Weeping Willow (Spanking Story)

Chapter 9, Part 2: Penny's POV

"So, what do you want?" I asked while walking back to my desk chair. I didn't mean for my annoyance with him to be so obvious as I spoke, but I couldn't help it.

"What's this I hear about you lying to Ms. Wether?" Cooper asked as he followed.

"I didn't lie to Ms. Wether," I said. "I went to the stupid meeting—which you failed to tell me about, by the way—and I talked to her. Why didn't you tell me—no, why didn't you ask me if I wanted to speak to Ms. Wether?"

"Because I had a feeling you wouldn't want to go."

"Damn right I didn't want to go—"

"Watch your language," Cooper snapped. He chose to stand towering over me instead of sitting on my bed like he normally did when we had our rare little "dorm room chats."

"Do you know how embarrassed I felt in that meeting? It didn't even feel like a meeting, it felt like I was being ambushed."

"My intention wasn't to embarrass you—"

"Yeah well, you did, Cooper." I could feel my cheeks become red, either because I was feeling embarrassed all over again just thinking about it, or because I was that pissed off. I liked to think it was more of the latter.

Cooper closed his eyes and took a deep breath in, only releasing it after a couple seconds had passed. "Well I apologize if you felt embarrassed, but stop trying to change the subject—why did you lie to her?"

"What are you even talking about? When did I lie to her?"

"She told me that you said you were completely fine—"

"I am completely fine!"

"And that you hadn't thought about self-harming."

I took a deep breath to keep my temper from exploding. "First of all, whatever I choose to tell my guidance counselor is confidential—"

"Not when your life is potentially on the line—"

"And second, you weren't even there, Cooper, so you don't know what I said."

"Then what did you say?"

"I just said that's confidential."

"Penelope, don't get smart with me," he said in a low tone. That was never a good sign, so I decided to let him continue before I chimed in again. "Initially I was just going to leave you alone about this whole 'cutting' situation, but then I did some research online and saw that leaving you alone with your own thoughts is the worst thing I could possibly do. So I set up an appointment for you to meet with Ms. Wether so that you could talk to someone you trust about how you were feeling."

How the hell was I supposed to trust someone who told Cooper everything we talked about?

"The whole purpose of going to see her was so that you can help you with this situation, Penny."

"That's just it, Cooper! There is no 'situation'!" I stood up from my chair so that we were face-to-face, well, chest-to-face since he was so much taller than me. "I don't need help!"

"Yes you do, Penny!"

"No I don't, Cooper!"

"Yes you do!"

"No I don't! And if I did, this is the worst possible way you could help me!"

Cooper looked up to the ceiling, as if the answer he was looking for would be up there.

"I can't do this," he quietly said before looking back down at me. "Do you have any homework to do this weekend?"

"Yeah ..." That was a strange transition.