Chapter Text
It’s one night but they don’t end up dating.
Josie thinks it’s a shame because that night with Penelope was one of the best of her young, gay life. She can’t remember ever feeling so excited about her future as she felt when she thought her and Penelope could be something.
And it wasn’t that dramatic really. Just shortly after their night after the Tam, Josie got accepted to study abroad in Australia. And since the semester was ending her and Penelope decided staying friends would be easier than long distance.
When Josie returned for the Spring Semester, Penelope had graduated early and was moving to New York to do an internship with a literary agency. They only truly got to hang out for a few days before it was time for Penelope to say goodbye. And because Penelope was popular, that meant that her and Josie did not get to spend any of that time alone together.
Josie considered the green-eyed girl her one that got away. They never dated but they could have been something… important.
She did a good job pushing it from her brain the past semester. It wasn’t like she was incapable of living without Penelope. She went on dates with other people, saw a few guys and girls, lived her life like normal.
She just thought about Penelope every day.
Which is why she was excited for tonight. Tonight was MG’s senior week bash. Penelope had mentioned to Josie that she was going to be in town to walk with their class at graduation. Josie knows from instagram that Penelope is in town and staying at MG’s. Which only means one thing.
Josie bursts into her sister’s room, “I need to try to look hot tonight.”
Lizzie lazily looks up from the book she was reading, “Jo. Babe. Saltzman’s don’t try. They just do.”
So Josie heads to the party feeling like she’s at least a little in control of how the night’s going to go. She finds there’s nothing more reassuring than facing a night full of possibility while slightly drunk from a pregame and looking smoking.
She steps into the party and is immediately met with a mass of bodies. Being the most universally liked kid in school really made MG’s party’s epic and the fact that Kaleb was the cohost paired with the fact that it was senior week, made this specific party even more huge.
Josie loses her twin immediately so decides her best bet is to get a drink in her hand. It will make dealing with the crowd much more bearable.
She finds her way into the kitchen and is met with Jed and Kaleb and a crowd of people she sort of knows. She hugs the boys, then Jed turns to mix her a drink. “A drink for Jo! Our favorite little sugarplum,” he exclaims. Josie is glad to see they’ve been hitting the bottle hard. It will make for an interesting night.
“Thank you, King,” Josie smiles, leaning into the counter next to Kaleb who snorts. Josie warily eyes how much vodka Jed pours. It’s a lot. He mixes with some sort of fruit punch, then immediately begins pouring shots.
“Have you seen Peevs yet?” Josie’s bro scrunches before she clocks Kaleb’s shit-eating grin. Using context clues, she assumes Peevs is Penelope. Something nags in the back of her brain at that nickname but she can’t place what. She rolls her eyes.
“Not yet, is she around?” She hopes no desperation leaks into her voice.
Kaleb waves his hand vaguely before accepting a shot from Jed. “Somewhere,” he says, “but you have the whole night to see her, stay and drink with us.”
Jed hands Josie a shot and she’s never been one to turn down free liquor. The trio cheers and downs the shots. It’s terrible which makes Josie nostalgic. Jed immediately starts pouring another round.
“Are you nervous to be seeing your girl?” Kaleb asks, in his classic blunt manner.
Josie should probably lie. “Yes,” she admits, “but she’s not my girl.”
Kaleb grins at that and accepts Jed’s next outstretched shot. Josie accepts hers as well. Jed hires his glass in a sort of toast, “Keep telling yourself that,” he says, before downing his shot. Josie can’t help but smile before taking hers. “She was yours from the beginning. Everybody knew it.”
And Josie tries not to let the warmth that spreads from that show in her face. “You don’t know shit, Jed,” she says instead and the tall boy grins goofily.
He taps his temple with his pointer finger. “I know a thing or two about love.” Josie rolls her eyes as Kaleb and Jed continuing teasing her.
Against her better judgement, she stays with the two idiots for about 45 minutes, getting drunker by the second. Josie almost forgets that she should be nosily hunting for a glimpse of Penelope.
It’s Lizzie who finds the trio in the kitchen, drunker than skunks. “Josette, I did not lend you my party shirt for you to be sitting in here drinking the night away with Pinky and The Brain.”
