"Fuck off!" - Harry

PART TWENTY
↳ a new leader

"PLEASE TELL ME YOU GUYS AREN'T OUT OF COFFEE YET," Penelope announces as she enters through the back door into Allie's kitchen. Grizz, Luke, Jason, Clark and Will are already gathered around the wooden counter, apparently deep in discussion judging by the looks of annoyance they give her at the interruption. 

"You're late," Will points out as Penelope plops herself down on the empty stool between Grizz and Jason. She narrows her eyes at the curly haired boy and then raises a hand to indicate Jason, who at this very moment has his head shoved up a potato chip bag.

"Doesn't look like I missed much."

Clark starts to laugh but tries to disguise it as a cough when Will shoots him a look, "This is serious guys, stop messing around." 

"That's nice, Will. Now! Will someone please point me in the direction of the caffeine." Penelope claps her hands together. 

She has mixed feelings about Will. She had kind of liked him at first but he'd gotten annoying real quick with the whole, being obsessed with Kelly one day and then the next he was suddenly in love with Allie. 

Of course, none of that had actually happened yet, but the point was that it was going to happen. Aside from that he seemed like a pretty decent guy, but a pretty decent guy she simply had no patience for at the moment, especially before her morning coffee. 

Luke clears his throat before anyone can respond, he reaches across Grizz to hand Nell a steaming mug of coffee. He had been quietly making it while Will was giving Nell an earful. 

"Wow, I love you," she comments as she sips gingerly at the hot liquid. He shakes his head lightly, smiling at her and then nods at Will, indicating that he should begin.

"We need to be careful right now. What we say, what we do. Less than half the kitchen showed today. And nobody even bothered to call."

"It's not just the kitchen staff. No one picked up the garbage all weekend," Grizz adds.

"It fucking reeks," Jason comments, scrunching up his nose in disgust.

"If we don't follow the schedule we're screwed," Will continues, looking at everyone in turn. 

"And if the communal kitchen collapses, people will go after the food," Grizz agrees, his eyebrows crinkling together in concern.

"They're already raiding the cafeteria pantry. Broad daylight. Nobody gives a shit."

"What do you want us to do about it?" Luke asks, joining the conversation. 

Will sighs deeply, considering the question. Penelope can't help but wonder how many of the decisions that Allie is soon going to make can truly be blamed on her alone? Will always seems to get away with hiding behind her on the sidelines while he pressures her into making the hard decisions.

"We might have to enforce the work lists."

"You mean we would have to enforce work lists.- The Guard," Luke points out.

"And how are supposed to do that? There are four of us," Clark remarks, turning to Will for a solution.

"Five," Penelope coughs, choosing now to join in on the conversation. 

The four boys give her incredulous looks and she shrugs, "What? You saying The Guard can only be guys? Who says I can't join?"

Grizz raises a finger menacingly, opening his mouth to speak. But before any of them can give her a response, footsteps coming down the stairs have everyone immediately on edge.

Allie enters the kitchen and heads straight to the sink. The guys try to make themselves look busy, but the tension of their conversation was still apparent to everyone.

"What?" The blonde girl demands, sensing the strange mood in the room.

"We were- We were talking about how nobody came to work today." Will stutters, unsure as to how much he should let on. Everyone is still being cautious around the girl for obvious reasons. 

"It's getting really bad out there." Grizz adds.

"Yeah. No shit. Something terrible might happen." Allie responds, the sarcasm is apparent in her monotone voice. Will looks guilty for at least a moment so that's a somewhat success to Allie.

"We were just saying just how the work lists are falling apart." Jason continues hesitantly, well aware of Allie's sullen mood.

"It's bad enough without her. We can't let the rules go, too." Luke agrees. 

"I just wanted some fucking tea." Allie scoffs as she leaves behind a group of bewildered boys. Penelope looks at Grizz's thoughtful face, the sound of the blonde girl's footsteps recede as she makes her way back upstairs.

After a long and somber silence, Nell looks at each of the boys in turn before she states, "She needs time guys, leave her be for now." 

