Page 1 of Punishing Penelope
Chapter One
Peter
Her sun-kissed legs dangle over the edge of the cliff. I’m transfixed by their swinging over the sheer drop of nothing, intensely aware of the owner of the legs. She has her headphones on, staring at the horizon while she moves her head in rhythm with music only she hears. Below us, some thirty feet down, the surface of the lake is calm and as blue as the sky.
Penelope Wilder couldn’t have a more fitting last name. Out of all us misfits, she always takes things just a little bit further. Writing her own slips by faking her folks’ signatures to get out of school, diving from the highest cliff, making us hold our breaths until she resurfaces and taunting us for not jumping, driving like a freaking race driver, shoplifting lipsticks, and lacy little panties, whatever she feels like.
The sky is clear without a cloud in sight, but I’m not enjoying the weather. I’m eating her up with my eyes because fuck, she’s hot.
Her messy bun coming loose in the wind, a strand of straw-blonde hair whips around her heart-shaped face, sticking on her light pink glossy lips. When she sticks out her tongue and tries to push the stray strand away, then jerks her head to get it off and laughs, my cock grows, and I cross my legs to hide it.
I’ve had a major crush on her for as long as I can remember, and there’s never been another girl for me. All right, maybe not for as long as I can remember, but since I first saw her in high school. Before that day, girls were weird creatures with mysterious body parts. They hung in large groups, giggling, and were nothing but obnoxious.
Then came Penelope, and something changed, then it changed a whole lot more.
Between tenth and eleventh grade, she developed and became a woman. Her boobs, tight little shorts that show off a tiny sliver of ass cheek when she bends forward, long slender legs, coy smiles, and when she sticks her head together with her friends and giggles then looks at me, it does all kinds of funny things to my body.
I’ve also changed. My voice is deeper and has finally stopped jumping up and down between normal and squeaky. There’s hair down there, a whole bush of hay-blonde hair. I wake up with a hard-on every morning, and sex, sex, sex is on my mind nonstop.
Her.
When I jerk off to the naked models in the magazines, she’s the one I picture. She’s not in any of the yearbooks, bad girl, because she was probably ‘sick’ those days when it was time for the traditional picture-taking. She has much smaller breasts and fewer curves than the models. Her armpits aren’t shaved like most others, but with her light hair, you have to look closely for it to show. I’m not surprised that she, of all girls, would make a statement out of body hair, and I think she’s even hotter for it.
I glance at the other two, flanking her. Sandra, another blonde, her hair reaching her lower back, naturally curly, is the girl every other guy in school drools over. I prefer Penelope’s shorter cut, though. I prefer everything about Penelope Wilder.
On the other side sits Lexi, a little redhead, her face full of freckles she tries to hide with a ton of makeup. Soft-spoken and sweet, she’s different from the rest of our loud gang. She’s with Liam. He’s brainy but kinda rough and comes off as more muscle than brain to most people. I have no idea what they see in each other, but they’re inseparable.
There’s a pinch of envy in my chest. At least they have each other. I have no one.
Sandra and Cole are together, too. They fight, like all the time. Fight and make up. It’s like they think it’s hot, but it’s nothing but annoying. Cole is already a man. Like, he’s huge, works out, and has a job helping his dad out with carpeting. He’s the lucky bastard with access to a car we can use most of the time.
Cole, Liam, and I hang a lot. We hike, work out together at the makeshift outdoor gym we’ve built in the woods behind Cole’s house, and hang by a campfire with beer Liam brings, courtesy of his three older brothers when they rotate home. They’re all serving in the marines, and Liam can’t stop talking about the day he’ll join. Sometimes, I wonder if his family is extra patriotic since his dad fled North Korea back in his teens to come here. He’s a quiet, hardworking man, very serious, very strict, but he seems kind.
Looming behind Stephan stalks back and forth, smoking a joint. He always makes me a little jittery. I never know where his mind’s at, except when he stares at Pen as if she’s going to be his next snack. A year older than the rest of us, he drives a motorcycle. He lives with foster parents, and I guess he’s had it rough. His dad was put away for life for killing his mom. It’s all pretty fucked up.
I think Pen has a thing for him, and no wonder since they’re alike in their temper and devil-may-care attitude. My insides scream when I think of him touching her.
She glances at me, her gaze traveling my body down to the bulge in my jeans. She knows. She grins. Headphones pulled off and dropped next to her, she stands and pulls off her tank top and shorts. Watching her in her red bra and dark blue panties with nothing but a string that disappears between her ass cheeks, I’m a goner. If I was hard before...
“Time for a dip. Y’all coming?” She backs up several steps, stops by Stephan, takes the joint out of his hand and pulls on it, hands it back, then runs toward the cliff and jumps. Not a dive. Sometimes, she dives with a wild scream, but today she jumps, and I hear nothing but a slight splash.
I force myself to stay cool and not jump up to look, but I won’t be a fucking coward. Slightly turning away from the others, I pull off my jeans and shirt, then move to the edge, my heart throbbing. Seeing her below, I take aim next to her, inhale, then jump before I can think. My stomach is sucked right up through my brain, and the fall seems to last forever. The water hits hard, and I end up deep below the surface. It’s so cold, it’s like a punch to my gut, but I know I’ll get used to it in a few minutes. The pressure on my eardrums is instant. I open my eyes as I swim toward the light and her kicking legs. Every detail is twisted—seaweed below me, rays of sun above me, and a free look at her crotch. I grab her foot to pull her down, let go, then surface with her.
She sputters and splashes a wave of water toward me.
“Peter Hale, you bastard!”
I splash back. “You had it coming.”
“Yeah? For what?” She splashes at me again.
Grabbing her hand and spinning her around, so she’s facing away from me, I have to make up a reason fast. I can’t very well tell her she’s blue-balling me simply by existing.
“For smoking a joint. For skipping school. You’re a bad girl.”
She scoffs and turns back to me. Around us, Liam, Sandra, and Cole have jumped. Lexi never does, neither does Stephan. She’s cautious, and I guess he’s too cool.
“You’re just as bad, dude. Are you gonna let me have my hand back anytime soon?”