“I’m The Brain!” Jed claims childishly.
Kaleb scoffs. “You know damn well that’s not at all what she meant.”
“And it looks like you three are drunker than appropriate,” Lizzie observes. Josie tries to shake her head no but it just causes her to spill her drink so she doubts it's very convincing. “Well, my idiot sister, your girl has been looking for you. I played her in pong and she did a scan of the room between every throw. A bit sad if you ask me.”
And once again Josie’s scalp tingles at having Penelope called her girl. It’s all very familiar. And the fact that she was looking for her puts air in her lungs. She should probably tone it down though.
Instead of demanding where Penelope is, Josie just smiles, a big goofy smile. “Which one? I have hundreds of bitches,” she deadpans.
Jed and Kaleb laugh while Lizzie tries to hold back a smirk of her own. She grabs Josie’s elbow, pulling her from the counter and causing her drink to spill once more. Josie giggles as Lizzie pushes her from the room. “Leave, and don’t return without a specific cold hearted bitch in tow.”
Josie goofily salutes her twin, then turns into the throng of the party.
All around her are people she vaguely knows. Some play drinking games, others dance to some expertly curated music, most just stand around and talk to the people they soon won’t see for the rest of their lives. Josie thinks some of them are desperately trying to force connections before it’s too late.
She gets it.
Isn’t that, after all, exactly what she’s doing now? Trying desperately to find Penelope so she can solidify something before the chance to run into her constantly is taken away?
Josie walks through the party with exclusively this on her mind, searching for green eyes and black glossy hair, and a smile that looks a bit like a baby turtle’s.
It’s a laugh that makes her stop. She would recognize Penelope’s laugh anywhere, even after a whole semester of not seeing her. She turns, and thinks she catches a glimpse of her before a figure is stepping into her line of sight.
Connor.
Josie regrets ever making out with him at a party last year. In her defense, she was drunk. And while he was normally a dick, he was being nice to her and he was kind of cute if you were drunk which she was and okay, she knows it wasn’t great, she’s super, super not proud of it. But that’s just how college goes, huh?
“Saltzman, looking dangerously hot,” he says looking her over. She rolls her eyes.
“Connor, now is a very bad time.” And Josie expects Connor to push back, due to his frat bro personality.
He surprises her, “No worries. I just wanted to say, if I don’t see you before graduation, good luck out there.”
Josie blinks in surprise. She knows she’s going to have a hangover tomorrow but it’s probably going to be worse than ever before if Connor is being kind to her with no additional motive in sight. “Thanks, you too,” she says, trying not to let her shock show.
Connor smiles, “Thanks. If you’re looking for your girl, she was going to go smoke with a group in Landon’s room,” Connor says. And that’s the third time someone has called Penelope her girl tonight. The third time she’s known without asking exactly who they’re talking about, third time a warm and familiar feeling has wormed its way into her stomach.
Josie doesn’t even try to brush it off this time. “Thanks, Connor.” He nods and opens his arms for one last goodbye hug, and because it’s Senior Week, Josie steps into it. She smiles one last time, before turning and walking away from Connor. Possibly forever. Gosh, graduating is weird.
Josie makes her way to the room she knows is Landon. She knocks lightly on the door before stepping in. Inside, the room is slightly hazy. Hope, Landon, Nia, Ryan, and Penelope all sit criss-cross on the floor, passing a joint around.
Josie’s chest flutters seeing Penelope again. Her breath tickles the top of her throat, ready to get caught but not quite catching. She figures when Penelope looks at her it will. “Hey, mind if I join?” she quietly asks.
Except when green eyes lift to her, there’s an anger behind them. And Josie doesn’t quite know what she’s done but she can tell that Penelope is downright pissed.
Penelope looked hot. She knew she did, she always did, but tonight in particular she looked great. She had on a new pair of mom jeans and a lacy tank and it was all very simple but Penelope Park made simple spectacular.
And she would never admit it, but she had put all this effort in for one reason and one reason only, Josie Saltzman. Because Penelope hadn’t seen the tall girl in three months but she had thought about her and stalked her instagram religiously.