The boys nod in agreement and Nell nudges Grizz with a smile, beginning to stand. "You make the tea, I'm gonna go talk to her." The others give her supportive looks as she leaves them in the kitchen and treads her way lightly upstairs. 

Penelope knocks on Allie's door, nervously playing with her fingers as she waits outside. Allie grunts out a, "What?" and Nell takes that as her cue to enter. 

The girl is seated at her desk, back facing away from the door. The wall above her desk is covered in polaroid pictures from her time before New Ham. Some are pictures of landscapes, others are of her with her friends. Nell recognises herself in at least two of them, which is still strange to see. 

As Penelope gazes at them, she sits down on the edge of the bed directly behind Allie. "Thank you for giving me that old polaroid camera, I want to make a wall like this in Grizz's room but I know he'd never let me." 

Her attempt at humour falls flat as Allie finally turns to her with a tired expression. 

"Right, I get it. You want to be alone, right now. But Grizz is on his way up to save the day with chamomile tea and one of his favourite inspirational quotes so I'll keep this short."

Allie almost smiles at that but it quickly falls off her face as her brain decides to remind her of why she's upset. Cassandra, her funeral, her death. And therefore a murderer among them.

Penelope takes a deep breath, thinking through her words carefully before she speaks, "I know exactly what you're going through right now. Believe me, I've been there. But please, don't push your friends away when you need them the most. Things are about to get even tougher around here and you need people around you who remind you why it is we're trying to survive in the first place."

She stands as Allie attempts to absorb her words, Nell reaches forward to squeeze her hand gently. "Stay strong, Allie." The blonde girl watches her leave with a thoughtful glance, the door has barely shut behind Nell for a second before another knock sounds. 

"Come in, Grizz."

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

It's pretty late in the morning when Penelope decides to check back in on Harry. The light yellow glow of the sun filters through the trees as she approaches from around the back of his house and when then stops in her tracks. Harry is sprawled out on the ground beside his pool, one leg dipped into the murky green water and a cup of coffee resting on his chest.

Penelope stands far enough away on the other side of the pool that he hasn't spotted her yet. Nell stops suddenly when she spots his ex-girlfriend wandering towards him. She recognises this as the scene where Kelly accuses Harry of killing Cassandra. 

She knows that she should probably make her presence known right away to the two ex lovers but she can't bring herself to do it. Something deep and dark inside of her urges her to stay hidden and watch their exchange in secret. 

She convinces herself that it's because she wants to observe Harry from afar to help determine if he's still been taking drugs, despite her efforts to stop him at prom. But she also wants to watch him interact with Kelly. 

Her self consciousness had been trying to persuade her that Harry had only been using her to escape his fear of loneliness after Kelly rejected him, but she desperately wanted to believe differently. 

Harry places his still-full mug down on the concrete beside him when he notices Kelly.

"Haven't seen you." he sits up to face her. "I wanted to talk to you the funeral, but everything's just so crazy." 

She stops at least two steps away from him and grimaces down at the dirty green water, filled with old red cups from the many parties Harry has hosted. Harry notices the look and tries to explain himself, "I know it looks bad, but it still feels.. nice."

The fact that none of the dialogue has changed from the original script concerns Penelope. Harry was originally speaking so strangely because he was high and Nell was suddenly worried that Campbell had still managed to get to him. 

Kelly takes one more step towards him and then sits down cross legged, facing the pool as she announces, "I need to ask you something."

Harry grunts, finally sitting up properly to face her. He exhales, looking down at the ground, "Okay."

Kelly stares at him unflinchingly, each word enunciated clearly as she begins her interrogation. "Did you have anything to do with it?" 

"With what?" Harry asks quickly, feigning ignorance.

When Harry looks up to meet her penetrating gaze, Kelly gives him a meaningful look and a long moment of silence passes between the two. Penelope swallows loudly from her crouched position behind a prickly bush. 

"With what?" Harry asks again, a menacing tone accentuates his voice this time.

Kelly doesn't respond. She merely tilts her head as she studies him, awaiting an answer.

"Are you seriously asking me that?" he chuckles sarcastically, shaking his head in disbelief. "Fuck you."

