"Everything that kept us safe is gone." - Cassandra

PART THREE
↳ where is here?

THE PARTY WAS STILL IN FULL SWING when Penelope left Harry and Kelly in search of her friends. She cringed as she passed Allie and Will mid kiss, already feeling bad for the rejection Allie was about to go through.

She considered going over to her to comfort the poor girl but the thought completely left her mind as she stumbled and barely managed to regain her footing.

It was at this moment that she decided she was cutting herself off for the night. She was already in for a terrible hangover the next day and in retrospect she was beginning to regret her decision to get absolutely smashed tonight.

There were too many problems to deal with tomorrow.

Thinking about the gravity of her situation began to sober the girl up a little but her mind was still rather foggy. As her mind continued to wander, Penelope found herself staggering outside of the church and into the chilly night air.

The cool feeling was refreshing against her flushed cheeks and she closed her eyes, breathing the fresh air in deeply as she stood in the doorway.

"Hey."

She opened her eyes to Harry, smiling cautiously at her.

"Hey," Penelope returned the greeting, tilting her head to the side curiously.

"How long have you been standing there staring at me, Bingham?"

Harry laughed lightly, tilting his head towards the ground with an almost embarrassed smile, "Long enough."

There was a long moment of silence between the two of them as they simply stared at each other. Old friends, reconnecting in a pleasant way for the first time in years.

The sound of loud music was escaping from the open doorway behind Penelope, the only other noise was the soft wind that ruffled the trees surrounding the church.

"I wanted to apologise.. for earlier," Harry began, the first to speak up. "The way she spoke to you.. it wasn't right."

Penelope paused, considering his words.
"You don't need to apologise Harry, I can understand why she was upset. But you can tell her that she has nothing to worry about from me," she assured him.

His lopsided smile returned as he appraised her. In a suggestive voice, he mutters, "Doesn't she?"

Penelope tried to hide her grin, feeling suddenly flushed. Was he flirting? She ducked her head and said nothing as she moved past him.

Their shoulders touched ever so slightly as she passed, but she convinced herself it was an accident.

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Grizz and Clark weren't hard to find. Penelope found them relieving themselves around the back of the church.

She immediately covered her eyes and turned away, "Ugh, do you guys really need to pee right there?"

The pair of football boys chuckled loudly, unembarrassed. After some shuffling noises and two zips obviously being pulled up, Grizz tells Penelope she can open her eyes.

Right away, she approaches her best friend and wraps her arms tightly around his stomach.

The beer was beginning to get the best of her and all she wanted to do was hug her new friends and tell them how much she loved them.

Even though she knew the memories of the past couldn't be real, the feelings certainly felt real.

Grizz seemed taken aback by her sudden bout of affection but he returned the hug wholeheartedly. "You know I love you grizzly bear," Penelope mumbled into his shoulder.

The nickname had seemed to come naturally to her lips, but she found herself approving of it anyway. It did seem fitting.

The girl could practically feel Grizz rolling his eyes and giving Clark a look but he made no response other than to tighten his hold on her.

"Awe you two are so cute! How come you aren't dating, again?" Clark asked with a wink.

"Shut up, Clark." Grizz and Penelope replied in unison.

Clark wasn't offended in the slightest and simply chuckled again before muttering something about finding Gwen and Penelope listened to the sound of his soft steps as he trudged away.

Grizz finally pulled back from the hug, still keeping Penelope in his embrace enough to stare down at her flushed face with concern, "You okay, Nell?"

She smiled lightly up at him, "Yeah, just a bit tired and a bit more drunk."

He grinned, "Alright, time to go home then."

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

Grizz shook Penelope awake at a completely ungodly hour the next morning and at first all the girl would do was groan and shove her face deeper into his pillows.

Penelope's artificial memories told her that it wasn't uncommon for the two of them to share a bed and her gut told her that she was one of the only people who knew Grizz's deep, dark secret.

While falling asleep beside his soft snores the night before she had a recollection of a day many years ago when her and Grizz were maybe thirteen or fourteen years old.

She had kissed him completely spontaneously and he had pulled away right afterwards.

He explained to her that although she was the person he loved most in the world, he could never kiss her like that.

She remembered the nervous expression on his face as he spilled to her. Somehow the news didn't come as a surprise and she'd never even thought to tell another soul.

If it meant protecting her friend until he chose to share it with the world, she would take his secret to the grave.

After shaking her for the fifth time, Grizz finally managed to lure his friend out of bed with the promise of hot coffee and an adventure out of town.

Penelope already knew how this outing was going to go down but she really wanted to ride in Harry's expensive car.

So, an hour later, Harry was pulling into Grizz's driveway with Luke riding shotgun and Clark in the backseat.

"Fuck Marks, you look like shit," Harry commented as Penelope came sauntering out of the house with the hood of her jacket pulled up, closely behind Grizz.

It seemed like the morning had brought back his usual behaviour towards her and it didn't help that they were both almost completely sober now.

She threw him a look, but had no energy to clap back with a comment of her own. Not even coffee could resurrect her this morning. She felt his gaze on her as she made her way towards his car.

"Hey! I thought this was a dudes only kinda mission," Clark remarked as Penelope climbed over Grizz, squishing herself between him and Clark.

"If that's the case I better drive you back home, Clark," Harry challenged, meeting Penelope's gaze in the rearview mirror. She thought she caught him throwing her a wink but then she blinked and he was already looking away.

Clark snorted but brushed the comment off, nudging Penelope with a grin to show her that he didn't mean anything by it.

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

"Okay, so as a rule, the more bizarre a thing seems, the less mysterious it is," Grizz paused, looking past Penelope to make sure that Clark was following. But when his friend didn't respond, he continued, "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?"

"You know this shit?" Clark addressed Luke. Penelope knew exactly what Grizz was talking about and she sympathetically patted his arm, giving him a look as if to say, 'What did you expect?'

No doubt, Grizz didn't have the same kind of talks with the boys as he did with Penelope about his passion for literature.

"No," Luke responded, uninterested.

"I don't know this shit," Clark muttered, seeming distracted.

"How about Sherlock Holmes? The point is, there's an explanation for everything," Grizz interjected.

"What does that have to do with the Arthur Conan Boyle dude?" Clark blurted, still hopelessly lost.

"It's Doyle and you're hopeless."

"Oh. Oh, shit," Harry's shocked voice demanded everyone's attention. He'd been so quiet, Penelope had almost forgotten he was there for a few moments.

"What the fuck is going on?" Luke swore, staring into the mass of forest that stood where the road out of town was supposed to go.

Penelope jumped over Grizz to follow Harry as he stumbled closer to the scene. She let him have a moment to absorb the sight before she approached him, laying a gentle hand on his arm. "Come on, let's go check the other side of town."

He met her eyes and forgetting her annoyance towards him for the moment, her heart clenched at the complete and utter fear in them. He simply nodded as he followed her back to the car.

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hey guys! i'm so glad to see people are enjoying the story so far. always feel free to drop me a comment to let me know what you're thinking so far, and definitely leave some suggestions if there's something in particular you would like to see more of or to see happen! i'm always open to suggestions xx