Chapter 7

"Where did I put my phone?" Penny asked herself. She was looking around her apartment. She lifted the piles of clothes on her couch. No..not there. She shuffled into her kitchen. Her counter was filled with piles of magazines, flyers and mail. She quickly scanned the counter. Nope..not there either. Penny then heard a soft buzzing noise coming from the couch. She ran over and started digging in the cushions. There it was. She quickly checked to see who had texted her. Leonard.

Penny, will be home soon. I really think we need to talk about what happened last night. Love you.

Penny sighed thinking of what this evening would bring. She really did not want to talk to Leonard about the fight that she and the girls had last night. First of all, it was really between the three girls, she didn't want this to become an issue with her and Leonard.

She glanced at her phone again. There were no messages from Amy or Bernadette. She wasn't really surprised that Bernie hadn't texted her. That girl could hold a grudge like nobody's business. She was surprised that she didn't hear from Amy. That was very unlike her. Penny stared at empty messages screen on her phone, and her mind started to drift to Amy.

Penny was Amy's self-professed "Bestie". It was a term that Amy had endeared to her, but not one that Penny felt was deserved. Amy grew up not having any friends and being the social outcast. When Sheldon had brought her into their little group, Amy had started following her around like a love sick puppy. It annoyed her sometimes. It was nice to have someone adore you, but after a while it just becomes too much. She felt that she was just fulfilling Amy's desire to have a cool popular friend. To her credit, Amy was a fiercely loyal friend. She went along with everything that she wanted to do, was very supportive, and when she was dealing with the whole Priya situation, she was ready to go on the attack.

Amy was positively weird though sometimes. She had a PhD from Harvard in Neurobiology, so she was super smart; her and Sheldon had the geekiest conversations all the time, that she just ended up tuning out most of the time. They played weird games that nobody could understand but them…not even Leonard. Her interests were that of a seventy year old woman – she liked Little House on the Prairie, played the harp, read medieval literature, basket weaving? What young woman is into that? It was true, that Amy was more than eager to delve into Penny's interests…they were all so new to her, but she could tell that they were not activities that Amy would be interested in on her own. Amy could also be painfully blunt, and she had no social graces much of the time, just like Sheldon.

Penny walked over to the shelf, and looked at a smiling picture of Sheldon and Amy. They were so suited to each other in so many ways. Intellectually - definitely. Amy seemed so happy to have a boyfriend, that she has infinite patience with Sheldon. A girl would need infinite patience to deal with Sheldon and his multitude of issues and demands. That being said, they seemed to genuinely enjoy spending time together.

Penny could see that Amy was getting more and more enamoured with Sheldon, but their relationship was not really going anywhere physically. She felt bad that Amy had been so hurt by what she had said, but honestly she felt it was the truth. Amy dressed like a dowdy old woman and acted like a dowdy old woman half the time. What did she expect, that Sheldon would be turned on by that? Sheldon was sexually inexperienced, so he would probably need a "push" to get moving in the right direction. Miss grannywear wasn't really doing that.

Dammit, she was so tired of dealing with everyone and all their issues. She was sick of feeling like the odd one in the group. Didn't they realize that she was the normal one, and that they were all weird? She was missing her old life….watching football with her friends, being physically active, being the hottest one at the club. When she went to the bar with Amy and Bernadette, she felt like she was being held back. She was sick of talking about dragons, werewolves, elves, star trek, star wars - it was all too much sometimes. She loved Leonard, but sometimes she missed having a boyfriend that was just outdoorsy and athletic. Not one that was wheezing all the time, and worried about what costume to wear to ComicCon.

The door started rattling, and the doorknob slowly turned. Leonard walked in, and threw his overnight bag by the door.

"Hey Hon, how was your day? You feeling a bit better?" he asked.

She looked up at him and smiled, "Yeah, I just had a bad headache this morning. I went over to your place this morning, to get some milk for coffee, but Sheldon kicked me out."

"He kicked you out?" Leonard looked at her puzzled. "Well he's pretty upset about the whole thing with Amy. I'm not sure what's going on with him, but I am kind of worried. He's been acting really strangely since last night." Leonard was actually more than a little worried about his friend, he had never really seen Sheldon this upset before.

