Chapter Text
"Josie, I can't even remember the last time you had a date or acted on your feelings for someone. Why not just try it out?
Hope, one of Josie's best friends, is completely right. Josie is 18 years old and hasn't been in an official relationship yet. Like, ever. Unless you can count fifth-grade flings as official, then Josie might have an ex or two. It's not the like taller girl was a loner or anything, or like she never had people try to be with her, she just was more focused on her schoolwork and thought the people that she liked were way out of her league. She was wrong, but that's still beside the point.
The point is that now Josie has to see everyone cozied up while she's alone. Her sister usually hangs out with their best friend, MG, and Hope talks to people all of the time so she always has someone to tag along with her, even if it's nothing serious. Josie is alone outside of her small friend group, and university doesn't treat her the same as high school.
"Okay... I'll make a profile. But if this goes sideways it's on you. Gosh, this better not turn out to be humiliating," Josie sighs while she downloads the new dating app that's trending, Match Me. With the help of Hope, the profile is done relatively quickly and Josie matches about 10 people- though after Hope snatches her phone saying she 'needs to do a friendly takeover' already, she goes to sleep with about 80.
Still awake, Penelope Park creates her profile. She doesn't have anyone helping her or encouraging her to get out there, in fact, if her cousin Jed was present he'd be telling her to slow down. But Penelope does what she wants when she wants.
Scrolling aimlessly through the app while sipping on a wine cooler she manages to come across Josie Saltzman's profile. Interests including singing, writing, learning. That's different.
"Hm. Cute girl."
"Who?" Penelope's close friend Kaleb says, plopping down next to her on the couch. They're currently hanging out at Penelope's apartment looking for something to do, they were so bored that the girl decided she'd make a profile but Kaleb decides to opt out of dating app shenanigans, he prefers to give random girls around town pick up lines and seeing their reaction. Fair enough.
"None of your business," She sticks her tongue out. "Let's start the movie." She snatches the popcorn from him and they continue their Scary Movie marathon, eventually falling asleep across her couch.
Josie wakes up due to her alarm blaring in her ear and she scolds herself for not remembering to turn it off last night. "Fuck, what time is it?" She reaches for her phone to check the time and stop the alarm and notices all of her notifications, she has a lot of messages from match me. It's only 8 am on a Friday and her class doesn't start until 10 so she decides to go through some of them, maybe she'll finally land a date.
As she's scrolling something catches her eye. A girl named Penelope Park matched with her but didn't send a message. Hm. She has a nice lob, smooth skin, a very nice facial structure. Josie decides to message her first- what's the worst that can happen?
Two hours later Josie is regretting her decision. Penelope hasn't responded or even looked at the message yet and she probably thinks Josie is annoying, or dry, or absolutely lame. All the girl said was "Hi, I like your hair." Who even says that? I like your hair?
Just as she was about to delete the app Penelope replies, "Hey, thanks. I like your face!"
Josie blushes as she reads the message, wondering what she should say next. She decides to go with thanks and sends Penelope her number, telling her that she'll see the messages quicker there. To be honest she just wants the girl to have her number. Penelope sends her a text and they hit it off from there- the hazel-eyed beauty is very flirty. Josie likes it, it's new.
She spends all day texting the shorter girl and is so distracted during her second class that Lizzie has to remind her its a lecture. She scolds Josie for investing so much hope into the new girl and the fact that they met through a dating app, but Josie doesn't care. She ignores her twin and continues texting Penelope anyway.
Speaking of, the olive-tone girl is messaging Josie every chance she gets in between work. She works at the Salvatore school with her aunt Emma and cousin Jed, so the day is pretty busy. The Salvatore school is for the supernatural- witches, vampires, werewolves and whatever comes in between. The Parks are witches, well, with the exception of Jed- he's actually a hybrid, half witch half werewolf. Penelope always teases him and calls him a dog but she actually admires him a lot, furry transformation and all.
"Pen, snap out of it. Could you actually help me plan this lesson, or are you just going to stay on your phone all day?" Jed rolls his eyes and throws a balled up piece of paper at his cousin.
"Hmm..." Penelope tilts her head and pretends to actually think about it. "The latter, thanks for asking!"
"Okay, who is it? They've really thrown you for a loop."
Grinning, the shorter girl shows Jed a picture of Josie and explains how they've been talking non-stop. "She's really pretty, right? And smart! She's so smart," she gushes.
"Yeah..." He replies eyebrow raised. "Well that's great, Pen, I'm happy for you. I know you haven't talked about anyone in that way in a while."
Penelope ignores her cousin's comment and starts working on the class plan for next week, silently changing the subject. Jed knows he's poked a sore spot so he drops it too, squeezing Penelope's shoulder. Though she's dropped it and is working on her plan, the girl is thinking about what Jed said. She hasn't been this excited to talk to anyone since she was with her ex.. and well, that didn't work out. She feels a bit defeated like she's taken a blow and can't help but think about if Josie is like her ex but she eventually convinces herself that there's only one way to find out.
"I'm gonna ask her out."
"What?"
"I'm asking Josie out," Penelope declares and takes her phone out to ask the girl.
"Like right now?"
"No time better than the present, cousin."
It's actually the perfect moment for Penelope to ask. The last message from Josie read "At least take me on a date first," because Penelope had teased about her lips hurting and needing Josie to kiss them- god, it's like everything she does falls into place so perfectly. The shorter girl replies to Josie and tells her that she'd love to take her out- this Friday. Thankfully she agrees and Penelope honestly can't stop smiling.