Chapter Text
“Do you want to join me and my family and Aubrey Hall this summer? It would just be for a week or two. ”
The question catches Penelope off guard, she’s only known Eloise for a few months and they’ve been best friends essentially since the moment they met. There had been a sort of unspoken agreement from their first conversation that they were going to stick together, and that’s what they’ve been doing. Sitting together in every class, always spending lunch and break together, and then studying at El’s house after school. In the span of a few months, Penelope’s gone from being the lonely new girl to having the sister she’s always wanted, and she couldn’t be more grateful.
But hanging out at someone’s house for a few hours after school is very different from going to their family’s holiday home.
“I don’t know, El,” she frowns hesitantly. “I don’t want to intrude.”
“You wouldn’t be intruding,” her best friend defends instantly. “It can’t be an intrusion if you’re literally invited.”
It’s a good point, but Penelope still can’t make herself accept, there’s still a nagging sensation in the back of her mind telling her she shouldn’t be there. “But that’s your time with your family-”
“All the more reason for you to come,” Eloise insists casually. “You know how desperately I need to get away from my family sometimes, you can save me from the madness!”
“ You’re mad.”
“Rude,” El retorts without actually denying it. It makes Penelope smile. “Come on, Pen, it’ll be fun! We can show you pall mall!”
“Pall what?”
“Pall mall, it’s a game me and my siblings play every year. I think I’ve told you about it before- you know, it’s a tiny bit like croquet? Anthony has his mallet of death? It’s a bit of a tradition,” Eloise explains with a maniacal glint in her eyes that Pen doesn’t quite trust. “It’ll be great to have a new player- just a heads up- you might be referred to as fresh meat, ignore that. We’re a competitive bunch.”
Oh, Penelope is perfectly aware of that fact. She’s been in P.E with Eloise before, but more than that, she’s been at multiple Bridgerton family game nights since moving in across the street. She’s seen Monopoly boards get flung across the room (they’ve never managed to finish a game without one, or all, of the siblings rage quitting), watched poor Gregory get a twisted ankle over a rather aggressive round of twister (Violet promptly banned the game after that incident), hell, even she has the tiniest scar on her hand from when Anthony accidentally scratched her in the middle of a game of spoons (he’d been absolutely mortified and still apologises for that to this day).
They’ve never touched Uno, and Penelope is certain that they’re all better off for it. She’s watched that bloody game end friendships, who knows what it would do to the Bridgertons. Pen’s actually fairly certain that someone would die.
She imagines them all together in Aubrey Hall, playing Pall Mall, laughing and celebrating whichever sibling’s victory. It’s a lovely thought, but when Penelope tries to put herself into the image, she finds herself entirely out of place. She loves the Bridgertons, and she would give anything to be a part of their family, but she’s not. And she shouldn’t be invading their time together.
“El, it’s really sweet of your family to invite me. And I appreciate it, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want to impose.”
“You wouldn’t be imposing,” comes her best friend’s instant response. “My family literally loves you.”
Penelope feels herself pause at that. It’s a wonderful idea that makes her heart warm, but she’s not quite sure how true it is. Ever since Pen first came to their house, they’ve taken her under their wing, and she appreciates it more than words can say. Honestly, she’s probably spent more time at their house than her own. There’s a place for her at the dinner table every night. The Bridgertons are what Penelope’s always thought a family should be, and nothing like her actual family. It’s nice to think that they might actually care about her and want her around in a capacity that isn’t limited to her being El’s best friend, but then she remembers her mother’s voice.
“Really, Penelope, you are very lucky that those Bridgertons are willing to put up with you so much for that girl’s sake.”
Penelope doesn’t want her mum to be right, but she can’t shake the feeling that she is.
“I’m sure your family likes me just fine,” she says with a smile because, yeah, that at the very least is true. She’s fairly certain the Bridgertons don’t have any issues with her. “But they definitely put up with me as much as they do for you, since I’m your best friend and all.”
“I wouldn’t say that, I’m pretty sure my mum and my siblings just genuinely like you,” El tells her before frowning. “Colin definitely likes you.”
“W-what?”
Colin. The Bridgerton that Pen is most definitely in love with, and has been since the moment they met. Actually, Colin was the first Bridgerton that she met. It had been a few days after she and her family moved in, the ghastly yellow hat her mum had forced on her flew straight into his face as he skateboarded by, knocking him into a puddle of mud. Her heart dropped, she ran straight over to him babbling an unintelligible apology, but to her surprise, he just laughed. And the moment Penelope heard it she fell in love. Eloise is her best friend in the entire world, obviously, but Colin never fails to bring a blush to her face and butterflies to her stomach, even when he’s not there.
Case and point, this conversation. Luckily. Eloise doesn’t seem to notice. “Oh yeah, he really likes you. He’s always nice to you.”
“He’s nice to everyone, El.”
“Except his own siblings,” she grumbles, drawing a giggle out of Pen. “But it’s different with you. Whenever Daphne or Fran have friends over, he says hi and that’s about it, he actually goes out of his way to talk to you.”
The idea of Colin thinking about her enough to go out of his way to speak to her makes Penelope feel like her heart is going to flip out of her chest. He’s always been nice to her, they have lots of nice conversations whenever she stays for dinner, and he’s always a little bit protective over her during game nights. Penelope still remembers the way Colin had demanded Anthony apologise to her that night he scratched it. He had, immediately of course, his face full of shame, but Colin hadn’t deemed the apology good enough. She hadn’t even been that bothered by the whole thing, but he’d been so insistent it got to the point where she had to tell him that she’d accepted the apology, she was fine, and ask him to drop it. He still glared at his older brother for the rest of the night. Until that moment, if you’d asked her if she thought Colin was protective, with the exception of his siblings, her answer would have been a resounding no. He’s always been so easy going, she wouldn’t have been able to imagine him acting like that for anyone but his family. The fact that she’s seen that side of him come out over her is still something she can’t fully believe. So yeah, Colin has always been nice to her which has been a dream come true, but it’s never once occurred to her that he’s been making a real effort to get to know her. Penelope’s always thought that’s just who he is.
“Oh,” is all she manages to say, her brain still reeling from the revelation.
“Yeah,” Eloise scowls. “But I don’t care how much Colin likes you, you’re my best friend, he better bloody remember that!”
Penelope smiles all the way to the house, and when Colin walks into the kitchen while she and El have a snack, his eyes light up. “Hey, Pen! You still reading Emma? How are you finding it?”
Before, Penelope never would have thought much of those questions outside, she would just be happy that he was talking to her. But now it occurs to her that none of El’s siblings have ever asked her about what’s reading, let alone remembered the answer. The fact that he remembers- that he genuinely wants to know her opinion and wants to have this conversation with her- it means the world to Pen. She’s not used to her opinion mattering.
That night, Eloise announces to the family at dinner that Penelope isn’t sure about going to Aubrey Hall. They all encourage her to go, far more enthusiastically than she expects, but Colin’s plea is particularly passionate. In that moment, Pen knows that Eloise is right, Colin likes her.
(Maybe he doesn’t like her in the way she so desperately wants him to, but that doesn’t matter to her. She’ll take whatever she can get.)