AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Like what? Defamation?” Penelope scoffed. “As if anyone gives a shit about your character.”
He picked at his fingernails nonchalantly. “Well, maybe I’ll need to speak with my lawyer about it, just to be sure. You know, he’s a member of the school board. I’m sure he’d hate to learn about faculty members making threats and causing scenes in the breakroom.” He looked up at me. “Or how about coworkers fucking each other? What’s the policy on that?”
I shook my head with a breathy chuckle.
All this because he’s jealous.
Pathetic.
Penelope’s eyes bugged at me as the realization dawned on her. I knew I was giving away the most feral of grins. I turned toward Marshall. “Your lawyer is on the school board? For the Seaside District?”
He nodded with a vicious smirk.
I cackled, “And that wouldn’t happen to be ThomasEdwards, would it?”
The Worm froze. His eyes widened as they darted between Penelope and I rapidly.
I nodded. “Right. Well, before you go seeking personal defense council from the County Prosecutor,you fucking idiot, you should know that Penelope is like a second daughter tomydad.” I paused, crossing my own arms and leaned against the table casually. “I’m sure he’d hate to hear about the guy who publicly pants over her like a goddamn dog, harasses her at work, and purposely tries to get her drunk to take advantage of her.” He began inching toward the door. I pushed off the table and took a step forward. “And I promise you, if it’s your word against hers, she will win. Every time.”
He threw his hands up and shook his head. Looking only at Penelope, he stuttered, “No, I wasn’t. I mean, I was interested, of course. But I never meant to make you uncomfortable. I just– I’m sorry. I–”
Penelope stood up abruptly, cutting off his speech. Leaving her lunch uneaten on the table in front of her, she threw her bag over the shoulder and walked between us. “Just leave me alone, Marshall.”
He looked back at me, no longer trying to hide that fear in his eyes. “I don’t want you ever looking in her direction again. And if I hear a single peep about the way you treat another woman, I will go to my father. I’ll ensure that you don’t just lose your job, but that you never step foot inside a school again. I’ll ruin your entire fucking career.”
I exited the room after Penelope.
I made a mental note to report Marshall’s behavior to my dad anyway. I wouldn’t use her name if she didn’t want me to, but assholes like him didn’t deserve warnings.
She was stalking down the hall toward our classroom. She only moved faster as I jogged to catch up to her. Our room was fortunately void of students now that much of the lunch period was over. Penelope stepped inside our classroom and shut the door behind her as she stood back against the door and crossed her arms.
She held her face in a dead-pan expression, arching her brow at me. “I didn’t need you defending me like that.” She was in herI’m-about-to-throw-a-fitstance.
I mimicked her position. “And how would you have preferred I acted?”
She rolled her eyes and huffed. “I didn’t need you to save me.”
I ran a hand down my face. “I know, Pep. I’m sorry. I couldn’t–” I thought back to the look on Marshall’s face when he called Penelope a bitch. His smug expression, as if he’d just won a game only he was playing. “He does not deserve to even speak to you, Penelope. He does not deserve to breathe the same air as you.” I shook my head. “I should have fucking killed him for what he said.” I stepped toward her until she leaned back against the door to our office. “I’m sorry you didn’t like it, but I’m not sorry about how I reacted. I will not sit around and allow anyone to ever speak to you like that.Ever.”
Her features took on an expression I couldn’t quite place when she nodded. I sighed and leaned back from her. “Except, the only part he’ll remember about that interaction is that I didn’t say anything. That I had to be protected by you. That I wasn’t capable of standing up for myself.”
I nodded. The sound of running footsteps padded down the hall right outside our door. Kids were laughing, and I knew if we could hear them, they could hear us too. I nodded towards our office and Penelope opened the door to it. We both stepped just inside the doorway and away from the main door that led to the hall.
“I’m sorry. I understand what you’re saying, but I think you’re wrong, Pep. I think he’ll remember that interaction as the last time he ever fucks with you, or any other woman, ever again.”
“Only because you were there,” she muttered. “What happens next time if you’re not there? What happens if I don’t get into UCLA and I have to keep working here? And you move on to go do your photography stuff and I’m alone?” She looked down at her feet.
There it is.
The truth. The real source of her distress. She had a brilliant way of beating around the bush. I’d never encountered anyone else with such a talent for it. I almost laughed. “Whoa, whoa, Pep. First of all, you already got accepted at Pepperdine, so you will not be working here next year. Second, even if you were, I’m not going anywhere.” I grabbed her chin, tilting her face up to meet mine. “I let you go once. You’re fucking crazy if you think I’m doing that again. I go where you go, baby. I’m right where you are.”
She deflated against the doorway, and her eyelashes fluttered a thousand miles an hour. “That scares me too,” she murmured. Before I could even process her statement, offer a response, and have a dreaded feeling about what she was saying, she continued, “The last time I tried to balance my love life and my academic life, everything around me fell apart horribly.” I opened my mouth to ask what she meant by that, but she shook her head. “I told you I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to have that balance. I only know how to make my entire life about my education, and my career, and my future. Right now, I feel like my entire life is you. And Iloveit. But I don’t know how to do both. I don’t know if going back to school is going to make me lose you.”
“Penelope, I don’t need to be your entire life, I just want to be a part of it.” I laughed. “Trust me when I tell you I know exactly what I am agreeing to here. I’ve seen you shut people out and live off granola bars for an entire week while you studied for your A.P. finals. I watched you chew your nails to the point of bleeding when you were waiting for your college acceptance letters.” I rubbed my thumb across her lips. “I saw the look on your face the first time we kissed, and I knew exactly how you felt about me. Then, I watched you leave anyway because you were determined to chase your dreams. I know what to expect being with you, and I accept all of it.
“Let me show you that you can have both. You can prioritize your education, and your career, and I will still be here. I’ll help you see that all of it has a place in your future, including me. You don’t have to choose. Never again. You will always,alwayshave me.”
The faintest of smirks clustered at the corner of her mouth. I matched it with my own as it morphed intomysmile. “I don’t know how you think I’m ever going to be focused on my studies when you’re saying things like that to me.”
