‘Don’t get so hung up on gender roles,’ Eleanor said. Park ran his hand out to her hip and back again, catching his thumb under her sweater. She swallowed and lifted her chin.
He pulled her sweater up farther and, then, without thinking about why, he pulled up his shirt, too, and laid his bare stomach against hers.
Eleanor’s face crumpled, and it made him come unhinged.
‘You can be Han Solo,’ he said, kissing her throat. ‘And I’ll be Boba Fett. I’ll cross the sky for you.’
Eleanor Things she knew now, that she hadn’t known two hours ago: Park was covered with skin.
Everywhere. And it was all just as smooth and honey—
beautiful as the skin on his hands. It felt thick and richer in some places, more like crushed velvet than silk. But it was all his. And all
wonderful.
She was also covered with skin. And her skin was
apparently covered with
super-powered nerve endings that hadn’t done a damn thing her whole life, but came alive like ice and fire and bee stings as soon as Park
touched her. Wherever Park touched her.
As embarrassed as she was of her stomach and her freckles and the fact that her bra was held together with two safety pins, she wanted Park to
touch her more than she
could ever feel embarrassed.
And when he touched her, he didn’t seem to care about any of those things. Some of
them he even liked. Like her freckles. He said she was candy-sprinkled.
She wanted him to touch her everywhere.
He’d stopped at the edge of her bra and only dipped his fingers into the back of her jeans – but it wasn’t Eleanor who stopped him.
She never would. When Park touched her, it felt better than anything she’d ever felt in her whole life. Ever. And she wanted to feel that way as much she could. She wanted to stock up on him.
Nothing was dirty. With Park.
Nothing could be shameful.
Because Park was the sun, and that was the only way Eleanor could think to explain it.
Park
Once it started to get dark, he felt like his parents could walk in at any minute, like they should have been home a long time ago – and he didn’t want them to find him like this, with his knee between Eleanor’s legs and his hand on her hip and his mouth as far as it could reach down the neck of her sweater.
He pulled away from her and tried to think clearly again. ‘Where are you going?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know. Nowhere …
My parents should be home soon, we should get it together.’
‘Okay,’ she said, and sat up.
But she looked so bewildered and beautiful that he climbed back on top of her and pushed her all the way down.
A half-hour later, he tried again. He stood up this time.
‘I’m going to the bathroom,’
he said.
‘Go,’ she said. ‘Don’t look back.’
He took a step, then looked back.
‘I’ll go,’ she said a few minutes later.
While she was gone, Park turned up the volume on the TV.
He got them both Cokes and looked at the couch to see if it looked illicit. It didn’t seem to.
When Eleanor came back, her face was wet.
‘Did you wash your face?’
‘Yeah …’ she said.
‘Why?’
‘Because I looked weird.’
‘And you thought you could wash it off?’
He gave her the same once-over he’d given the couch. Her lips were swollen, and her eyes seemed wilder than usual. But Eleanor’s sweaters were always stretched out, and her hair always looked tangled.
‘You look fine,’ he said. ‘What about me?’
She looked at him, and then smiled. ‘Good …’ she said. ‘Just really, really good.’
He held out his hand to her, and pulled her onto the couch.
Smoothly, this time.
She sat next to him and looked down at her lap.
Park leaned against her. ‘It’s not going to be weird now,’ he said, softly, ‘is it?’
She shook her head and laughed. ‘No,’ she said, and then, ‘only for a minute, only a little.’
He’d never seen her face so open.
Her
brows
weren’t
pulled
together,
her
nose
wasn’t
scrunched. He put his arm around her, and she laid her head on his chest without any prompting.
‘Oh, look,’ she said, ‘ The Young Ones.’
‘Yeah … Hey. You still haven’t told me – what was going on yesterday? When I saw you?
What was wrong?’
She sighed. ‘I was on my way to Mrs Dunne’s office because somebody in gym took my clothes.’
‘Tina?’
‘I don’t know, probably.’
‘Jesus …’ he said, ‘that’s terrible.’
‘It’s
okay.’
She
actually
sounded like it was.
‘Did you find them? Your clothes?’
‘Yeah … I really, really don’t want to talk about it.’
‘Okay,’ he said.
Eleanor pressed her cheek into his chest, and Park hugged her. He wished that they could go through life like this. That he could physically put himself between Eleanor and the world.
Maybe Tina really was a monster.
‘Park?’ Eleanor said. ‘Just one more thing. I mean, can I ask you something?’
‘You know you can ask me anything. We’ve got a deal.’