“I’ll tell Kingston you want to see,” I said.
“Did they set me up?” she asked after another pause. “Did they plan all of this?”
“God, no!” I exclaimed. “They weren’t even supposed to be at the party, and they didn’t know any of the guys. The only reason Kingston has the phone is because they came to find me and he saw the guy filming. I think this was a bunch of Oakville douche bags doing what they usually do at parties.”
“Why did Kingston take the phone?” she asked. “Why didn’t they give it to you?”
“That’s where things get weird for me,” I said. “It was a horrible night for you, but it became a strange night for me.”
And I told her everything about Dirty Kingdom and being tricked into becoming the Tribute.
I left out the part about me shooting Reg, and the part about me being with each of the Kings, but I told her I wasn’t a virgin anymore. She wasn’t as scandalized as I’d expected her to be, and for some strange reason, it felt as if we’d gone through something together and were better for it.
That was the thing about having a friend as close as Penny. We could go through things on our own, but it always felt better to experience them together. We’d have to remember that from now on, and not let life get in the way of our friendship ever again.
When we’d been on the phone for a while, I paused and said, “You know the only thing I regret in all of this?”
“What?” she asked.
“Not being there for you. I wish I’d pushed harder to stay in your life, and I’m sorry for that too.”
“I was thinking the same thing about you!” she laughed. “We are dorks, aren’t we? Don’t worry, I’m sure there will be plenty more trauma for us to help each other through.”
“Ugh, don’t say that,” I replied, but it was comforting knowing I had my friend in my life again and we could make it through anything together. “Every time I think it might be getting better, something else seems to crop up.”
“Sorry,” she giggled. “I don’t mean to jinx our future, but you know. Life is kind of weird, isn’t it?”
“I know,” I sighed. “It’s weird and if it wasn’t so awesome, it would be impossible.”
“It can be awesome,” she said and she got that mysterious, playful Penny voice I knew and loved. It meant she’d met somebody and she liked them. “By the way, did I tell you about Mark?”
“No,” I gasped and immediately began to interrogate her on everything Mark Smithe, who he was and how she knew him and all the rest in between.
And just like that, the weeks melted away between us, my shame was gone, and everything was back to normal.
Well, maybe not normal, but as normal as it would ever be considering the things that had been revealed to me recently. And now I had my Kings and my best friend again, so I was basically unstoppable.
The Organization had better watch out, it had no idea who was coming for them.