“What happened?” Owen exclaimed, gently holding Penny’s casted hand. He was dressed in blue jeans and a black and blue winter jacket.

They stood in the main building of Prince University—a place they had been attending for the past two years.

“Oh, it’s not as bad as it looks,” Penny replied, smiling, and it lit up her light brown face. She wore black jeans and a red jacket, and curly hair was peeping out from under her hat.

She allowed him to take her hand into his.

“No one has written on it as yet. Can I be the first?”

“Yeah, sure, if you want to,” Penny replied, smiling.

Owen let go of her hand and, after rummaging through the black and blue backpack that was on his shoulder, he pulled out a black pen. He took her hand again and quickly wrote, “Get well soon,”

“Thanks,” Penny said, looking down at her hand.

“Well,” he said, looking down at her, “what happened?”

“Oh, nothing, just a basketball injury over the weekend.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I just grabbed the ball the wrong way, and before I knew it, I was crying out in pain.”

“Hey guys,” Scott said, coming up behind Penny and dropping his arm loosely around her shoulder.

“Penny broke her fingers playing basketball over the weekend,” Owen said.

“Yeah, I know. She told me,” Scott said, leaning down to kiss her on the slightly lipsticked lips.

“Well, we better get going because we only have about ten minutes to get there,” Owen said, looking down at his iPhone.

“Will you need me to take notes for you?” Owen asked as they began walking.

“Maybe, but I think I am pretty good at typing with one hand,” Penny replied, smiling.

Later that day, as Owen and Penny made their way to the school’s parking lot, Penny whispered as she slipped her arm around his, “I lied. Scott accidentally broke my fingers trying to take my phone from me.”

Although it was only minutes to five, it was already dark, but lights around the building and light polls illuminated their surroundings.

Owen stopped walking.

“Don’t make it a big deal,” she said, trying to get him to start walking again.

He refused to move as a kaleidoscope of emotions crossed his brown face.

A few students passed them, laughing and talking with each other.

“Where is he?” Owen asked.

“He still has about twenty or so more minutes in his accounting class,” Penny said.

Owen took a deep breath, pulling his body to its six feet.

“Are you going home now? I can give you a lift.”

“Thanks, but I will wait for Scott. He’s taking me shopping at the mall.”

She tried again to get him to walk, and this time he walked.

“So what, you have already forgiven him, and things are back to normal with you guys?”

“It was an accident, honestly. He thought I was cheating on him, and he just wanted to see if I was texting some guy.”

“So he broke your fingers?” Owen loudly whispered, “Has he ever done anything like this to you in the past seven, or how many months you’ve been dating?”

“No, no. He’s not some abusive boyfriend. It was just an accident, and he is really sorry.”

“Then why did the two of you lie about it?”

“Because we did not want anyone to make a big deal about it, just as you are doing right now.”

They reached Owen’s light blue Kia, and he opened the trunk and placed his backpack in it.

“You should break up with him,” Owen said, resting his hand on her shoulders.

“Owen, let it go. You are my best friend, and I don’t want any secrets between us, and that’s why I told you. I know how to take care of myself.”

Owen took another deep breath and let it out. He smiled briefly.

“Okay, okay,” he said, “text me when you guys are finished shopping and be careful, okay?”

She nodded and kissed him on the cheeks.

Penny jogged back to the school’s main building to wait for Scott when she and Owen parted ways.

Two days later, Owen was already sitting in his usual seat in the marketing class that he, Penny and Scott were in when Penny entered and sat next to him.

A few minutes later, Scott entered, and instead of sitting next to Penny as usual, he did not even look in their direction as he sat several seats away from them. His entire left arm was in a cast!

“A robber stole his new clothes, broke his arm in the process, and he broke up with me!” Penny said, shaking her head before turning away from looking at him.

“Good riddance. What goes around comes around,” Owen said just before the professor’s entrance into the room took his attention.