"He is completely blaming me for what happened between him and Amy. That's not fair, we all know that him not touching Amy was going to turn into a major problem one day. That's not my fault." Penny walked into the kitchen and started shuffling through take out menus. She opened her purse and started digging around.

"No, that's not your fault, but don't you think you were being a bit cruel to Amy?" Leonard sat down on the couch and looked at Penny.

Ugh…here it begins. Penny thought this will be another evening of poor little Amy. "I think that maybe Amy needed to hear that. She has no idea how to turn a man on, and whatever she is doing sure isn't working…"

"Oh, I don't know that Sheldon can be turned "on" in the traditional sense. I mean he's Sheldon after all. But, you made Amy sound completely undesirable. I mean she's not the goddess that you are, but she's still a cute girl in her own way. You know how sensitive she is."

"Oh it's poor Amy, poor Amy, poor Amy all the time! You've only heard one side of the story. Everyone is quick to blame me all the time. You didn't hear the shit that Bernadette was saying to me. She told me I was stupid, lazy and slutty. She called you a pathetic doormat. She said the only thing I had going for me was my looks! But yes, let's please keep talking about poor pathetic little Amy." Penny slammed her purse onto the counter.

"Penny, believe me I'm not happy about what Bernadette said to you, and I am completely pissed that she would say that to you. But I know Bernie, and she only lashes out like that when she's provoked. So what upset Bernie so bad?"

Penny glared at Leonard. She couldn't believe that he was still trying to put this on her. "Well, maybe she's just upset that she's married to such a skeevy pervert."

"I see." Leonard said quietly, he looked up at her. "And what did Amy say that provoked you and Bernadette?"

Penny had hit her limit. "I'm sick of Amy OK!? I didn't choose for her to be my friend, she was just kind of thrust upon me when her and Sheldon started dating. She's weird! We have nothing in common! I'm sick of her following me around like a stupid little puppy dog. She's just using me you know….She's using me to fulfil her dream of having a cool and popular friend! Well I don't want to be used anymore! Listen, I love you and Sheldon…the rest of the group I could do without sometimes."

"Oh yes, I've learned how much you love Sheldon " Leonard sneered at her.

"Give me a break! You just said Amy was a cute girl in her own way, why can't I say that Sheldon is attractive?"

"Me saying Amy is a cute girl, is vastly different than you saying Sheldon would be begging you for sex!" Leonard yelled.

Dammit. Penny knew that this was going to end up turning into a fight between her and Leonard. "Listen, I meant what I said last night, Sheldon is like a brother to me. I don't have feelings for him that way ok. You need to stop being so damn insecure all the time."

Leonard stood up. "I am not being insecure, but you talking about our friend that way is wildly inappropriate. You know, I believe you about not wanting Sheldon. I think you just said that to hurt Amy. You know…you don't know what it's like to be the unpopular one, the one no one liked. You should try having a little empathy instead complaining about people liking you cause you are popular."

"Being around all of you is so draining! If you aren't talking about science stuff, you are talking about comic books, star trek, star wars, lord of the rings, elves, goblins and god knows what else! I'm sick of it! I want to hang around normal people and talk about normal things. I'm sick of being the odd man out with this group. Why can't you guys do anything normal once and a while?!"

Leonard started pacing around the room. "Oh so is this how you feel about me? That I am not normal? That we are all a bunch of freaks?"

"Well if the shoe fits…" Penny muttered quietly.

Leonard started going red in the face. "Listen, I thought we had worked past all this stuff, but clearly we haven't. Why don't you stop looking at us like a bunch of geeks and as people instead! Nobody is stopping you from hanging out with your old friends. If you miss them so much, then go hang with them. No one is forcing you to hang out with this "freak show"! Actually I welcome it! Maybe you need to develop your own interests instead of hanging out with us and ragging on us all the time!"

"You know what Leonard, FINE….that sounds good to me too. An evening out without discussing proton decay and if you'd rather be an elf or goblin sounds like a DREAM come true!"

"Great!"

"Great!" Leonard picked up his bag from the door and walked out. Penny sighed….well tonight went exactly how she thought it was going to go. She turned on her phone, it was time to go out.

A/N: Thank-you for all the supportive reviews. I didn't end up having Bernadette in this one, but I thought that Leonard and Penny needed to have this conversation. If you liked it, review please! I love reading all your comments.