She had spent a good amount of the party searching out brown eyes before being tapped on the shoulder.
She turned around and was met by blue. Hope Mikaelson. Penelope didn’t try to keep the smirk from her face.
“Park, looks like New York was too big and bad for you,” Hope greets, a grin on her face. And oh, how Penelope missed their bitchy banter. Penelope steps in for a quick hug.
“Please, God knows we’ll only be roommates for a week before you come running back to Boston where everything closes at 5, just before your bedtime.” Penelope teases. She was so excited to be living with Hope again. They had only not lived with each other for half a year and it had felt like too much for Penelope.
Hope Mikaelson was an important presence in her life. The only reason she wasn’t sleeping at her apartment this week is because she knew Hope would like some alone time with Landon before she spent the summer away from him, traveling with her aunt in Italy.
Hope rolls her eyes, “I’m tough.”
“Sure, Mikaelson.” Penelope smiles before turning her head to casually look around the room once more.
“Can’t find your girlfriend?” Hope asks. Or at least she thought she was being casual.
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Penelope says immediately. Hope looks unconvinced.
“But she once was mine, and judging by your facial expression that’s not a fact you love to remember,” Hope teases and Penelope can’t even say she’s wrong.
She’s always been a jealous bitch.
Penelope fake pouts, “Did you come over here just to be rude to me?” She asks and Hope laughs.
“Now who needs to toughen up? No, you baby, I came over here to employ you as my pong partner. We have one more chance to stake a claim as the best duo of all time.”
So Penelope finds herself playing pong with her best friend. Except they aren’t using beer, they’re using half and half shots, and Penelope is getting steadily better at beer pong as the night wears on.
They play MG and Nia, Connor and Ryan, and Lizzie and Landon (Lizzie yells at Landon for every shot he misses), before Dana and Sasha walk up to the table.
Penelope wants to quit immediately but Hope keeps her there with a look. Maybe Dana will be better.
“Penny, so good to see you, I’ve been thinking of you all semester,” Dana says. No dice.
Penelope plasters on her nicest smile. “Dana, Sasha, ready to lose?”
“Let’s talk our reward when we win.” Dana states. Sasha looks a bit embarrassed.
Penelope worries that this game will feel like a century long, opens her mouth to set the record straight. Hope steps in before Penelope can, “Let’s just play the game.”
Penelope and Hope win and Penelope decides that their reward is taking a break. Hope mentions that Landon has some weed for them and goes off to find him to smoke.
Penelope goes to walk to the kitchen for a glass of water when she feels a hand on her arm.
“Penny, wait.” Penelope gently pulls her arm from Dana’s arm, ready to cut this conversation short. “I wanted to catch up. Did you miss me in New York?” And Penelope can only take so much chasing before it’s just inappropriate.
“Look, Dana, I don’t know how much clearer I can be. You’re very pretty but I just am not interested.” A fire lights in Dana’s eyes and Penelope wishes she was a bit less bat shit crazy.
“I never could seem to piece together why you so willingly gave your heart to Saltzman.” And Penelope doesn’t love how easily the whole world seems to know that’s a fact. “What do you think will happen Penelope? You could have so much more than her.”
Penelope thinks about it. Knows she doesn’t owe Dana an honest answer but wants to give her one anyway. “There is no one that I can think of who is better than Josie Saltzman. Especially, but not limited to, myself,” she says quietly and stern.
Dana looks momentarily stunned by the blunt honesty. Then her jaw sets, and Penelope instinctively knows she won’t like whatever happens next. “If she’s so perfect then tell me, why did she hook up with Connor the second you left for New York?” Dana asks. Penelope’s tipsy brain spins a bit. “And look, it seems like they’re still involved.”
Dana points over her shoulder and Penelope turns, getting her first glimpse of Josie since being back in Boston. Against her will, her heart swells, before she notices that Josie is smiling softly at someone and that someone is in fact Connor. As she watches, Josie and Connor hug and Penelope realizes that maybe Dana isn’t lying. Because Josie would never hug Connor unless she knew him a little better than she did when Penelope left.
