Chapter 3
One Month Later…
This was getting ridiculous. Penny felt like she had gotten a divorce and was sharing custody. Only it wasn't their children who were being split equally between them, it was their friends. Leonard, Howard and Raj were at a complete loss when they realized what was going on. Well, when they THOUGHT they realized what was going on.
The boys erroneously assumed that Penny and Sheldon had finally had such a crazy blowout that they had decided it was easier to abandon the friendship entirely. For awhile, Leonard had attempted to mend the rift, but once he realized that Penny suddenly had twice the free time he had stopped. He was aghast to realize just how much time the strange duo had spent together while friends. He was suddenly uncomfortable and felt threatened by Sheldon in some unknown way. Why was Penny spending so much more time with the emotionally stunted scientist than with the rest of them? He had quickly turned away from that line of thought, deciding to just be thankful that their friendship had crashed and burned as it had.
Penny had practically seen the thoughts as they ran through Leonard's head. The bespectacled scientist may as well have had a scrolling text box on his forehead. She knew Leonard still liked her, even after their initial date had been such a catastrophe. She wished she had known he had planned their outing as a date so she could have refused. She'd just been too hopeful that she would be able to see Sheldon. Now she had to pretend not to realize they'd had a date or that Leonard was interested in her, all the while hiding her own heartache over the rift between her and Sheldon.
Penny sighed. She knew the boys were playing Halo. It was strangely quiet for a Halo night. Actually, other than a few loud lectures to Leonard, Penny hadn't even heard her Whack-A-Doodle's voice for weeks. She briefly felt hope that maybe he missed her and couldn't be his usual (annoyingly) vocal self because of it. She shrugged the idea off. Undoubtedly, he just didn't want her hearing his voice lest it encourage her "amorous pursuit" as he would likely put it.
Amorous pursuit.
Penny laughed. Then she stopped and huffed. She hadn't initiated any pursuit! She hadn't even hugged the man since she realized how she felt. She'd pulled back physically, less touching and proximity, so worried she would scare him off. Just who the hell did he think he was? She'd had entirely unobtrusive feelings for him! It was just like him to go off the deep end. Only this time, she had failed in her end of the equation. She hadn't gone Junior Rodeo on his ass over it.
Penny's eyes narrowed. She stood up suddenly, her anger overwhelming any sense of reason. She opened her door and stormed into the hallway, bumping into Leonard as he was leaving 4A. The shorter man had been locking the door handle behind himself when he saw the fury on Penny's face. She grabbed the doorknob and glared at him until he hastily scurried down the stairwell. There was no way he wanted to be around for what was coming, even if it meant leaving Penny in the company of Sheldon.
Penny stalked into the apartment, slamming the door behind her.