'mon, Gordie, I'm leaving tomorrow." She reminded him, and started climbing down. She reached the bottom and stepped flatly on the ground, rubbing her reddened palms. Gordie too went down with her and they both walked to Chris's house which was on another street.

As they stood before his house, they heard his dad yelling uncontrollably to someone. They looked at each other nervously, thinking who it was.

"Do you think Chris is in his room?" Penny asked.

"I see lights in his room, maybe he's there. You could climb using that tree. Lucky they planted a tree beside his room window." Gordie pointed out.

"Alright." Penny nodded and climbed over this white picket fence and unto the tree. She looked back at Gordie who was still standing, watching her.

"I didn't know that tonight's theme was about climbing everyone's windows." She said to herself and grabbed unto a branch. She sat on it for a moment, nervously looking at Chris's window. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and knocked on it. She saw a shadow come near it and she knew it was Chris. He opened the window without a word and walked away. Penny entered his room and shut his window. She looked around at his room; it was white, like the house, not that small though, with a small bed and a closet. It wasn't that clean or organized, it wasn't cluttered either. Chris walked to his bed and lay down on his palms.

"Well, speak." She said.

"What do we need to talk about?" Chris said, without looking at her.

"Oh, so now, you're saying that we don't need to talk? Damn it, then you should've not opened your window then." She exclaimed, and flapped her arms on her waist and sat on Chris's bed.

"So why don't you just leave? You didn't have to climb up here while my dad's downstairs yelling at my mom. He could come up here anytime." He warned.

"I'm not leaving until you say the g-word and some other sentences that you know you should say." She told him and hinted.

"The g-word?"

"Chris, I know Gordie told you." Penny said, starting to feel impatient. Chris stood up from his bed and looked away from her gaze.

"Yeah, he did tell me." He said, his voice sounding flat.

"Well, what did you do?" she asked, and folded her arms again.

"What do you think I did?" he yelled and faced her. "Don't act like you don't know everything because you know it!"

"Yes, Chris, I know everything!" she yelled back, and stood before him.

"Well, if you know everything, then why the hell do you keep asking me about that crap?"

"Because I wanna know why you did that!" She said, and breathed quickly.

"Then ask yourself! Who planned on moving out without even telling her friends?"

"Chris, I did tell some of my friends but I didn't you guys." She explained. "You don't understand."

"Understand what?"

"How hard is it to do the right thing!"

"What's so right about not telling?" he challenged.

"Listen, I knew it was the right thing to move on but it's hard to do that. I mean, my whole life is in this small town! This is where things happen to me!"

"Things happen to you here? Hell, Penny, more things would happen to you when you're out of here. This isn't the whole world." He said, his face looking disgusted. He started asking Penny to leave his room since he didn't think it was the right time and place for their almost-argument.

"What are you trying to say?" she asked, trying to understand his point.

"Don't miss this town, there's nothing worth missing here." He advised.

"I didn't say I would miss this town. I'm gonna miss the people in this town." She explained. They soon began talking discreetly instead off almost yelling at each other. They were sitting together on Chris's bed and having a very awkward silence.

"Aren't you gonna leave or what?" he said, but not wanting her to. She stood up from his bed and walked slowly to his window. He stood too and stopped her.

"I thought you wanted me to leave?"

He just shrugged. Penny gave him a chance and said,

"Okay, just give me a chance."

"What chance?" he asked, confused.

He didn't notice that their faces were getting closer and Penny met his lips, asking him for a chance to kiss him for the last time, even though they were just friends and nothing more. He kissed her back and wrapped his arms around her waist. She took a step backwards, trying to breathe but he followed her and walked to his bed. Penny didn't know where she walking since it was backwards until she fell on his bed. She pulled away for a second to breathe and used her left leg and push Chris off her. She hit his right knee lightly and he got off her and rolled to her side. They looked at each other, as they were lying beside each other.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'm sorry." She said, feeling a pinch of regret. Now it made it even harder for her to let go because of kissing him. But it didn't anymore make a difference. Things were different now and she knew that she would never give him a chance to be together again, thinking they were better off as friends.

"No, no, it's alright." He said.

"It's not! Chris, I did something wrong. Now it made me miss you even more." She said painfully.

"So you mean it's still there?" he asked. He thought they still had a chance to be together, he always thought of that, even if Penny was far across the country.

"No, not anymore." She admitted.

"Then why the hell did you kiss me? It's like you're trying to fool me or something." He said, and sat up.

"That's why I'm saying sorry! I just wanted to do that for the last time." She explained, sounding hurt. She wasn't trying to fool anyone this time, if that didn't look like fooling.

"Yeah, I understand. I'm sorry for what I said to you." He said, and felt sorry for her. "I know this will be the last time for us. But hey, do you think we can still do this from again and just send letters,-"

"No, Chris, I can't do that." She interrupted, before he thought of anything else.