“Little miss sunshine seems to have a bit of a cruel streak,” Dana tacks on, to drive the point home.
Penelope closes her eyes then turns her body away from Connor and Josie. “This doesn’t change the fact that I am not interested in sleeping with you and I don’t think I ever will be.” Penelope says. “I wish you the best Dana,” with that she turns on her heel and walks into Landon’s room, closing the door on Dana, hopefully for good.
A small group has gathered to split the blunt. Penelope sits on the floor between Landon and Hope. “Are you okay?” Hope asks. Was she okay?
“Did Josie hooks up with Connor?” And the look on Hope’s face says it all. Penelope nods and plucks the joint from her friends hand, taking a deep pull and trying desperately to not be as dramatic as she wishes she could be.
She has no right to be but she can’t help feeling a bit pissed at Josie. The other girl owes nothing to her but Penelope wanted so desperately to belong to Josie only to find out that she was out and about having a good time here without her. With fucking Connor.
She hates herself for how not-feminist these thoughts were. Josie was a free woman and could hook up with whatever stupid fucking pricks she wanted to. It was not up to Penelope.
She just couldn’t stop the embarrassment that came with getting her hopes up like a dumbass. And being embarrassed made her angry, so here she was, angrily smoking a joint.
A knock on the door grabs everyone else’s attention. Penelope tries to keep her eyes down in case it’s Dana, back again for round five billion.
Instead, a soft, “Hey, mind if I join?” Makes her eyes dart to the door. Josie looks so goddamn pretty. She’s in a sparkly gray crop top tank and red pants and red is definitely her color and Penelope is high so she can’t stop her thoughts but truly she is mad at the entire situation.
How dare Josie be so hot and also have such a strong hold on her? Not at all fair. So she glares at Josie. And the hurt in Josie’s eyes when she notices does nothing at all to help the situation.
Luckily, Hope speaks up, “Of course Jo!” So Josie takes a seat between Nia and Hope. Penelope tries not to make eye contact.
They all pass the blunt for a while, chatting quietly about random things. Mainly the new Addams Family trailer and whether or not they think it will be good.
Penelope can feel Josie trying to catch her eye.
They smoke through a few blunts before Penelope stands up, her legs slightly wobblier than before. She gives everyone a salute, saying, “Bathroom,” as she leaves. She really just needs to get out of the same room as Josie.
She makes it about halfway across the next room before a hand wraps its way around her wrist. She tells herself that the tingling it causes is strictly a side affect of the pot.
“Pen, wait,” and there’s that nickname, and that voice, and everything about this kid made her heart do backflips. So she turns back around because what more can she do?
“Hey,” she says softly. Josie’s eyebrows knit in confusion.
“Hey?” She asks. “That’s it, just hey? Are you mad at me or something?”
And how do you tell your friend who you’ve always wanted to be more that you’re mad at them for hooking up with someone they were 100 percent in the right for hooking up with? By saying it out-loud evidentally.
“No. I mean yes. I mean, are you sleeping with Connor?” Penelope just lets it fall from her mouth without much thought. Substances loosen the lips or whatever.
Josie looks dumbstruck for a minute and Penelope thinks maybe they’re both too inebriated to be having this conversation.
The taller girl opens her mouth to speak but before she can get too far, Lizzie steps up to them,
“Hey. Jed is dumb drunk and so are you two probably knowing you, so we’re all going to Denny’s. Grab Mikaelson and her floppy haired gremlin,” the blonde girl demands. She doesn’t wait for an answer, stomping off to gather more of their friends.
Penelope turns back to Josie, hoping she’ll answer her question but instead she looks confused. So she sighs and goes back to pull Landon and Hope to Denny’s.
Because sure, she’s jealous, but fuck could she mess up some pancakes.
Josie is a bit confused sitting in the booth at Denny’s. But truly, what else is new? When it comes to Penelope Park she feels like the only thing she’s ever been sure of is how easy it is with Penelope. How natural it feels to be with her. Everything else is a downright mystery.
Like how Penelope found out she made out with Connor. And why she’s this angry about it. And why even though she hasn’t seen her for a while, being in the same room as Penelope made her heart feel complete, even thought the other girl was pissed at her.
