Authors: Rainbow Rowell
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.
He looked so cute this morning.
Instead of his usual scary black
band T-shirt, he was wearing a
green shirt that said ‘Kiss Me, I’m
Irish.’
He walked with her to the
counselors’ office, and told her
that if anybody stole her clothes
today, she was to find him,
immediately.
Nobody did.
Beebi and DeNice had already
heard about what happened from
somebody in another class –
which meant that the whole school
knew. They said they were never
going to let Eleanor walk alone to
lunch again, Macho Nachos be
damned.
‘Those skanks need to know
you have friends,’ DeNice said.
‘Mmm-hmm,’ Beebi agreed.
Park
His mom was waiting in the
Impala Monday afternoon when
Park and Eleanor got off the bus.
She rolled down the window.
‘Hi, Eleanor, sorry, but Park
has errand to run. We see you
tomorrow, okay?’
Sure,’
Eleanor
said.
She
looked at him, and he reached out
to squeeze her hand as she walked
away.
He got into the car. ‘Come on,
come on,’ his mom said, ‘why you
do everything so slow? Here.’ She
handed him a brochure.
State of
Nebraska
Driver’s
Manual
.
‘Practice test at end,’ she said,
‘now buckle up.’
‘Where are we going?’ he
asked.
‘To get your driving license,
dummy.’
‘Does Dad know?’
His mom sat on a pillow when
she drove and hung forward on
the steering wheel. ‘He knows, but
you don’t have to talk to him
about it, okay? This is our
business right now, you and me.
Now, look at test. Not hard. I pass
on first try.’
Park flipped to the back of the
book and looked at the practice
exam. He’d studied the whole
manual when he turned fifteen
and got his learner’s permit.
‘Is Dad going to be mad at
me?’ he asked.
‘Whose business is this right
now?’
‘Ours,’ he said.
‘You and me,’ she said.
Park passed the test on his first
try. He even parallel parked the
Impala, which was like parallel
parking a Star Destroyer. His mom
wiped his eyelids with a Kleenex
before he had his picture taken.
She let him drive home. ‘So, if
we don’t tell Dad,’ Park asked,
‘does that mean I can’t ever
drive?’ He wanted to drive
Eleanor somewhere. Anywhere.
‘I work on it,’ his mom said.
‘Meantime, you have your license
if you need it. For emergency.’
That seemed like a pretty weak
excuse to get his license. Park had
gone sixteen years without a
driving emergency.
The next morning on the bus,
Eleanor asked him what his big
secret errand was, and he handed
her his license.
‘What?’ she said. ‘Look at
you, look at this!’
She didn’t want to give it
back.
‘I don’t have any pictures of
you,’ she said.
‘I’ll get you another one,’ he
said.
‘You will? Really?’
‘You can have one of my
school pictures. My mom has
tons.’
‘You have to write something
on the back,’ she said.
‘Like what?’
‘Like, “Hey, Eleanor, KIT,
LYLAS, stay sweet, Park.”’
‘But I don’t L-Y like an S,’ he
said. ‘And you’re not sweet.’
‘I’m
sweet,’
she
said,
affronted,
holding
back
his
license.
‘No … you’re other good
things,’ he said, snatching it from
her, ‘but not sweet.’
‘Is this where you tell me that
I’m a scoundrel, and I say that I
think you like me
because
I’m a
scoundrel? Because we’ve already
covered this, I’m the Han Solo.’
‘I’m going to write, “For
Eleanor, I love you. Park.”’
‘God, don’t write that, my
mom might find it.’
Eleanor
Park gave her a school picture. It
was from October, but he already
looked so different now. Older. In
the end, Eleanor hadn’t let him
write anything on the back
because she didn’t want him to
ruin it.
They hung out in his bedroom
after dinner (Tater Tot casserole)
and managed to sneak kisses
while they looked through all of
Park’s old school pictures. Seeing
him as a little kid just made her
want to kiss him more. (Gross, but
whatever. As long as she didn’t
want to kiss actual little kids, she
wasn’t going to worry about it.)
When Park asked her for a
picture, she was relieved that she
didn’t have any to give him.
‘We’ll take one,’ he said.
‘Um … okay.’
‘Okay, cool, I’ll get my mom’s
camera.’
‘Now?’
‘Why not now?’
She didn’t have an answer.
His mom was thrilled to take
her picture. This called for
Makeover, Part II – which Park
cut short, thank God, saying,
‘Mom, I want a photo that actually
looks like Eleanor.’
His mom insisted on taking
one of them together, too, which
Park didn’t mind at all. He put his
arm around her.
‘Shouldn’t we wait?’ Eleanor
asked.
‘For
a
holiday
or
something more memorable?’
‘I want to remember tonight,’
Park said.
He
was
such
a
dork
sometimes.
Eleanor must have been acting too
happy when she got home because
her mom followed her to the back
of the house like she could smell it
on her. (Happiness smelled like
Park’s house. Like Skin So Soft
and all four food groups.) ‘Are
you going to take a bath?’ her
mom asked.
‘Uh-huh.’
‘I’ll watch the door for you.’
Eleanor turned on the hot
water and climbed into the empty
bath tub. It was so cold by the
back door that the bath water
started cooling off before the tub
was even full. Eleanor took baths
in such a hurry she was usually
done by then.
‘I ran into Eileen Benson at the
store today,’ her mom said. ‘Do
you remember her from church?’
‘I don’t think so,’ Eleanor
said. Her family hadn’t gone to
church in three years.
‘She had a daughter your age –
Tracy.’
‘Maybe …’
‘Well, she’s pregnant,’ her
mom said. ‘And Eileen’s a wreck.
Tracy got involved with a boy in
their neighborhood, a black boy.
Eileen’s husband is having a fit.’
‘I don’t remember them,’
Eleanor said. The tub was almost
full enough to rinse her hair.
‘Well, it just made me think
about how lucky I am,’ her mom
said.
‘That you didn’t get involved
with a black guy?’
‘No,’ her mom said. ‘I’m
talking about you. How lucky I am
that you’re so smart about boys.’
‘I’m not smart about boys,’
Eleanor said. She rinsed her hair
quickly, then stood up, covering
herself with a towel while she got
dressed.
‘You’ve stayed away from
them. That’s smart.’
Eleanor pulled out the drain
and carefully picked up her dirty
clothes. Park’s photo was in her
back pocket, and she didn’t want
it to get wet. Her mom was
standing by the stove, watching
her.
‘Smarter than I ever was,’ her
mom said. ‘And braver. I haven’t
been on my own since the eighth
grade.’
Eleanor hugged her dirty jeans
to her chest. ‘You act like there
are two kinds of girls,’ she said.
‘The smart ones and the ones that
boys like.’
‘That’s not far from the truth,’
her mom said, trying to put her
hand on Eleanor’s shoulder.
Eleanor took a step back. ‘You’ll
see,’ her mom said. ‘Wait until
you’re older.’
They both heard Richie’s truck
pull into the driveway.
Eleanor
pushed
past
her
mother
and
rushed
to
her
bedroom. Ben and Mouse slipped
in just behind her.