Chapter 8
"I'm done Leonard!" Penny told him through the shower curtain. "Oh, okay." He replied. "So, how do you want to do this?" "What do you mean?" Penny asked in return. "Oh, I don't know." Leonard said whilst fidgeting with his hands. "I didn't know if you would feel comfortable with this and I didn't want to push you or anything." His voice wasn't as firm as he would have liked, in fact, it was more along the lines of shaky and unsure. "I'm completely fine with it Leonard, but if you don't feel comfortable I'm sure I can handle it." Leonard felt a mixture of feelings but he didn't want to leave her alone in his bathroom and have her slip and fall trying to get out of the shower. "No, no, no, no. I'm sure you can handle it too and I really want to do this- I mean like help you. I'd hate to… To leave you alone and… and have you slip and fall or something…" In the hastiness of his reply, he realized he sounded desperate and he quickly covered his mouth with his hand, although why would have been a good question sine Penny couldn't see him at the moment. However, she did chuckle from inside the shower.
"Okay, okay." She said between chuckles. "If you're sure you can do this, I'll be coming out then." Leonard inhaled a quick breath. "Okay." He felt himself tense and quickly squeeze his eyes shut then just as quickly reopen them. Carefully, she slid the shower curtain back, revealing her body and her smug expression on her face. She searched Leonard's face for signs of him being uncomfortable but she couldn't find any. He held a smug facial expression too. She grinned to herself as she carefully stepped out of the shower. "Look, you made it!" Leonard told her nervously but still enthusiastically. "I did didn't I?" Penny said in return. "Who would've thought?" She said sarcastically. "Okay, well I still don't want you to slip and fall on the floor." Leonard told her. "You should probably make sure your feet are completely dry…" She nodded her head towards him and gently dropped the towel a little bit that was around her so she could dry her feet. Leonard's face turned flush at what she revealed and she could see it out of the corner of her eye. Fighting back a giggle, she rose the towel back up and was now facing him. "Thank you for the help Leonard." She said sincerely, in the sweetest of voices. Then, she thanked him once again, but this time not verbally, but with a kiss on the cheek. Leonard was speechless and Penny giggled this time. Just then, her phone rang.
She looked at Leonard who was now eyeing her phone carefully which was on the table a mere three feet from them. "I'll get it…" He told her, not taking his gaze off of her phone. Quickly, he strode over to her phone and checked who the caller was. Very clearly, he turned to her and mouthed the words 'IT'S YOUR MOTHER' to which she nodded and he pressed the green answer button.
After a short silence, Leonard spoke into the Phone. "Oh, no this isn't Penny. This is her friend. Penny's uh… getting ready…" More silence. "The day I guess. Listen, how are you Miss…?" Silence once again, but this time he was nodding his head.
"Oh, no mam. I was not aware that Penny had a boyfriend. I am merely a friend of hers. What do you need?" Penny felt a little guilty for not telling Leonard that she had been seeing someone, after all they had been friends for what, three years now and they had went out once and he was more of a brother to her than her own brother was. She waited for them to finish their conversation. "Well, I can talk to her about it if you'd like and get back to you on it." He pursed his lips and seemed to be deep in thought for a moment before speaking again. "It's Leonard…" He nodded once more before continuing. "Okay, well, talk to you then. Have a good day." A pause. "Yep, you too." Then, as quick as he started, he hung up and replaced her phone on the table before moving towards her again.
"What did she want?" Penny asked, slightly curious. "Oh, she says you still need someone to go with you on your trip back to Nebraska for Thanksgiving. She thought you were going to take Kurt, but I wasn't sure. I told her that I would talk to you about it and we would call her back as soon as possible…" "Wait." Penny said, almost cutting him off. "My mother still thinks I'm going out with that jerk face?" She sighed. "She has no faith in me." She mumbled. "Hey, hey, hey." Leonard said, obviously hearing her mumbling. "She may not have faith in you, but I do. I'm sure you'll find someone who would be perfect for you to take to Nebraska with you to meet your family." Penny suddenly felt very self conscious when she realized that she was still standing in front of him in her towel. "Hey, I'm going to go change.." She said to him. "Uh, yeah, sure." He replied. She made her way over to the door which he had closed, and opened it, only to find herself face to face with a certain Howard Wolowitz and his Indian friend Rajesh Kootherpolli.
Both boys had their gazes on Leonard who was behind Penny, attempting to make himself not been seen, but ending up unsuccessful. However, Howard's gaze only remained on Leonard momentarily, before his eyes flicked over to the woman standing in front of him, in only a towel. He grinned sloppily towards her, to which she gave him a revolted look to mask how uncomfortable she felt as she backed away from the bathroom entrance and closer to Leonard. Raj took his fierce gaze off of Leonard moments after, considering that at this point Raj had no reason to be upset with him. His facial expression softened, and he began to actually notice that they were in the bathroom. That was when he saw her, and a look of panic wiped across his face. He made something close to a squeaking sound and moved closer to Howard. This almost made Penny want to giggle, despite how much Howard was making her uncomfortable.
"Bonjour, belle." He greeted her, whilst sliding closer to Penny with his sly smirk plastered on his face. "Yeah, no." Penny said, firm and disgusted at the same time. Howard back away, eyes slightly wide, the smirk disappeared. "Well then." He retorted. "Why are you here?" Leonard stressed, slightly annoyed because they had barged in, and slightly embarrassed to have been caught with a naked Penny when they weren't dating. "Shut up." Howard retorted, almost cutting him off. Raj gave him a nod of his head to indicate that he agreed. "How could you?" He went on when he saw Leonard's confused expression. "How could I what?!" Leonard replied, near yelling. "How could you help my girlfriend shower?!" He was beyond angry, getting closer and closer to Leonard's face. "What?!" Leonard screeched. "I did not, and I repeat, I DID NOT help your girlfriend shower!" He paused for a moment to let his words sink in before he continued. He didn't exactly lie, he wasn't IN the shower with her, although he had helped her undress… "She had gotten a drink with Penny and both ended up the opposite of sober and I had only taken her back to the bathroom after I saw her and Penny crashed on the floor! Penny is the only one I helped shower, because she needed it!" He was yelling now, just as Bernadette stepped into the bathroom. "Howie?" She inquired in her high pitched voice. Penny let out an exasperated sigh and spoke up. "Could we please stop yelling? My head hurts." Leonard took this as an opportunity to leave. "I'll go get some pain killers and a glass of water!" He told her. He moved towards the door, but Howard stopped him. "Not so fast buddy!" He nodded at Raj to go get them and he left the room in search of the glass and medication. Howard then shot Leonard a death glare, just as Bernadette spoke up. "Howie, what's going on?!"