But she couldn’t be pissed at her, that wasn’t fair. And yet if Penelope had made out with Connor, Josie knew she wouldn’t like that. She got it.
It’s just hard to explain to Penelope that the only reason she made out with Connor was because she was such a hot mess that her best friend and possible love of her life wasn’t in Boston when she got back.
How could she tell Penelope that she spent the whole year thinking about her without seeming like a downright fool? She couldn’t. At least not in her cross faded state.
She pours all of this out to MG while they wait for their Grand Slamwiches. He tries his hardest to follow along. Josie steals near constant glances at Penelope who is up ordering at the counter with Hope.
“Ugh I just… I really like her MG…” She whines drunkenly. MG just smiles his billion watt smile. He opens his mouth to speak but only laughs. It’s Jed’s drunk ass who leans over.
“Yeah, we been knew, okay? We all said you guys would be great together.” Josie pouts at that.
“You have all been talking about me behind my back? That… s’not nice.” She slurs, her sadness amplified by her incredibly high BAC.
“Not behind your back. We said it in front of your face,” MG defends.
“When?”
“Extra Cosmic Jungle Party,” MG states.
“Yeah that party where Kaleb threw up in the bushes afterwards, remember?” Jed snorts and then burps. Josie scrunches her nose.
“Keep my name out your mouth.” Kaleb chooses this moment to plop into the booth next to Jed. “What are y’all talking about?” He asks.
“That time when we all thought Peevs and Jo were dating,” MG giggles like this is the funniest thing he’s ever said. Kaleb and Jed join in.
“Oh man that was really funny that night,” Kaleb laughs.
Suddenly, their teasing voices seem to fade out. It’s just Josie and her drunk brain, locked into what feels strongly like a That’s So Raven vision dream sequence. She can only assume that’s how she looks to a person not on this mental journey she is taking at 3:00 am in a Denny’s.
Penelope is Peevs. Penelope Park. Peevs Park. Josie remembers that party now. She remembers the teasing and the multiple people who genuinely thought her and the black-haired girl standing at the counter were dating.
She remembers a warmness in her heart being called ‘Park’s Girl,’ even before she knew at all the effect Penelope would have over every single aspect of her life.
She remembers green eyes and almost heading back into a subpar party.
All of these memories come swimming to the forefront of Josie’s mind, slowed by the alcohol and hard to comprehend. Her face must be reflecting this spiritual journey because she’s suddenly pulled out of it by a hand on her shoulder.
She looks up into Lizzie’s concerned blue eyes and relaxes a fraction of an inch. Lizzie makes most things make sense.
“Hey Drunky, you good?” Her twin asks, and Josie doesn’t know how to answer.
“I don’t know.”
“Well fear not my little String Bean, the pancakes will soak up most of the alcohol. And if you feel the urge to purge before they get here, the bathroom is right over there,” Lizzie explains, in her dramatically matter-of-fact Lizzie way. If Josie weren’t freaking out she would have found it hilarious.
“Lizzie. Penelope is Park.”
Lizzie stares at her like she lost every single last one of her marbles. Maybe she finally has.
“Josette, what the fuck are you talking about?” Lizzie demands.
Josie cannot even begin to try to explain. Luckily, and ever the hero, MG chimes in.
“The party! When we made out. That was fun, let’s do that again actually sometime, if you want.” MG seems to lose his train of thought. Lizzie gives him a pointed glare until he catches on and continues, “Everyone thought Josie was Peev’s new girlfriend.”
Understanding washes over Lizzie’s face and Josie could cry, she’s so relieved. Lizzie snorts.
“Everyone and their brother knew you guys would have the hots for each other before you did.”
Almost as if it was destined. As if the cosmos knew that Penelope and Josie belonged together and just clued everyone else in before them.
And Josie has a sudden and profound moment of clarity. She has never been more sure of what she has to do next than she is in that exact moment. Around her, her sister and their friends continue to tease her for being so clueless but she barely processes it.
When Josie stands up with a vigorous purpose, Lizzie, worriedly, places a hand on her arm. “Jo, where are you going?” She asks, “To do something stupid?”