"Oh, right." He said, and looked at her while she was staring on the floor.

"Maybe writing to Stan would hurt too." She said to herself, trying to make it sound like a whisper but it was too audible for Chris to hear it clearly.

"What?" he asked, pretending he didn't hear it clearly.

"Oh, nothing." She said.

"Hey, I heard it." He said. "Tell me anything. We're still friends."

"It's just that, I didn't know he was leaving too, well he just left this morning and I just found out that the rumor that he spread at school was true but he told me it was just to see my reaction and then this morning, he heard talking about leaving and then we both spilled." She told him, and remembered everything they've talked about, and saw that image in her head.

"To test your reaction? Why? To see if you would run after him or stop him or something?" he said, disgusted and thinking it was stupid. "Damn, he never gives up and comes up with those stupid plans!"

"C'mon, Chris, I think he just did that because I think they already planned leaving before that. I mean, every time we'd talk he would mention that. But he's gone now, and it sometimes makes me guilty because he got that chance, but he's still happy, though. He said to me it was worth it." She told Chris, and had a tiny smile.

"I'm sorry, Penny but it still doesn't change the fact that I still hate him." Chris said, and laughed.

"Yeah, I know that." She said.

"Hey, can I ask you a question? I know it's gonna sound stupid but-"

"It's okay, it's okay, you can ask me anything." Penny interrupted.

"Did you ever, kiss Stanley?" he slowly asked nervously, making Penny flinched at hearing his name. She looked at him, surprised but thinking of being honest for a while.

"Well, um, yeah, I did." She admitted. She looked at Chris's face which turned from curious to ruthless. She regretted of telling him the truth and tried to say something to stop seeing like that but he started to speak.

"Did you sleep with him?" he asked again. Penny felt a bit irritated with his question. Why the hell he would ask that, she thought.

"Chris, why the hell are you asking me that?" she protested. "Hell, just get over it. He's gone!"

"Basic." He scoffed. "You slept with him."

"Chris, I did not! And I swear on my father's grave!" she said, starting to beg him to believe her, her face looked like she was begging on her knees but they were usually like this when they were having arguments. But this time, Penny was the one who started it.

"Really? How could you prove it?" he challenged.

"I don't have to prove anything to you because you trust and believe me. We're still friends no matter what relationship we have! Listen, I went here because I wanted to make sure that we both know that we are together no matter how far we are, who we are and what we're doing. You and I may change but we'll be friends no matter what." She said, feeling like she was taking out some kind of bullet from her chest by vomiting it out.

Chris fell silent for what she said. His electric blue stared deep into hers, and he started to miss her. Those words were like them, back in those years. He understood that he may never bring those back and bring her back to him.

"Chris, please say something." She said, worriedly. They were now standing face to face, in front of his window hearing nothing but a cricket from outside.

"Penny, I miss you." He said that it hurt him so badly. His voice was shaking like he was about to cry and he pulled Penny into a hug. As soon as they broke away, Penny spoke.

"Why would you miss right away? I'm even leaving yet. I'm leaving tomorrow." She said.

"I miss those old times, Penny. And I know we can't bring those back. That what you said made me remember those and miss you. But it also made me feel better at the same time." He explained, and held unto her wrists.

"I know that will never come back, but just remember, we both knew it happened and we got a lot of proof." She said, and grinned. They both looked at the clocked that made a sound every hour. It was nine o'clock in the evening. They started back at each other and they both knew what it means.

"I guess you better skedaddle your way home." He said, and opened his window.

"Yeah, thank you, Christopher. And, hey, I know you have a dream career." She said, and she stepped her right leg first. Chris just smiled and shrugged.

"Well, maybe."

"Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, man." She said, and stretched her leg out of the window, unto the tree, followed by her left foot. The whole time she was climbing down, Chris watched her from his window, which was still wide open. After climbing the white picket fence, Penny glanced one last time to Chris's window, and waved. He smiled and waved back. He stared through the window until Penny disappeared.

Hey guys! Sorry again it took too long. I mean, I had a lot of vacations, training and stuff like that. Well, at least I found time to finish this. I promise just two more to go. Gosh, while doing this chapter I've been crying about two things. First, this chapter makes me feel sad. Second, I feel upset because this is the last time I'll ever this boy. Okay, we're not actually together but we're friends and maybe he doesn't know that I cared for him. I don't know when am I ever gonna see him again. So, yeah, I feel so upset. So, to forget the sad stuff, just gimme reviews. Thanks for all those took time to read this note. I appreciate your concern. I don't care if you don't care that I'm really upset right now, but it still counts that you care because you read this. Ta-ta! I love ya'll.