Scrabble Day (April 13th)
Sheldon sat in his spot and watched Penny shuffle the tiles in the box. Leonard and Priya settled into the armchair and Amy sat beside him. Howard and Bernadette cuddled together across from him. Raj sat beside Penny, sipping a beer. In honor of the holiday Bernadette and Penny had chosen, they were playing couples scrabble. Technically Penny and Raj weren't a couple, but they were teamed up anyway.
The girls rolled a die to see which team would go first. Each team had 60 seconds to decide on a word and play it. A scrabble dictionary sat on the table in case of disputes. Sheldon twitched every time Amy leaned in close to whisper in his ear. He clenched his hands every time Raj and Penny would giggle and whisper to each other. This was getting ridiculous, and other than hurting his friend, he had no idea how to correct it.
Sheldon watched Penny, as Howard and Bernadette challenged a word from Leonard and Priya. He suspected she was seeing someone. Again he felt that sharp tension in his chest whenever he thought about the possibility. She was gone a lot the last two weeks. At least two evenings a week she never came home. He had managed to draw her back into the group more, but she avoided him. He had only managed to speak to her alone on one occasion since February. He thought about what had happened two weeks ago.
He had finally had enough and went across the hall. It was almost 2 am. He just needed to see her, touch her, maybe kiss her. Penny had opened the door and stepped into the hall. He had frowned as she closed the door behind her.
"Are you not alone?" he had asked worriedly.
Penny had nodded. "Yes, I'm alone. What is it, Sheldon? Shouldn't you be asleep?"
"I miss you," he had said. "I would like to speak with you."
Penny then crossed her arms. "What about?"
He had fidgeted a bit. This was not going like he had planned. "In private, please."
Penny had shaken her head. "I don't think so, Sheldon. You are in a relationship with Amy. You shouldn't be in my apartment at 2 am. Especially not after what happened."
He had reached out to her but she moved away. "You liked our kisses," he reminded her gently.
"Don't, Sheldon. I'm not going to be your play thing. You want to touch someone, be close to someone, then go see your girlfriend." He had been appalled by the tears that sprang to her eyes. "I know what it's like to be cheated on, to be hurt by someone I cared for. I won't do that to someone else. And quite frankly, I'm disappointed that you would."
He nodded as Amy whispered another word into his ear, uncaring for the moment. Penny was disappointed in him. With good reason, it seemed. After a considerable amount of research online, he had to acknowledge that she was correct. In the eyes of others, kissing Penny was, indeed, cheating.
He looked at Amy who was smiling happily. She looked so content. How could he destroy that? She was his friend, regardless of what else they were. Amy, like him, had never had friends before this group. How could he, in good conscience, take that away from her?He looked back at Penny, who was looking at him. She sighed and dropped her gaze to the tiles in front of her and Raj. In that brief moment he had seen varied emotions. Desire, need, sadness and anger. Sheldon's chest tightened. What could he do? He very much feared he was going to badly hurt someone no matter what he did.