Work Text:
Penny / Jerome
1249 Words
♡
Although Penny hadn't taken orders from her mother for a decade, 3:00 A.M. was still the cutoff bedtime for all her friends at the sleepover that she had thrown. Everyone had split into their own rooms, and for a while it was silent -
Penny had almost completely fallen asleep when she heard quiet crying. It surprised her that she could even hear it, but it was the least of her worries. Even though she didn't consider herself to be "broken" anymore, she had still retained some of her unnatural senses from her times. It concerned her that one of her friends was probably doing so poorly mentally that they were crying at her party. She opened her eyes and climbed down from her bunk, being careful to not disturb Carla and Lily.
Carefully, she opened the door while keeping her eyes fixiated on the other girls in the room, not wanting to wake them all up. She would have thought that everyone would be asleep by now.
Stepping out into the hallway, she suddenly picks up on more sounds: the unmistakable sound of pacing back and forth, added to the muffled sniffling. Slowly, she crept down the hallway and stopped outside of the spare room next to the stairs, where her family kept extra clothes.
The voice behind the door was unmistakably a male's, and right away Penny had an idea on who it might be. Jerome, her boyfriend. Penny remembered that graduation was coming up soon, and that Jerome had no family who could come and see him receive his diploma; his father had been dead for years and his mother was in jail.
Sure enough, in the dim light of the small lamp inside, Penny could see Jerome with his head to his knees and sobbing quietly, with one hand on a pile of clothes; she finally decided to knock on the door.
"Jerome? You're awake?" Penny whispered with concern. "What's wrong baby?"
Sighing, he replied, "Well, it started with Buggs daring me to steal the girl's overnight bags, but neither of us are agile enough for that. I figured that I could at least look around for a little bit, but then I–" His breath suddenly choked out, and he collapsed into Penny's chest.
"Oh god! What happened?" Penny asked, trying her hardest to support him back up. "I don't want you to be so upset, you can tell me what's wrong..."
"W-When I was looking through here...," Pausing again, he takes a deep breath, "I found this dress, and it looked exactly like the one that my mom stole when she got caught. And now...she can't see me graduate next week." He broke into a dry sob again.
"Then Billy brought food from his dad for us, and I know he didn't mean to do anything, but it just hurt."
Jerome stared at the floor in dismay. His eyes were red and wet, and his breathing speed had increased by quite a lot. "I've been trying to just sleep for hours, but I just can't calm down, and I couldn't go back to them."
Penny finally cut him off, and immediately she wrapped her arms around him. "I'm so sorry. It's okay. I feel that way too about my mom and I want you to know you're not alone."
"Thanks.., but what can you do? What can anyone even do, all I do is cry about stupid things and soil other people's good times. I don't even know why I was invited anymore–'
"No, I invited you because I love you, and I wanted you to be here. Can you come here with me?"
Surprised, he stared at Penny. "What? Really?"
"Yes. You can come back with me, everyone's asleep. Just don't step on anyone." With that, she took his hand in hers and lead him back to her room quietly.
Jerome nodded and followed her, then climbed up her bedframe and laid next to his love. Bent awkwardly due to his height, he arched his legs and laid down on his back, taking in a shaky breath.
Penny underestimated how much space was actually in her top bunk, as she was about to fall off the side. Quietly, she angled herself towards Jerome and propped herself up. However, she felt suddenly worried about him again. He was still breathing unnaturally fast, and his shoulders were tensed even though he was laying down.
"Baby.." Penny whispered, putting her hand on his chest, above his overworked heart.
She saw his tired eyes meet hers, and she remembered how bad his anxiety and PTSD could be.
"I think you're having an anxious overload right now," she stated, based on the qualities he was exerting. She guessed that the stress from today must have built up the whole night.
Jerome nodded, his eyes still large, wet, and scared. Penny felt her own heart thump with how concerned she was; she moved her hand over his heart and whispered softly to him.
"Look at me, and breathe." Penny asked, although she knew that Jerome was already staring at her.
He took a sharp breathe in through his nose, and with Penny's soft whispers of the ideal intervals, his breathing started to stifle into a constant pattern.
"I hope that helped," she mumbled. The position she was laying in was uncomfortable, but she didn't want to get to close to him and scare him again.
"Do you feel any better?"
"A little. Thanks again." Jerome whispered.
"I think this might also help too. My mom told me it would. I should give you a massage."
Jerome nodded, bowing his head in thanks.
"Oh, I think you might want to take off your shirt." she blushed.
Compling, he took his shirt off and let it fall of the bunk. Why not let have Penny have some explaining to do to her friends?
She shifted as quietly as she could on the bunk, trying to straddle his thighs as discreetly as she could. Almost immediately, she placed her hands on his back and got to work.
She started at the top of his back, near his neck and shoulders; her fingers sought out the knots in his muscles and massaged the tense areas. When she found a knot, she pressed harder against his dark skin until the knot released. Jerome stifled his groans into the pillow as his stress escaped him.
Her hands drifted lower along his back, still consistently rubbing new sources of tension that Jerome didn't even know about until Penny's fingers made them known.
In fact, Jerome was surprised and appreciative of the strength in Penny's arms. When she was sure that his breathing had slowed to a healthy pace and his back didn't arch like a cat's, she moved off her position.
Jerome sighed in disbelief and watched as Penny cuddled closer to him in exhaustion. He rubbed the hurt out of her arms with small whispers. Neither of them felt a need to talk anymore. Penny listened in on Jerome's heartbeat and he listened to her soft breathing, running his fingers through her smooth hair.
Penny felt herself about to drift into sleep. She thought of her own mother as well as Jerome's family too, reminding herself how lucky she was to have him, and how nice and relaxing it was to be in his arms.
"Goodnight.." she whispered
That time, Jerome didn't reply, as he had finally fell asleep.