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Chapter Twenty
Elena
Oh,todaywasagood day. A really good day. My walk home from campus was all sunshine and butterflies. I felt like a Disney princess—notthat one. More like Aurora, except if some strange man tried to kiss me while I was sleeping, he’d be the one taking a long, long nap.
So, maybe I wasn’t exactly princess material. That didn’t make today any less wonderful.
“You should have seen them, Pen. They were practically frothing at the mouth.”
Penelope threw her head back and laughed. What would I do without FaceTime? I needed Pen’s face like a drug.
“Only you would be excited about getting bullied,” she said.
“Bullied is a state of mind. Besides, I’m stillpissedabout the gum. But showing up to class with my hair down and curled made it worth it. I’m pretty sure one of them peed her pants.”
If there’d been any doubt about who’d stuck gum in my hair, it had been erased by the bright-red faces on the Gumball Hos when they saw my hair cascading down my back, no worse for wear—except the lingering scent of peanut butter.
“And that’s your revenge, right? Living well? They say that’s the best kind.”
“We’ll see.”
She frowned. “Why does that sound so ominous coming from you?”
My brow arched. “Because you know me so well.”
She started to laugh, but her shoulders rolled forward and she slumped instead. “I don’t like this, you know? You shouldn’t have to watch your back in class. Not in college.”
I wrinkled my nose at her optimistic outlook. “It’s obvious you don’t go to Savage U. Here, when dealing with a certain crowd, watching your back is a necessity. I’m just lucky I didn’t end up rooming with them like they originally wanted. I would have woken up without eyebrows or—”
“Or next to a horse head?” Pen guessed.
“If they were feeling particularlyGodfather-y, sure. Although, something tells me Kayleigh and Abby aren’t well versed in classic movie references. It’sMean Girlsor bust for them, and they watch it as a how-to guide rather than a social commentary.”
Pen tilted her head to the side. “Can you believe you chose to live with Helen instead? If I’d told you back in high school this was your future, you—”
“Would have stuck my head in an oven—but onlyafterlocking you in a padded cell.”
She was trying not to laugh, pressing her lips together in a flat line. Pen didn’t like joking about mental health, butIwas the one with the mother who had a depressive disorder. I lived my entire life trying to keep her sane, so I felt I was entitled to jokes as compensation.
“Laugh, Penelope,” I whispered.
She let out the faintest little guffaw. If she hadn’t been on camera, I would have missed it. I loved corrupting my sweet cousin.
“Speaking of people you love, did you see the soccer schedule I texted you?”
I shook my head. “You know my eyes glaze over when you tell me things about Gabe.”
“Well, this was about me too. He’s playing at Savage U next month. I’m coming up, and I washopingyou’d come to the game. Helen and Theo will be there. Maybe you could bring Lock too?”
I stopped at the intersection before my block, checking both ways before running across the street. “We could hang out after,” I suggested.
“Nope. You’re coming to the game. Gabe is basically family, and I know how important family is to you…”
Huffing, I had to quell the urge to throw Penelope, and consequently my phone, down on the sidewalk.
“How dare you,” I said. “You’re right, but how dare you?”
“So, you’ll be there?”
