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Penny flopped back down on the grass and stared up at the stars. “Well, it sucks. This isn’t how I imagined my life turning out.”
I lay back next to her, my pinky finger brushing hers. “Tell me what you imagined.”
“I wanted to travel. To see the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Big Ben in London. And I wanted to go to college to study to be a grade school teacher. At college, I’d meet a guy, someone sweet and really good-looking. We’d date all through junior and senior year and then get engaged. Move to the suburbs and live happily ever after…” Penny’s voice trailed off, and I looked over to see if she was crying again, but she wasn’t.
She’d closed her eyes and slightly scrunched her face, but she seemed peaceful.
My fingers spread out, brushing Penny’s pinky, and she threaded them together.
Didn’t she realize she could still do all of those things? Foster care wasn’t the end; that was what Lucas always used to tell me.
“You can still do all of those things,” I said.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she turned to face me. “Everything changed when they died, Blake. Everything.” Pain filled her expression. “I have no one. No family, no friends, I had to move to this hell. How am I supposed to do any of the things I wanted?”
“You fight.” The words came out without even thinking.
“How? Tell me how?”
The desperation in her voice was like a fist around my heart, and I wanted nothing more than to take away her pain.
“One day, we’ll be free of this place.” I’d make sure of it. “You have to hold onto that.”
Penny was silent for a moment, but I could tell she was thinking about telling me something.
“You can tell me, Pen. Whatever it is, I’ll listen.”
“Leah and Sophie cornered me again in free period.”
The words hung between us.
“What the hell, Penny?” I pushed up off the ground, anger pulsating through me. “You promised to tell me if it happened again.”
Penny jumped to her feet and came to face me. “I know, I just didn’t want to cause any trouble.”
“I don’t care about getting into trouble, you know that.” I scoffed. “But I do care about them talking shit to you.”
Leah and Sophie were the high school’s mean girls. They had singled Penny out the second she arrived. It only got worse when Penny had to start wearing the hand-me-downs of the older girls and the few drab outfits Marie picked up from the local Goodwill store.
Jessica had tried to get them to back off, but they disliked all of us Freeman group home kids, so it didn’t do much.
“Blake.” Penny reached out and entwined her hand in mine, forcing me to look at her. “I can handle a couple of mean girls. I’ve survived worse.”
Without thinking, I tugged her to me and wrapped my arms around her. She buried her face in my chest, slipped her arms around my waist, and hugged me right back.
Penny was my best friend.
I don’t know why I ever doubted it.
But as we stood there, in No Man’s Land, holding on to one another, a thought crossed my mind.
What if she was more than that?
CHAPTERNINE
Penny
I was a mess.
