Park
covered his mouth to keep a chunk of sandwich from flying out. ‘Are we talking about the same Kim?’
‘Is that so hard to believe?’ Cal opened his carton of milk completely and drank out of it like a cup. ‘She wasn’t even into you, you know. She was just bored, and she thought you were mysterious and quiet – like, “still waters run deep.” I told her that sometimes still waters just run still.’
‘Thanks.’
‘But she’s totally into me now, so you can hang out with us if you want. The basketball games are a blast. They sell nachos and everything.’
‘I’ll think about it,’ Park said.
He wasn’t going to think about it. He wasn’t going anywhere without Eleanor. And she didn’t seem like the basketball game type.
Eleanor ‘Hey, girl,’ DeNice said after gym class. They were in the locker room, changing back into their street clothes. ‘So I’ve been thinking, you’ve got to go to Sprite Nite with us this week.
Jonesy’s got his car fixed, and he’s got this Thursday off. We are going to do it right, right, right, all through the night, night, night.’
‘You know I’m not allowed to go out,’ Eleanor said.
‘I know that you’re not allowed to go to your boyfriend’s house either,’ DeNice said.
‘I heard that,’ Beebi said.
Eleanor should never have told them about Park’s house, but she’d been dying to tell somebody.
(This was how people ended up in jail after committing the perfect crime.) ‘Keep it down,’ she said.
‘God.’
‘You should come,’ Beebi said. Her face was perfectly round, with dimples so deep that when she smiled she looked tufted, like a cushion. ‘We have so much fun.
I’ll bet you’ve never even been dancing before.’
‘I don’t know …’ Eleanor said.
‘Is this about your man?’
DeNice asked. ‘Because he can come, too. He don’t take up much space.’
Beebi giggled, so Eleanor giggled, too. She couldn’t imagine Park dancing. He’d probably be really good at it, if all the Top 40
music didn’t make his ears bleed.
He was good at everything.
Still … She couldn’t imagine the two of them going out with DeNice or Beebi. Or anybody.
Thinking about going out with Park, in public, was kind of like thinking about taking your helmet off in space.
Park His mom said that if they were going to hang out every night after school, which they definitely were, they had to start doing homework.
‘She’s probably right,’ Eleanor said on the bus. ‘I’ve been faking it in English all week.’
‘You were faking it today?
Seriously? It didn’t sound like it.’
‘We did Shakespeare last year at my old school … But I can’t fake it in math. I can’t even …
what’s the opposite of faking it?’
‘I can help you with your math, you know. I’m already through algebra.’
‘Gosh,
Wally,
that’d
be
dreamy.’
‘Or not,’ he said. ‘I could not help you with your math.’
Even her mean, smirky smile made him crazy.
They tried to study in the living room, but Josh wanted to watch TV, so they took their stuff into the kitchen.
His mom said it was okay; then said she had stuff to do in the garage. Whatever.
Eleanor moved her lips when she read …
Park kicked her gently under the table, and threw crumpled-up pieces of paper into her hair. They were almost never alone, and now that they almost-practically were, he felt kind of frantic for her attention.
He flipped her algebra book closed with his pen.
‘Seriously?’ She tried to open it again.
‘No,’ he said, pulling it toward him.
‘I thought we were studying.’
‘I know,’ he said, ‘I just …
we’re alone.’
‘Sort of …’
‘So we should be doing alone things.’
‘You sound so creepy right now …’
‘I meant talking.’ He wasn’t sure what he meant. He looked down at the table. Eleanor’s algebra book was covered with her handwriting, the lyrics to one song wrapped and coiled around the title of another. He saw his name written in tiny cursive letters – your own name always stands out – and hidden in the chorus of a Smiths song.
He felt himself grin.
‘What?’ Eleanor asked.
‘Nothing.’
‘What.’
He looked back at the book.
He was going to think about this later, after she went home. He was going to think about Eleanor sitting in class, thinking about him, carefully writing his name someplace she thought only she would see.
And
then
he
noticed
something else. Written just as small, just as carefully, in all lowercase letters. ‘i know your a slut you smell like cum.’
‘ What,’ Eleanor said, trying to pull the book away. Park held onto it. He felt the Bruce Banner blood rushing to his face.
‘Why didn’t you tell me that this was still happening?’
‘That
what
was
still
happening?’