Josie shakes her head. “I think this is the smartest thing I’ll ever do.” And Lizzie must read something in her eyes.
“Josie, no…”
“Josie yes,” And the brunette twin turns and almost bowls someone over.
Like fate.
All of a sudden, Penelope is standing in front of her with Hope at her side, their eyes darting between Lizzie’s concerned face, MG, Landon, and Kaleb’s amused states and Josie with her literal heart shining through her eyes.
Josie can’t help but notice how beautiful Penelope looks right now, her short hair half pulled up onto the top of her head so some strands escape to cover the back of her neck. Her eyeliner is smudged the tiniest bit, her brows pulled together, hating how she feels like she’s missing something.
Josie can’t remember seeing a prettier person in her entire life.
“Josie yes, what?” Penelope asks, almost annoyed by feeling left out, “What’s going on.”
“You’re Park. It’s you.”
This only seems to confuse Penelope more. “That is my name, yes,” she confirms. And for some reason that chases the last little fleck of doubt from Josie’s heart.
Josie Saltzman was not a sure person, but this is the surest she had ever and will ever feel. So she doesn’t question it, can’t imagine questioning something that’s calling to her heart so loudly.
Instead of panicking like normal, she just goes with the flow and gets down on one knee.
“Penelope Peevs Park, will you marry me?”
If Josie were looking around, she would see that her twin’s jaw was on the ground. She would see that Hope’s eyebrows were up past her hairline. She would see that Jed, MG, and Kaleb had all stood up from their chairs, clutching each other like they were watching the final 15 seconds of a tied NBA playoffs.
But she wasn’t looking around. She was looking at Penelope, so instead she was treated to a myriad of emotions painted on Penelope’s face. First the confusion, then the words seemed to sink in and the shock took over, then a brief flash of fear before working through what read as denial, an internal self assurance that she must have heard wrong.
Josie loves her. Like truly loves her. She thinks she has forever. It feels like the love lives in her bones or something, making every part of her buzz.
Oh god she was very drunk wasn’t she? The thought makes her laugh to herself.
She sobers herself, tuning back into Penelope Park, the girl she loved. God she looked so pretty. And now she was opening her perfect mouth. Josie sucked in a breath, ready to see what would happen next.
“I’m sorry what?”
Penelope didn’t remember doing crack that night. But she thinks she just witnessed Josie getting down on one knee and proposing to her so somewhere along the way she must have done crack right?
Because what was happening?
“I said I want you to marry me,” Josie says, and there it is again. And Josie’s eyes are so big and beautiful and swimming with hope that this must all be a fever dream.
But Jed wouldn’t be in her dreams. And they wouldn’t be in a Denny’s so this must be real, right? But also, what the fuck? How was this real?
IT MUST BE A JOKE. That made sense, Josie was joking, and Penelope was ruining it by being too drunk and making things weird. She let’s out a quick laugh to cover up her failings. “Good one, sure, let’s get married.”
And she expects a laugh from Josie and the rest of their friends but is instead met with a confused puppy-dog face.
“I’m not joking, I’m dead serious.” And that makes no sense.
“Why?” She needs to know why. And also what. What is happening.
“Because I think we should get married,” Josie says like it’s the most logical thing of all time. Like proposing to someone drunk at 3:00 am in a Denny’s before you’ve even graduated college is a classic situation.
Penelope’s a bit pissed to be honest. She was already mad at Josie and now this was happening. She was supposed to be the train wreck of the two of them. “You can’t propose to me.”
“Why not?” And she had her there. Penelope didn’t really know what to say to that.
“Because… you don’t have a ring.” Logic.
Josie looks around finding a discarded straw wrapper on the ground. She picks it up and wraps it into a small circle, holding it out to Penelope like a sacrifice.
“We’re too young.”
“Plenty of people have gotten married before 22. And we could have a long engagement,”
Penelope looks around. Willing anyone else to step in. She can’t tell how much time has passed since Josie asked the question but her brain sure is tired trying to keep up on its own. No one seems to be ready to defend her case. All of their friends were watching with intense interest.
