She set her hand over his heart. ‘Did … the way you acted today have something to do with seeing me yesterday?’
He almost didn’t want to answer. Yesterday’s confusing lust felt even more inappropriate now that he knew the upsetting backstory. ‘Yeah,’ he said quietly.
Eleanor didn’t say anything for a minute or so. And then …
‘Tina would be so pissed.’
Eleanor When Park’s parents got home, they seemed genuinely glad to see Eleanor. His dad had bought a new hunting rifle at the boat show, and he tried to show her how it worked.
‘You can buy guns at a boat show?’ Eleanor asked.
‘You can buy anything at a boat
show,’
his
dad
said.
‘Anything worth having.’
‘Books?’ she asked.
‘Books about guns and boats.’
She stayed late because it was Saturday, and on the way home she and Park stopped at his grandparents’ driveway, as usual.
But tonight Park didn’t lean over and kiss her. Instead, he held her tight.
‘Do you think we’ll ever be alone like that again?’ she asked.
She felt the tears in her eyes.
‘Ever? Yes. Soon? I don’t know …’
She hugged him as hard as she could, and then she walked home alone.
Richie was home and awake and watching Saturday Night Live.
Ben was asleep on the floor, and Maisie was sleeping next to Richie on the couch.
Eleanor would have gone straight to bed, but she had to go to the bathroom. Which meant walking between him and the TV.
Twice.
When she got to the bathroom, she pulled her hair back tight and washed her face again. She hurried back past the TV without looking up.
‘Where have you been?’
Richie asked. ‘Where do you go all the time?’
‘To
my
friend’s
house,’
Eleanor said. She kept walking.
‘What friend?’
‘Tina,’ Eleanor said. She put her hand on the bedroom door.
‘Tina,’ Richie said. There was a cigarette in his mouth, and he was holding a can of Old Milwaukee. ‘Tina’s house must be fucking Disneyland, huh? You can’t get enough.’
She waited.
‘Eleanor?’ she heard her mom calling from the bedroom. She sounded half asleep.
‘So, what’d you spend your Christmas money on?’ Richie asked. ‘I told you to buy yourself something nice.’
The bedroom door opened, and her mother came out. She was wearing Richie’s bathrobe – one of those Asian souvenir robes, red satin, with a big gaudy tiger.
‘Eleanor,’ her mom said, ‘go to bed.’
‘I was just asking Eleanor what
she
bought
with
her
Christmas money,’ Richie said.
If Eleanor made something up now, he’d want to see whatever it was. If she said she hadn’t spent the money, he might want it back.
‘A necklace,’ she said.
‘A necklace,’ he repeated. He looked at her blearily, like he was trying to come up with something awful to say, but he just took another drink and leaned back in his chair.
‘Good night, Eleanor,’ her mom said.
CHAPTER 43
Park
Park’s
parents
almost
never
fought, and when they did, it was always about him or Josh.
His parents had been arguing in their bedroom for more than an hour, and when it was time to leave for Sunday dinner, their mom came out and told the boys to go ahead without them. ‘Tell Grandma I have headache.’
‘What did you do?’ Josh asked Park as they cut through the front lawn.
‘Nothing,’ Park said. ‘What did you do?’
‘Nothing. It’s you. When I went to the bathroom, I heard mom say your name.’
But
Park
hadn’t
done
anything. Not since the eyeliner – which he knew wasn’t dead, but it seemed in remission. Maybe his parents knew somehow about yesterday …
Even if they did, Park hadn’t done anything with Eleanor that he’d ever been explicitly told not to do. His mom never talked to him about that kind of thing. And his dad hadn’t said anything more than ‘Don’t get anybody pregnant’
since he told Park about sex in the fifth grade. (He’d told Josh at the same time, which was insulting.) Anyway, they hadn’t gone that far. He hadn’t touched her anywhere that you couldn’t show on television. Even though he’d wanted to.
He wished now that he had. It might be months before they were alone again.
Eleanor She went to Mrs Dunne’s office Monday morning before class, and Mrs Dunne gave her a brand new combination lock. It was hot pink.
‘We talked to some of the girls in your class,’ Mrs Dunne said, ‘but they all played dumb. We’re still going to get to the bottom of this, I promise.’
There is no bottom, Eleanor thought. There’s just Tina.
‘It’s okay,’ she told Mrs Dunne. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
Tina had watched Eleanor get on the bus that morning with her tongue on her top lip, like she was waiting for Eleanor to spaz out – or like she was trying to see whether Eleanor was wearing any toilet clothes. But Park was right there, practically pulling Eleanor into his lap – so it was easy to ignore Tina and everybody else.