‘Why?’
‘Because I hate him.’
‘Why?’
She wanted, badly, to change the subject, but she didn’t.
‘Because he’s a bad person.
Just … trust me. He’s the kind of bad that tries to kill anything good. If he knew about you, he’d do whatever he could to take you away from me.’
‘He can’t take me away from you,’ Park said.
Sure he can, she thought. ‘He can take me away from you,’ she said. ‘The last time he got really mad at me, he kicked me out and didn’t let me come home for a year.’
‘Jesus.’
‘Yeah.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be sorry,’ she said.
‘Just don’t tempt him.’
‘We
could
meet
at
the
playground.’
‘My siblings would turn me in.’
‘We could meet somewhere else.’
‘Where?’
‘Here,’ he said. ‘You could come here.’
‘What would your parents say?’
‘It’s nice to meet you, Eleanor, would you like to stay for dinner?’
She laughed. She wanted to say it wouldn’t work, but maybe it would. Maybe.
‘Are you sure you want them to meet me?’ she asked.
‘Yes,’
he
said.
‘I
want
everyone to meet you. You’re my favorite person of all time.’
He kept making her feel like it was safe to smile. ‘I don’t want to embarrass you …’ she said.
‘You couldn’t.’
Headlights shot across the living room.
‘Damn,’ she said. ‘I think my dad’s home.’ She got up and looked out the window. Her dad and Donna were getting out of the Karmann Ghia. Donna’s hair was a mess.
‘Damn, damn, damn,’ she said. ‘I never said why I like you, and now I have to go.’
‘That’s okay,’ he said.
‘It’s because you’re kind,’ she said. ‘And because you get all my jokes …’
‘Okay,’ he laughed.
‘And you’re smarter than I am.’
‘I am not.’
‘And
you
look
like
a
protagonist.’ She was talking as fast as she could think. ‘You look like the person who wins in the end. You’re so pretty, and so good. You have magic eyes,’ she whispered. ‘And you make me feel like a cannibal.’
‘You’re crazy.’
‘I have to go.’ She leaned over so the receiver was close to the base.
‘Eleanor – wait,’ Park said.
She could hear her dad in the kitchen
and
her
heartbeat
everywhere.
‘Eleanor – wait – I love you.’
‘Eleanor?’
her
dad
was
standing in the doorway. He was being quiet, in case she was asleep. She hung up the phone and pretended that she was.
CHAPTER 20
Eleanor
The next day was a blur.
Her dad complained that she’d eaten all the yogurt.
‘I didn’t eat it, I gave it to Matt.’
Her dad only had seven dollars in his wallet, so that’s what he gave her. When he was ready to take her home, she said she had to go the bathroom. She went up to the hall closet, found three brand new toothbrushes and shoved them into the front of her pants, along with a bar of Dove soap.
Donna might have seen her (she was right there in the bedroom), but she didn’t say anything.
Eleanor felt sorry for Donna.
Her dad never laughed at anyone’s jokes but his own.
When her dad dropped Eleanor off at her house, all the little kids ran out to see him. He gave them rides around the neighborhood in his new car.
Eleanor wished she had a phone to call the cops. ‘There’s a guy driving around the Flats with a bunch of kids hanging out of a convertible. I’m pretty sure none of them have seat belts on and that he’s been drinking Scotch all morning. Oh, and while you’re here, there’s another guy in the backyard smoking hash. In a school zone.’
When their dad finally left, Mouse couldn’t stop talking about him. After a few hours, Richie told everybody to put their coats on. ‘We’re going to a movie,’ he said, looking right at Eleanor. ‘All of us.’
Eleanor and the little kids climbed into the back of the truck and huddled against the cab, making faces at the baby, who got to sit inside. Richie drove down Park’s street on the way out of the neighborhood, but Park wasn’t outside, thank God. Of course, Tina
and
her
Neanderthal
boyfriend were out. Eleanor didn’t even try to duck. What was the point? Steve whistled at her.
It was snowing on the way home from the movie. ( Short Circuit.) Richie drove slow, which meant that even more snow fell on them, but at least nobody flew out of the truck.
Huh, Eleanor thought. I’m not fantasizing about being thrown from a moving vehicle. Weird.
When they drove by Park’s house again in the dark, she wondered which window was his.
Park
He regretted saying it. Not because it wasn’t true. He loved her. Of course he did. There was no other way to explain … everything Park felt.