That’s when Penelope realizes, her most logical argument, “We aren’t even dating,” she says triumphantly.
Josie huffs in annoyance. Penelope thinks now’s not the time to think Josie looks adorable pissed off but she can’t really stop her brain.
Josie stands up and steps towards her. She reaches out and grabs her hand, half in reassurance, half to steady her drunken wobble. She looks so pretty and Penelope isn’t sure whether she herself is scared or madly in love.
It’s probably both if she’s being real.
“I think I loved you when you said Josie the Scientist sounded like a feminist children’s book,” Josie states, and Penelope’s heart gets lodged in her throat. The taller girl continues, “That day on the boat, I should have been crushed. Instead, when I went home that night all I could think about was watching the movie Holes. No offense Hope.” She turns worried eyes onto her ex-fling.
“None taken, and once again sorry,” The red head supplies. She does a hand motion as if to say, ‘Carry on.’ Josie grins at her before turning back to Penelope.
“I wanted to kill Dana every single time we were at the Tam. I actually flipped her the bird behind your back once,” Josie states, a bit guilty. Behind her Lizzie lets out a quiet cheer. Josie pushes on, “And you were jealous of Connor because you thought we had slept together.”
“So you didn’t sleep with Connor.”
“Ew, no.” Penelope can’t help but smile at that and Josie points at the smile, eyebrows raising high, delighted that Penelope is proving her point.
“See!” Penelope lets the smile fall from her face so Josie continues on. “We were each other’s before we even knew each other. Everyone else thought so too. I had about twelve people ask me if I was your girlfriend at a party I was at even before we met.”
And suddenly Penelope remembers a murky night a few years ago. Bringing an old fling, Tyler, to a party and having several people ask her where her twin was. It all finally clicks. Penelope feels an overwhelming sense of relief, as if she had been trying to remember something for three years and she finally got it.
“If that’s not fate, I don’t know what it is.”
And Josie is making a lot of solid points here. Logically this shouldn’t make any sense. Penelope is a planner, she has a vision for how her life is going to go. This was not part of the vision.
But, potentially because of the substance abuse, she feels like she wants it to be.
“I don’t know Jojo,” she says and at this point Josie is annoyed. She starts to get whiney, not happy with how resistant to her life-changing realization Penelope is.
“Why not?” She demands for a final time.
“Because what if Puddles gets jealous. I mean, sure, we were low-key. But I don’t know if we were this low-key.”
Josie looks dumbfounded for a long moment, then she smiles.
“Penelope, will you marry me?”
“The knee, Jo,” she reminds. Josie quickly gets on one knee again.
“Penelope, will you marry me?”
“The ring.” Josie pulls out her folded up straw wrapper, holding it up to Penelope.
“Penelope Park, will you pretty please marry me?” And the sincerity in Josie’s eyes does something crazy to Penelope’s heart.
“Okay, fine.” The smile that takes over Josie’s face is blinding and Penelope thinks she wouldn’t mind seeing it for forever.
Just as a parade of pancakes are being delivered to their table, Josie stands up and wraps her arms around Penelope’s neck. Penelope doesn’t waste time in connecting their lips. And it’s only been a year since they did this, but she can’t seem to fathom how she survived without it.
Their friends cheer around them as they make out in the Denny’s and Penelope can’t remember ever feeling this content.
The group surrounds them passing around hugs. Hope and Lizzie both wrap their arms around the hugging pair.
“You know you guys aren’t actually engaged, right?” Hope asks, a giant grin on her face.
“Yeah, this is insane, you guys are just drunk,” Lizzie supplies, and Josie’s smile is nothing but gigantic and dopey.
“Nope, not true,” Josie says happily. And God is she pretty.
And sure, maybe they are drunk, and maybe they’ll decide in the morning to have a redo. But Penelope doubts it. Doubts she will ever feel anything but delighted when remembering the unorthodox way in which they ended up together.
Because she didn’t care if it made conventional sense, this was her and Josie. Nothing about her relationship with the brown-eyed girl ever obeyed the laws of the universe.
Which is why, a year or so later, Penelope Park goes on her very first date with her wife. Simple as breathing, easy as pie.