Slow Dancing in a Burning Room

There was something quite humbling in feeling nervous about seeing Penelope. Penelope was…Penelope. It was almost as if she’d always been there, smiling politely at the perimeter of a ballroom. And he’d taken her for granted, in a way. Some things didn’t change, and Penelope was one of them.

Except she had changed.

Colin didn’t know when it had happened, or even if anyone other than himself had noticed it, but Penelope Featherington was not the same woman he used to know.

Or maybe she was, and he had changed.

aries moon: “i will knock you the hell out in a fit of rage and then cry myself to sleep. also my emotions peak really hard and fast then change an hour later when i inevitably get over it and realize it wasn’t that serious”

taurus moon: “my hobby is sleeping and i love romance but hate people and expressing affection. i’ve had the same friend group since fourth grade and they’re probably the only people i trust”

gemini moon: “my brain never shuts off ever so sometimes i lag like a 2005 dell desktop. my constant state is overthinking infused with stress and anxiety is my middle name. i change my personality four times a day”

cancer moon: “it would be easier to list the things that don’t upset me than the things that do, i take everything personally and i will not hesitate to stab you. i go through eight different moods a minute”

leo moon: “i am every single persons’ therapist for free and all my emotions are amplified x100. i can work while having a mental breakdown because the grind never stops. my middle name is overspending″

virgo moon: “if i’ve so much as looked at you, i have psychoanalyzed and picked apart both your and my entire existences and i’m very disappointed in both of us. also i’m nervous. about what? yes. feelings are very frustrating to me”

libra moon: “i can promise you that at any given moment i am in my alternative daydream universe. i need validation from everyone and the only thing that makes me cry is sad romantic movies. i am the overlord of productive procrastination, and i’ve probably never showed up on time to anything”

scorpio moon: “i know what you’re feeling before you know what you’re feeling and i also am still stuck in my emo phase. i have never answered a phone call in my life. the block button is my best friend and i have frequent shower cry sessions”

sagittarius moon: “if you look inside my head it’s actually just a hamster hyped up on redbull + express shots running in a wheel. everything is in fact That Deep™ to me. i have never once been wrong ever and i will die with this mindset”

capricorn moon: “if i’m not being productive i want to die and my constant state of existence is mental exhaustion. people frustrate me and i like to view everything logically and pick apart all my emotions instead of feeling and dealing with them. spending money and being more successful than u is my passion”

aquarius moon: “katy perry wrote hot n cold about me. i probably don’t like you but if i do you’re never getting rid of me. i like to pretend i do not have emotions because i feel way too much but am not equipped to deal with it so i repress and ignore<3”

Andrews and Plummer sat next to each other at the center of the long table, their backs to the room. When they spoke, they leaned close to each other, their heads almost touching. 

Gradually, people at other tables started noticing them, shifting forward to see if they could believe their eyes. After all, the last time most of us saw the two of them together, they were climbing over that mountain to freedom.