My Calamity

I watched Penelope talk to Ben and Tallulah, and I had to smile. The way she delivered conversation was easy; she made things comfortable. In the beginning, I was a little hesitant on taking her to lunch with them but now I saw no reason. I realized my apprehension was uncalled for, Ben seemed to like Penelope.

After Penelope's art class, the one where she drew nude guys, I picked her up and met Ben and Tallulah at the town diner. I had called Ben the night before, after our date, to see if he was busy. He wasn't which was surprising because he and Tallulah were always off doing couple-things.

After we all finished eating, Ben and I split the bill while Penelope and Tallulah walked ahead of us chatting in hushed tones about what I was unsure. As I was slipping my wallet into my back pocket, Ben appeared beside me, and said, "She's good for you."

"I'm glad you approve."

Ben ignored my jab and continued. "She's getting off well with Lula too."

I cringed at the use of his pet name for Tallulah, but nodded my head nonetheless. "Yeah."

We walked silently after the girls, leaving a good five paces between us. I felt Ben's incessant staring and turned to look at him. "Hm," was all he said.

"What?" I snapped.

"Nothing."

"No, it's not nothing. Go ahead and say it."

Ben gave me a side smile. "You love her, don't you?"

I stopped abruptly; the question rendering me shocked, and then resumed walking. Ben waited patiently for my reply, his eyes staring straight ahead at Penelope and Tallulah who were deep in conversation. "I don't know, sometimes it feels like I do but it's too soon isn't it?"

"You can't define how long it takes to fall in love."

"Philosophical Ben."

"You're only mocking me because you know it's true."

"I guess that's true."

"So you do love her?"

"Why so curious?"

"I wanna' know when you're going to tell her?"

"I'm not."

"Why?"

"Because she doesn’t feel the same way, and I'm not going to pressure her to feel that way. It’s a miracle she's dating me, I'm not pushing my luck."

"Why's that?"

"Why's what?"

"Why is it a miracle you're dating her? It's not like you're bad looking, not as good as me, but close."

I gave Ben a short shove before answering his question. "She's not a relationship person. She's never even dated before."

"You sure about that?"

I stopped. "Yeah, I'm sure about that. Why? You heard otherwise?"

Ben ushered me to keep walking, and I did but I stared at the side of his face waiting for an answer. "I heard she dated Jackson Ryder."

"What?"

Ben shrugged his shoulders. "It's just a rumor, let it go. Nobody believes any of it."

"Any of it? Is there more you're not telling me?"

Ben didn't say anything, and I knew there was more. A good part of me wanted to know exactly what that was, but another part of me knew it wasn't my business. It was the fact Penelope had lied though. I didn't see why she would lie.

"Ben, what else is there?"

"You sure you wanna' know? It's seriously a stupid rumor."

"Yes, I want to know."

"Apparently they slept together too. And right afterward Jackson dumped her."

My head moved slowly from Ben to Penelope who was laughing with Tallulah. She didn't seem like the girl to just give it away, she had made it very clear she wasn't into dating, but here she had dated Jackson Ryder, the worst kid at our school and slept with him.

But he had broken her heart, and that made a whole lot of sense.