CHAPTER 12

Harley walked past the living room arch where he caught Penelope's attention almost instantly. It wasn't as though it was strange to her or anything, but the fact that Harley seemed to be releasing some toxic air into the atmosphere that sent shivers down her spine. She immediately jumped off the couch and made a beeline to the corridor where she spotted him walking towards the door with tensed shoulders and clenched fists. "Harley?" Penelope called, getting him to sigh out as he came to a stop and glanced over his shoulder to where she was standing. A frown made its way to her lips when she noticed he wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he was being bothered. In fact, the frown on his face was so visible and uncomfortable to look at since she had always seen him cheerful and happy all the time. "Is something wrong?" She asked as she kept her distance, trying to trigger him or anything of the sort before she could walk up to him. He shifted his gaze to the ground and clenched his jaw tightly, still feeling his throat pulse painfully from holding back is rage. "It's Hope." Harley said and Penelope could only take in a sharp breath at the mention of her name. 'It had to be Hope.' Penelope sighed in her mind before staring back at Harley who dropped his eyes back at the floor once more. "She's being really stupid..." He said inaudibly as he tried to think of the right words to describe her without sounding rude and off point. But he still had enough rage to jumble up his thoughts and express his anger without holding back. "You know Hope left to go look for Ronan right?" He asked and she nodded, knowing where this was going already. She already suspected something bad coming from it. "Well she found me in the corridor when I told you I was leaving. She asked me to help find Ronan and that he was probably hiding a surprise from her well. He was hiding something right." Harley clicked his tongue is distaste as he placed his hands on his hips. "Hope found Ronan cheating on her with some woman. I found her crying in her favorite garden and she kept asking what was wrong with her and all that. I calmed her down enough and she began laughing, but she had the thought of hearing Ronan out, and that she still loves him and all that." Harley sighed out heavily as he ran a hand through his hair. "Isn't that being childish?" "Did she leave?" Penelope asked, dodging the question when she knew that Hope probably had her reasons. "Ronan came to apologize and she instantly turned to him and asked him to talk to her about it." He bit onto his lower lip as he glanced towards the ground. "She's just dancing in his palm and playing his games. If she keeps on going like this, she might eventually get hurt even worse. I told her that I wasn't going to be there for her anymore if it had to do with Ronan and she just didn't seem to care." "Hope wouldn't just leave you on the side lines like that Harley, and you know it." Penelope said as she walked towards him, standing in front of him with crossed arms on her chest. "You've been Hope's best friend since you were so little and you both know each other inside and out. Ronan doesn't know much about her and she doesn't know much about him. If anything, Hope trusts you more than she trusts Ronan, you should know that." "Then why isn't she listening to me?" He asked with a clenched jaw. "If I mean something to her she would take my advice right?" "There's a huge gap between someone you call a best friend and someone you call a husband, Harley." She tried to explain as he looked away in irritation. "Even though she's your best friend, she's still Roman's wife and being in love romantically with someone makes people act weirdly. You've never seen the romantic side of Hope because you two never thought of each other as a different gender anyway. You think you're the same person living in a different body. So even if you try to get her on your side, she's still wants someone to love her back. She wants to feel like a woman. I even told you before that you shouldn't forget that Hope's still a woman despite how strong she can look on the outside." "I know.... I mean... I know what you're trying to say but Ronan isn't a good and for her... I've always known he was cheating but I couldn't tell Hope because she always seemed so in love with him. But seeing her cry right now made me worry about her and how much he's able to control her emotions... She might just get hurt in the end." "Weren't you the same genius telling me earlier that Ronan was a good man?" Penelope smirked as he raised his brows and smiled with a chuckle. "I only meant that to stop you from talking about Hope and me being perfect together." His face flushed as he glanced towards the ground to which she grinned to. "Even though you try to stop me from saying it, you secretly want it to happen, don't you?" She chuckled as he furrowed his brows at her. "Just stop with that-" "Admit it Harley." Penelope raised her voice a little. "You knew Ronan was cheating on Hope and you knew that one day he was bound to get found so you knew you still had a chance to have Hope all to yourself. But because Hope only sees you as a friend, you didn't want to ruin that closeness you had and decided to wait until naturally you both fall in love. However, what you didn't know was that Hope is so hooked onto Ronan that it's now made you mad about how close those two actually are. You're not angry that she didn't listen to you, you're just jealous that Ronan still has her." She theorized, making Harley tense up at her speech to which she smirked to. "Judging by the look on your face now, I'm right about it."