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“He’s brought a lot out of me, and I’ve brought a lot out of him,” I teased, ignoring her pretend gags as I grabbed what I needed for us to head out the door. In the car, we ended up talking more about my writing, andherexperience as a reader, and the whole thing was just…. Gratifying. I’d known it was inevitable that the people I loved would find out about the writing. Still, I’d expected it to be a whole embarrassing ordeal.
And instead it just… wasn’t.
It actually felt rather good.
We made it to Pen’s little apartment right on time to start welcoming guests, and I used my key to let us in. Pen was a stickler for keeping the place spotless, so all we had to do was put out a few decorations and food, and then wait for her boyfriend to give us the signal that she was heading home.
That signal… did not come.
What happened instead was a sudden flinging open of the door. Pen stepped inside, her face streaked with ruined mascara and tears, took one look around and… bursted out crying before she bypassed the space full of people to rush to her room.
I looked at Alicia across the room, and she intuitively knew to come with me to where Pen had thrown herself across the bed.
“Hey,” I asked, sitting down beside her to rub soothing circles on her back. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” she replied, her words muffled by the pillow she’d buried her face in.
I sighed. “Well… I won’t try to force you to, if you don’t want to, but I need you to let us know if you’re okay. Did something happen with Tyler?”
She pulled her face up from the pillow just long enough to look back and forth between me and Alicia. “He… he… nevermind,” she sobbed. “Idon’twant to talk about it! Can you guys just… everybody leave me alone!”
Thatmade me raise my eyebrows, but… sure.
We’d leaveheralone.
I motioned for Alicia to come out of the room with me, and we closed the door behind us before I leaned in to tell her, “I’m about to go find Tyler and make him tell me what the fuck is going on. You wanna come?”
“Is that even a real question?” she smirked. “I’m already planning the route in my head.”
“You know his address?”
“I know how much his rent is, and that his father pays for it,” Alicia laughed. “OfcourseI know his address.”
“Okay, well let’s go,” I told her, walking out into the main area to note that Loren had already cleared the guests out.
“Is she okay?” Loren asked, coming from where she’d just let the last guest out.
Alicia shrugged. “We’re about to find out. Can you stay here with her until we get back?”
“Of course,” she agreed. “Yaya is with Cree, and my man isn’t expecting me until later, so I’m good. Y’all about to ride on somebody?”
“If that’s what it takes,” I told her, looping an arm through Alicia’s, rushing her along. “Let’s go.”
For some reason, that was amusing to her, but she let me drag her down to the car. It wasn’t until we were both inside that she spoke up.
“So… you sure are in a hurry to go question this guy about what he may or may not have done to Pen, huh?”
“Hell yes, I am,” I agreed. “I want his fucking head on a platter—did you see how upset she was?!”
“Oh, I get it- trust me,” she said, her eyes on the road as she pulled out of the parking spot and started us on the way. “I’m just… surprised at how extremely protective you’re being. I’d think you wanted to step back and let Penelope handle it all on her own, instead of us… smothering her.”
I sucked my teeth. “Okay, really? We’re doingthis?”
“I’m not doing anything, I’m saying!” she declared, feigning innocence. “I’m justhonestlysurprised.”
“Well,don’t be,” I declared, crossing my arms. “Since this situation is totally different. Pen was upset, and crying, and we don’treallyknow this guy, and—”
“She asked us to leave it alone.”
