Chapter 121: Penny
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Back to the main living room, the mense is orr. The lights are a little brighter, a few people are already brashing crumbei their sweatpants and yeening. A half finnded bowd of peperon sits silt
But the moment someone spots Asher, the chans returnin
“Yoon, where were you?” one of the gros calls out. “Is it true that you can disharma bomb with like, a paperclip or something?”
Someone else shouts, “No, dude, it was a bobby pin, I read it online. That’s, like, Navy standard
Kaber doesn’t even flinch. He just look at them, deadpan, and
The room explodes.
Inder my breath as I trail behind him, hall shades, half accomplice. We find Tyler near the fireplace, mid sentence armond her finger like the’k auftioning for a stumpoa commercial.
kaber gives me a look that says let’s get out of here, and I’m all too happy to agree.
“We’re gonna turn in,” I say, Budging Tyler gently. “Come?”
He glances at his phone. “It’s only 11:30”
“C’mon, Ty,” someone nearly says. “Everyone’s crashing early tonight anyway. We’ve got all week”
Asher adds smoothly, “Unless you want to walk back to the cabin alone through the woods in the dark, better come with
This gets him
Tyler straightens immediately. “Right. Yeah, Fl come.”
Outside, it’s even colder than I remember. The stars are buried behind a wall of clouds and the snow is starting to come down in these light, whispering flakes, it’s quiet–eerily so–except for the crunch of our boots on the packed path
Tyler breaks the silence first. “Why the hell is it so far? This is like… three miles. Is it even legal to call that a “walk
I smile faintly. “I think it’s closer to half a mile.”
“Still. This snow is getting in my shoes. I swear I’m gonna catch pneumonia.”
He’s dramatic. Whiny. But oddly charming in the way he throws his head back like the sky personally wronged him.
“You’re being a baby,” I tell him, teasing.
He grins at me. “You’ll carry me then?”
“In your dreams.”
He chuckles and bumps his shoulder into mine. Just for a moment, I remember what it felt like to laugh with him before things got so… complicated.
The cabin appears like a storybook house in the dark–a low halo of light in the snow, smoke still curling from the chimney. When we step inside, the warmth hits hard. Cozy Wooday. A little too quift.
Tyler steps in and immediately frowns. “Still freezing in here. This fireplace doesn’t do anything”
“It’s a cabin,” I say, already unripping my coat. “It’s supposed to be rustic.”
“Yeah well, rustic feels a lot like frostbite,”
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Chapter 121: Penny
Asher’s already near the fee. He grabs the poker, shifts the logs with practiced motenents, and a deeper faneblomst life. The white pe brigh heat rising in comes.
“Coon. Captain Survival” Tyler says, smirking. “Do your thingTM
We take turns in the bathroom changing. Tyler goes first, grumbling the schole time about hose cramped the spice is, how the light fickens, how he’s positive he saw a spider the size of a tacqortbill.
When he comes out, he’s already yawning, biatless me, in flannel pajama pants and thick socks, rubbing at his eyes like a toddler who missed nagtime. He belly–flops dramatically onto the bed closest to the fireplace and groans,
“This thing’s like five inches wider than a coffis,” he announces to the room. “Pen, you’re gonna have to make yourself real small, okay?”
I try to laugh. “I’m always small.”
He pats the muttress beside him, eyes already hall closed. “Then come be my little spoon?
Behind, I hear Asher exhale through his ene like he’s biting back twelve different opinions.
I duck into the bathroom and shut the door behind me, leaning against it for a second before changing quickly into soft gray sweats and an old hoodie that smells like my favorite fabric softener – vanilla and something faintly citrusy, I rub a towel through my hair to tame it a bit, then look at myself in the
mirror.
There’s still a faint bruise along my temple, a ghost of the fall that got me here. My fingers brush it lightly. Then I take a breath, open the door, and step back into the cabin
Asher’s already changed too. Black joggers. A ficted dark tee that clings to his shoulders. He’s sitting on the edge of the second bed, boots off, one ankle crossed over the other. His forearms rest on his thighs, and his gaze flicks up the second I enter
ime in place for half a breath.
Then I move.
Tyler’s taken up almost the entire bed–lying on his stomach, arms splayed, blanket barely covering him. I ease onto the mattress beside him, perching on the very edge like a bird scared to ruffle anything.
The mattress
Tyler doesn’t move.
Ile down stiffly, curling in on myself pulling the blanket up to my chin and tucking my legs in like I’m making myself as compact as humanly possible.
A beat of silence. Ther
“Seriously?” Asher mutters from across the room “Ty, give her some space.”
But Tyler’s already snoring.
I don’t even look up. “It’s fine,” I whisper.
Asher doesn’t answer.
The fire cracklessly in the hearth. The cabin gans occasionally in the cold, wooden bones shifting under the weight of snow and wind. Outside, tree
not unlike claws. branches scrape faintly against the side of the cabin
Eventually, I fall asleep.
But it doesn’t last.
I wake with a start, the air rushing out of me as I hit the floor. My arm smacks against the wood and my hip takes most of the impact. I groan, dazed,
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Chapter 121: Penny
The mom plades with durement.
Ash’s v
mat of the bed in a
a single bin of mingle and motion, like a fuse had been lit. His entire ledy pars right, like he’s waiting for an attack.
“What happened?“. venlige is Ime, natigh, lethal,
He’s already hallway to mir beker 1
Í blink up at him, one hand on my how. “Tyler,” I mumble. “He… pushed me off, in his sleep.“
Asher’s head snaps toward the bed.
Tyler is still out cold. Sprawled diagonally across the mattress like he’s auditioning for a matten commercial, completely sklirinos
Asher’s jau ticks. “This hacking it, I’m waking him.”
“No–don’t,” I say quickly, scrambling to my feet and stepping into his path, placing a hand firmly on his chest.
warm. Solid.
A wall
“If you wake him now.” I whitger, “he’s going to be the moodiest creature alive tomorrow. He didn’t mean it.”
Aber looks like he’s one second away from ignoring me completely
“He could’ve hurt you,” he growl
“I landed on a boodie.” I gesture toward it. “I’m fine)
His eyes fick back to the bed. To Tyler’s limbs, still taking up the entire mattress like he’s allergic to sharing space.
I sigh. “I’ll just push him over.”
“No, you won’t
Asher’s voice is final. He steps to the side, gestures toward the other bed. “You’re coming with me,
1 blink “b–what?
“If you fall again and hit your
hit your head? That’s it. You’re out of the gala. Not worth it.”
“I can sleep on the edge—”
“You already did that.”
“But there’s no spac-
“Penny.” His voice is low, Finn. That tone he uses when he’s already made up
Then he raises one eyebrow
his mind. “Lie down.”
Chapter 121: Penny
The blanket is still wants from him. The sheets smell falistly of smoke and pine and something even more specific – pamething that’s jus
Ilie on my side, tense and ton aware of everything.
He doesn’t lie beside me.
Instead, he sits at the foot of the bed, leans his back against the wall, and pulls my legs gently over his lap.
I stare at him, stunned. “You can’t sleep like that.”
“Sote I can ”
“You’ll be uncomfortable.”
He shrugs. “I’ve slept in the back of a moving truck during a monsoon with six men, two rifles, and a dog that wouldn’t stop barking. I’ll be fine.”
My mouth opens again, but he shushes me softly, running his palms up and down my calves, over the fabric of my swesti.
His touch is gentle, Steady. Hypnotic,
“Go to sleep, princess,” he says.
And somehow… I do.
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