"Controversial voter registration org?" Penny asked, glancing over at Leonard.
He turned his head to the side, listening to the clue before answering, "Acorn."
Penny bent to fill in the blank squares. "Spelled like the nut, right?" He nodded wordlessly, still not looking away from his computer game. "How's your thing going?"
"Good," he answered distractedly. Penny stared at his head for several moments before rising off of the couch and coming to stand behind him.
"So, what exactly is the point of 'Second Life' again?" she asked, leaning over his shoulder. Leonard started, pausing his play.
"It's a way of interacting with people on any number of topics, such as business, friendship, or even battle." His tone was unsure as he turned his face upward toward her.
Penny chuckled. "Isn't that kinda like…life?"
"With flying," Leonard added. Penny arched an eyebrow at him before focusing on the screen in front of her.
"Who's that?" she asked, pointing at the avatar that Leonard Hoffnung was currently conversing with.
He quickly exited out of the window entirely and rose from his seat, hurrying toward the sofa. "It's not important. Let's finish the crossword puzzle together." He sat in the middle cushion and picked up the newspaper to study it.
"Seriously, who was the girl?" Penny asked from her spot next to his desk.
Leonard sighed. "Her name is Amanda."
"Oh." Penny looked at the computer screen, which no longer held her fake image. "She was kind of slutty, wasn't she?"
"She's nice," Leonard defended quickly. Penny narrowed her eyes at him and almost instantly Leonard recognized his mistake. "I mean, I guess. I don't know her or anything. " When Penny didn't respond, he continued on. "We sometimes just talk about-"
"There is really no way to dig yourself out of this," Penny answered in a clipped tone as she lowered herself to the left cushion. Sheldon's cushion.
"Okay," Leonard responded in a low voice. The uncomfortable silence stretched forward, and they simply each stared at the crossword puzzle that he held between them. The sound of footsteps coming toward them from the hallway caused Penny to start. She instantly stood awkwardly, but it wasn't fast enough.
He was already there, watching her indifferently. If Penny had thought it was uncomfortable a moment ago, now it was ten times worse. Sheldon just stood there, watching her in an unnerving fashion. Leonard, clearly unaware of the tension between his girlfriend and roommate, glanced up and asked, "What's up?"
Sheldon adjusted his messenger bag strap slightly before he replied. "Raj is picking me up to go to the comic book store." He walked past them, not bothering to give Penny another glance.
"Have fun," Leonard called out as the door shut behind Sheldon. Then he glanced up at Penny, who was still standing in front of the couch. "What are you doing?"
Penny furrowed her brow before looking down at her boyfriend. "He didn't mention anything about the fact that I was clearly just in his spot." Leonard pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Huh," he answered belatedly. Penny climbed over the arm of the chair before planting herself in a cross-legged position on the cushion. "Don't you think that's weird?" she asked, staring at the door in confusion.
"No," Leonard retorted in an exasperated tone. "But I'll tell you what's weirding me out is your obsession with Sheldon." Penny ignored him. "Seriously, stop caring."
"In case you haven't noticed, nobody else around here actually does care about him," she shot back, instantly regretting it.
"What are you talking about?" he asked as he turned to face her. Penny clamped her mouth shut tightly to make what her sister had always lovingly referred to as her 'duck face'. "Penny? Seriously, what's going on with you guys?"
"I don't….know," she answered, her voice cracking. She felt Leonard's eyes on her as she worried her lip between her teeth.
"And you don't find that slightly strange?" he shot back flatly.
Penny swallowed and honestly looked at Leonard for what felt like the first time in weeks. "Something's not right."
"I'll say," he joked, glancing back down at the crossword puzzle.
"No," she replied as she shook her head. "Here," she supplied, gesturing at the tense air between them.
Leonard looked at her strangely for a moment before chuckling. "What?" When she didn't join in with his laughing, he fell silent. "With us? You've got to be kidding."
"It's just that-"
"I get it," he answered, getting off the couch. "You're just upset and taking it out on me. That's what girlfriends do. Or at least I think it is." He condescendingly patted her hair and then dropped a kiss on top of her head before walking into the kitchen. Penny sat there dumbly, unsure of what had just happened. "But seriously, just let this thing with Sheldon go."
The blonde glared at him before standing to join him in the couch. "Did you really just do that?" She crossed her arms over her chest.
Leonard raised his eyebrows at her before taking a swallow of his Diet Coke. "Sorry, but I don't really want to be dragged into whatever fight you're having with my roommate. He always wins."
"What if this isn't about him?" she shot back defensively. "Leonard, when was the last time we actually spent any time together?"
Leonard waved his arms. "What do you call this?" Penny frowned. "I mean, not this….but earlier." He gestured toward the couch.
"I call it the two of us sitting in a room together and completely ignoring each other." Leonard let loose a grim chuckle. "Leonard, the other night. When you were working late and Howard and I were playing 'Zelda'. You came in and kissed me, and….I hadn't even realized you were gone." He visibly stopped breathing. "I didn't think about you once. I was more focused on Wolowitz than on you."
"So, you were distracted," the bespeckled man reasoned. "It's understandable. 'Zelda' is intense."
"No, it's not." Penny sighed. He was going to side-step this entire conversation as well as he could. But now that she'd started, she was feeling strangely liberated. As if she'd been sleepwalking through her own relationship, her own life for weeks, and now she could see the road ahead of her. "Leonard, this isn't working."
"Okay, well let's talk about it," he answered. "This is good, we needed to have a first fight."
He was not getting it at all. "Do you really think that we're in a good, healthy relationship here?" He shrugged his shoulders limply. Penny exhaled a soft pained chortle. "If we were both as committed to this relationship as we should be, you wouldn't be hitting on random half-cat girl online." He sputtered a denial, unable to actually form real words. "And if we were truly invested here, don't you think I might be putting some effort into spending time with say, you rather than Sheldon?" Leonard sighed and rubbed his forehead. "He said that my identity was your girlfriend now, not even his neighbor." She was mumbling softly to herself now. "I've somehow lost myself in a relationship that isn't…what it should be."
"Sheldon is batshit crazy," Leonard said slowly, as if talking to a small child. "Why are you listening to him at all?"
"You know what?" Penny answered defensively. "He can put me down and ignore me and I can take it, because that's who he is." She advanced on her boyfriend slowly. "It's not that he necessarily means it. But he's never once been hypocritical toward me, which is not something I can say for you, my supposedly loving boyfriend."
"Oh crap, it's contagious, isn't it?" Leonard groaned. When Penny didn't crack a smile, he continued. "What are you talking about?"
Penny shrugged. "The fact that you date whoever you want and gawk all over any halfway decent looking girl who comes near you, but the second I have a date with another guy, you turn into a sullen baby."
"You belonged with me," Leonard answered softly. He raised an arm to comfort her, but stopped himself.
"And now that you've got me? Now what?" she asked. Neither said anything for several long minutes, instead staring at their shoes.
Leonard crossed his arms over his chest. "Okay, so what do you want, then? What? I mean, do you want to break up?"
She hadn't given it the smallest thought before the words were out of his mouth, knew that wasn't where this conversation was going. No, this was the guy she should be with, her brain told her so often. But somehow, her heart wasn't in sync with her decision. "Yeah," she croaked.
He stared at her incredulously before turning and marching off to his bedroom, slamming the door shut behind himself. Penny glanced around the empty apartment forlornly before moving quickly toward the door and exiting. She had no way of knowing when the boys would be back, and she didn't want to be there when they returned.
As she closed her own door behind herself, Penny knew somewhere in the back of her mind that once again, Sheldon was right. Because she had no intention of going across the hall again.