Options can be bought, sold, exercised or expire worthless. Depending on the style (american or european) will determine if they can be exercised before options expiration. Up until that time you can still get out of the option by selling (in this case) regardless of strike price compared to current price of the underlying (in this case stock).

Free options education is available at http://www.cboe.com/LearnCenter/ and that is where I got most of my options information.