Page 21 of Please Don’t Go (The Midnight Strike #1)

JOSEFINE

“Sorry I’m late.” Vi says out of breath, taking a seat across from me and next to Pen. “Let me tell you, getting out of a mermaid tail is not as easy as you would think it would be.”

Dinner was planned last minute by Pen. She said she needed to vent and so here we all are at SeaSide Tacos.

I wasn’t going to come because once again, I didn’t think and booked myself back-to-back.

In retrospect, if I don’t overbook myself, I’ll get lost in my head, and that’s currently a dangerous place to be.

There’s hardly any light filtering through, and I know the moment it gets pitch black, I won’t be able to shut down the ugly thoughts still lurking in the back of my head.

I’m currently struggling as it is and being alone on a Saturday night or really any night does nothing for my cause. I also didn’t want to be alone tonight because I’d probably mull over what Bryson said yesterday.

It’s been nagging at me, and it shouldn’t. Even if Daniel is potentially using me to get back at Bryson, I can’t say it necessarily bothers me. I’m fucked up, I know, but I sort of relish the idea of it bothering Bryson.

What’s been incessantly on my mind though is Daniel punching Bryson because of Amanda. I shouldn’t care, but apparently I do because it’s all I’ve been thinking about.

You don’t punch someone that bad for someone else unless you really care about them.

Maybe he feels more than he made me believe.

Maybe Daniel still cares for her but feels guilty for doing so.

After all, she cheated on him but even so, she cares for him.

It was very obvious in the way she stared at him.

“It’s seriously awesome that you get to do that. Is it as fun as I’m thinking it is?” Pen asks.

“Yes.” Her dark brown eyes glitter. “The staff is amazing. I get to switch tails and bras. The kids’ faces when they see me is priceless. Though putting on the tail is work all on its own, and staying underwater for so long gets exhausting, but it’s honestly worth it.”

“Maybe if things don’t work out for me, I’ll become a mermaid,” Pen muses jokingly.

Vi and I glance at each other, hearing uncertainty and frustration seep from her voice.

Because I’m afraid to fuck it up and say something that could sound insensitive, I let Vi do all the talking.

“You want to tell us what’s bothering you? We’re here for you,” she sympathetically questions.

Before Pen replies, the waitress takes our orders and once she’s gone, Pen doesn’t waste a second to tell us what happened.

She sighs. “How do you go from dating and telling someone you love them to them breaking up with you because they need to focus on themselves to then dating your best friend?”

Vi and I lock eyes, but still, I say nothing.

I don’t want to be the person who attempts to make Pen feel better by telling her my shitty experience with my first boyfriend.

That won’t help her cause, and I don’t want her to pity me.

Plus, this also involves her brother, and he’s not someone I should be talking about.

Again, Vi does the talking. “Wait, hold up, so your ex-boyfriend is dating your best friend? Please tell me you’re not still friends with her?”

She puffs out an aggravated breath and slouches in her chair.

“Yes, and well…I…I’m not…she’s not…we’re…

it’s complicated. She’s on the cheer team and because I’m captain, I can’t…

I need to keep it…amicable,” she flounders and drops her face to the table.

Still keeping her forehead glued to the table, she says, “And we live together.”

I scoff incredulously. “You don’t need to do shit. You don’t owe her anything. She was your best friend and is now dating your ex? Absolutely fucking not.”

Vienna nods in agreement, showing solidarity for what I just said. “And she lives with you? Yeah, fuck that, her, and him.”

“I know. I know, but I…” She softly groans as she lifts her head.

“I just need to get over it. He broke up with me months ago. It’s not like he cheated on me or anything.

She said she didn’t mean to fall for him, but…

” She trails off like it pains her to say it.

“They have a class together, they’re partners, and one thing led to another. ”

“Oh Pen,” Vi empathically says.

“It’s fine, I guess. I want to get over him, I really do, but every time I see them together, I see us.

Everything he does for her, he did for me.

” She smiles but it doesn’t reach her eyes.

“Actually, he does more for her than he did for me.” She sighs and shakes her head like she’s trying to forget the memories.

“I’m sorry for sounding so dramatic. I just needed to get that off my chest.”

“Shut up. You don’t sound dramatic,” I chide.

“She’s right, you don’t. You’re venting and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Vi remarks. “Honestly, you’re taking it better than I would. I would have crashed out.”

Penelope’s face brightens and she giggles.

I wish I had the ability to make that happen. To ease someone’s pain or discomfort instead of adding more to it. I wonder if my mom would have loved me if I had been different.

I take a sip of my water, then drop my hands to my lap to stop myself from fidgeting with my rings.

“This is going to sound very cliché, but you know how that saying goes. To get over someone you have to get under somebody else,” Vienna suggests mischievously.

“I’ve tried that and it hasn’t worked. All the guys make me think of him and then I miss him and I cycle back to the what-ifs and what could I have done to make us work.”

