On the morning of Tommy’s seventeenth birthday he came to pick Penny up in a black 1965 Ferrari 275 GTS. He didn’t come until after her father had left but her mother was home and she watched from the window. She called her husband to share the burden when Tommy’s car pulled away. Penny’s parents both knew they couldn’t tell her not to go, though she wasn’t yet fourteen years old.
Tommy drove and for a while neither spoke. Penny was glad to just be with him and a little overwhelmed to be driving down the highway in such a nice car. She had never been in a convertible before. She still didn’t understand how he could afford this car but decided against asking if he stole it. She was sure he didn’t, pretty sure anyway.
“I’ve missed you,” she said as they drove aimlessly down the highway. She was exhilarated to be somewhere her parents would never suspect.
“I’ve missed you too.”
They stopped at a diner in the middle of nowhere to eat a late lunch or an early dinner.
“Tommy,” she asked carefully, “where do you get all your money?”
“My father.”
“Where does your father get it?”
“None of your business.”
Penny was taken back. She bit her lip and tried not to cry.
“Sorry,” Tommy apologized and held out his hand for hers. She hesitated.
“People say a lot of things about my family and I just thought you were different, I didn’t mean to get defensive.”
He extended his hand a little further and she nudged her hand forward. He put his hand over hers.
“What do people say?”
“Really?” he asked skeptically. “You haven’t heard the rumors?”
Penny shook her head.
“Maybe that’s why you still spend time with me.”
Penny furrowed her eyebrows.
“Let’s drop it.”
Penny nodded and they didn’t talk about it again.
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