Penelope doesn't disagree with his anger. Surely Kelly had to know that Harry wasn't capable of something as awful as that. He talked a lot of shit yeah, but he could rarely back it up. Penelope had only technically known him for a few months and she was confident of that, so why wasn't Kelly?

"That's not an answer."

Kelly should also know him well enough to know that his stubbornness wouldn't allow him to answer with a simple yes or no. He wasn't going to make it easy for her. 

His next words are quiet but they hold a degree of strength as he leans forward to utter them, staring deeply into her eyes, "You know me. Yeah. We know each other."

Kelly shakes her head, "Not an answer."

Harry gives up and turns away, putting both feet back in the pool and breathing in deeply. Penelope hesitates as she considers whether or not now is a good time to retreat from her hiding spot. 

Kelly studies Harry as he sits, hunched over the water. "Are you high?"

Theres a pause. So small that it was barely noticeable to Kelly who couldn't see his face, but from her position, Nell saw the split second of panic in Harry's eyes and she feels her own face fall. He was high. 

"No. No, I'm just tired." He quickly reassures Kelly, who for the most part, seems to believe him. 

"People are scared shitless," she continues. "And placing bets on who did it, and there's a lot of money on you, Harry."

"Those people..." he forces a laugh, "-are gonna lose all their fucking money."

Penelope sighs, but finally rises from where she had been crouched for the entire conversation. She forces her feet to fall more heavily as she treads over to them. The sound catches their attention and upon seeing the redhead, Kelly rises quickly. 

"Hey guys," Penelope tries, forcing a weak smile onto her face. Harry looks back down at his feet submerged in the green water but Kelly returns the gesture. 

"Hey Nell, I was just leaving. I'll catch you later to check up on that wound, okay?" Kelly touches her shoulder as she passes her. Penelope barely has time to nod in agreement before the other girl takes off. 

Harry doesn't take his eyes off of the water as Nell gently sits herself down beside him. She pulls her knees up to her chest and nudges herself close enough to him that their sides are touching. 

Nervously, she tilts her head so that it rests comfortably on his shoulder and she reaches for his right hand. She softly intertwines her fingers with his and places their joined hands in her lap. 

Penelope silently noted to herself that they had been sitting in this exact position the night of the party after the game of fugitive. So much had changed since that moment. Cassandra was dead, she herself had been shot and everything was getting progressively worse for the teens by the day.

Harry closes his eyes and leans into her touch, finally feeling some peace and comfort in her presence. He had been on edge for the entire morning while she was gone, now that she was with him it was as if he could breath easier again.

"I'm not gonna lie, I heard most of that conversation," Penelope admits suddenly, breaking the silence. Harry snorts out a breathy laugh, somehow he's not at all surprised by her snooping.

"Oh, yeah? Does that mean you're here to interrogate me as well?" 

Penelope starts, turning her head sharply towards him. Was he serious? She tugs on his hand that she's holding until he turns his head to meet her sincere gaze. 

"I don't need to interrogate you, Harry. I know it wasn't you. I know you and Cassandra didn't always get along but that doesn't mean you would kill her," her voice breaks on the last few words. Memories of the shooting begin to flash before her eyes unconsciously. 

Harry nods slightly, he doesn't say anything but she's sure that he's grateful to finally have someone on his side. Penelope suddenly remembers their conversation from this morning and she glances sideward at him. 

"Hey, what did you want to talk to me about?" 

He looks at her with a strained smile, "I- can we save that for later? Right now, I think I just need to do nothing." She studies him, noting the bags under his eyes and the shrug of his shoulders. 

She knows that at some point she will have to address the fact that he's been taking those drugs, but for now she was content to let him have a moment's peace. 

"Okay," Penelope agrees, squeezing his hand. She places her head back on his shoulder and he leans into her again. The two stare out at the murky green water in a comfortable silence for quite some time, enjoying the solace that the other person's presense always seemed to bring them.

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soRRy this is way behind schedule so it's extra long. i'm gonna stop promising daily updates & just post them as often as i can. hopefully about 3-4 a week, depending on how often i'm working. 

anyways hope u liked this chapter, pls tell me what u think. i've loved reading through all ur comments lately so keep it up!