“This might not work but have you tried messing around with someone that doesn’t look like him? I just ask because I know from experience, and if you’re trying to rebound with someone that looks like him or acts like him, you’ll never be able to let go.”

Granted, it didn’t take much for me to get over Bryson, but I can tell it’s really weighing hard on Pen.

“It might not work, but maybe don’t listen to me because I’ve only ever had one boyfriend and that didn’t end well. And?—”

“No, you’re right. I didn’t even think about it like that, but I realize now I have been trying to replace him with someone like him.” She meekly smiles, cheeks staining a light pink. “I’m pathetic, aren’t I?”

“No, you’re not,” I sternly say. “If anyone’s pathetic, it’s them. Not you.”

She stares at me like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. “Thanks for listening to me. I was going crazy with this.”

“Don’t thank us. We’re here for you. Now…” Vienna folds her arms on the table, staring at her with a look of determination. “Who’s your ex and what does he look like so we can definitely stay away from anyone looking like him.”

Pen pulls out her phone and shows us the picture of her ex.

Luke Rodriguez, junior, point guard for MCU’s basketball team.

Vi nods repeatedly and slowly to herself, staring long and hard at the small screen like she’s computing and analyzing data. Then she sits up, smiling from ear to ear as if a lightbulb went off in her head.

“You and Angel have great chemistry.” She wiggles her brows.

I might’ve been slightly drunk last week, but I definitely felt it too.

Pen’s face pinches with aversion. “Now that sounds cliché and so wrong. He’s Danny’s best friend and I practically grew up with him. I know everything about Angel, and nothing about it is good. Next.”

“So, you’ve really never thought about it? Not to instigate anything but Angel’s hot.”

“No, I’ve never thought about it because I don’t see him like that.”

“You didn’t answer me.” Vienna smirks.

“Okay…yeah, he’s hot but like I said we grew up together and he’s Danny’s best friend. And we’re kind of friends. I don’t want to make anything weird between us. And even if I wanted to, which I don’t, he wouldn’t be on board. Plus, do you know about his reputation? Yeah, no thanks. Next.”

Vienna blows a raspberry. “You have any suggestions, Josie?”

“My judgment is poor at best so you don’t want to listen to me.”

“I highly doubt that,” Pen says as the waitress brings our food. “But I trust your judgment either way.”

“Oh.” I tuck my hair behind my ear.

“I have swim practice and will be working at the aquarium for a little tomorrow, but I’m free after six. We could meet up and?—”

“I can’t. I have a lesson tomorrow.”

“I thought you only did those on Saturday?” Pen asks as she squeezes lime juice on her shrimp tacos.

“It’s still only on Saturdays, but I’ve managed to convince Daniel to let me teach him,” I answer, pouring the green salsa on my carne asada taco.

When I raise my taco, it stays suspended in the air. Penelope stares at me wide-eyed, her immaculate eyebrows pinched together and lips slightly parted. Then a disbelieving laugh slips past her lips.

“Daniel? Daniel Garcia, my brother? That Daniel?”

I nod, side-eyeing Vi because I don’t know what’s going on or why she sounds like she’s crashing out.

“Yeah, he actually reached out to me first then changed his mind, but we managed to work things out,” I explain.

“Daniel did that?” she questions inconceivably.

“Yeah…” I hate prying but I set my taco down and contemplate how to ask my question without sounding invasive. “I noticed he’s very hesitant about the water. Is there a reason why? I just want to know what I’m getting into and figure out how I can best help him.”

For a long moment she doesn’t say anything as she stares down at her plate of tacos. My chest fills with apprehension.

Did I overstep? How do I backtrack? What did I do?

“You don’t have to?—”

“Our brother Adrian, my twin, drowned, and Danny watched it happen.” She bites her bottom lip. “Since then, he’s had a rocky relationship with water. He…well…he actually agreed?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t know.” God, I’m horrible. I pressured him into agreeing. “He didn’t tell me. I didn’t?—”

“This is great. He’s never allowed anyone to teach him. My parents paid people and did all these things to help him, but he’d always shut down. He actually agreed?” she asks again, staring at me, bewildered.

“Yeah, but I might’ve pressured him. I’ll talk to him and?—”

“No, don’t do that.” Pen cuts me off mid-sentence, her eyes filled with hope and something I can’t pinpoint. “You’re the first person he’s ever willingly allowed to help. You have to help him, please.”

“I may not be the right person. I’m not good with people and what if?—”

“But you’re good with him, and that’s all that matters. He trusts you. Please help him.” She begs like I’m her only hope, but I highly doubt that. There are experts who are trained for these kinds of things.

A war of emotions whirl in my chest, all battling against what I should and shouldn’t feel and do. I could fuck it all up before it even really begins, but I concede anyway.

“Okay, I’ll help him.”