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There was no place to sit but on his bed, which Eleanor wouldn’t consider So they sat between his bed and his stereo, where there was just enough roos bent
As soon as they sat down, Park started fast-forwarding through the Elvis Costello tape He had stacks and stacks of tapes, and Eleanor pulled a few out to look at them
‘Ah …’ Park said, pained
‘What?’
‘Those’re alphabetized’
‘It’s okay I know the alphabet’
‘Right’ He looked embarrassed ‘Sorry
Whenever Call co I wanted you to hear Listen’
‘Call comes over?’
‘Yeah, sometimes’ Park turned up the volume ‘It’s been a while’
‘Because now I just come over …’
‘Which is okay with me because I like you a lot more’
‘But don’t you ,’ he said
‘Neither are you’
He paused the tape, like he didn’t want to waste this song as backgroundabout whether I miss Cal? I eat lunch with him almost every day’
‘And he doesn’t mind that you spend the rest of your time with h his hair ‘I still see them all at school … I don’t know, I don’t really miss them, I’ve never really missed anybody but you’
‘But you don’t ether all the tih Park washed his face as soon as he got home, the black around his eyes didn’t co he did lately seem more dra ‘I know …’
She wanted to tell hi numbered, etc, but he wouldn’t understand, and what did she expect hi called?’ she asked
"‘Alison"’
Park
Park played Elvis Costello for her – and Joe Jackson, and Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
She teased him because it was all so pretty and melodic, and ‘in the same phylum as Hall & Oates,’ and he threatened to evict her from his roo with a hundred cassette tapes between them, and as soon as she walked away, Park leaned over and kissed Eleanor It seeht
She was a little too far away, so he put his hand on her back and pulled her toward hi he did all the ti the Northwest Passage
Eleanor came closer She put her hands on the floor between the that he put his other hand on her waist And then it was tooher Park rocked forward onto his knees and pulled her tighter
Half a dozen cassette tapes cracked under their weight Eleanor fell back, and Park fell forward
‘I’m sorry,’ she said ‘Oh, God … look, e did to Meat is Murder’
Park sat back and looked at the tapes He wanted to sweep them out of the way ‘It’s mostly just the cases, I think,’ he said ‘Don’t worry about it’ He started picking up the broken plastic
‘The Smiths and the Smithereens …’ she said ‘We even broke them in alphabetical order’
He tried to so,’ she said ‘I think it’s alht, anyway’
‘Oh Okay, I’ll walk you’
She stood up and Park followed her They walked outside and down the walk, and when they got to his grandparents’ driveway, Eleanor didn’t stop
Eleanor
Maisie smelled like an Avon lady, and she wasto get caught Talk about a house of effing cards Jee Zus
And Eleanor couldn’t even think strategy, because all she could think about was Park’s hands on her waist and her back and her sto he’d ever en-countered Everyone in Park’s fah to be in a Special K corandma
Eleanor could only be in that scene where the actress pinches an inch, then looks at the ca to end
Actually, she’d have to lose weight to be in that scene You could pinch an inch – or two, or three – all over Eleanor’s body You could probably pinch an inch on her forehead
Holding hands was fine Her hands weren’t a co seemed safe because fat lips are okay – and because Park usually closed his eyes
But there was no safe place on Eleanor’s torso There was no place from her neck to her knees
where
she
had
any
discernible
infrastructure
As soon as Park touched her waist, she’d sucked in her stomach and pitched forward
Which led to all the collateral dae … which made her feel like Godzilla (But even Godzilla wasn’t fat He was just ginor part was, Eleanor wanted Park to touch her again She wanted hi that she ay too ood it felt She was like one of those dogs who’ve tasted hu A walrus who’s tasted human blood
CHAPTER 40
Eleanor
Park wanted Eleanor to start checking her books now, especially after gym class
‘Because if it is Tina,’ he said – you could tell that he still didn’t believe that it was, ‘you need to tell so against his bed, trying to pretend that Park didn’t have his arm around her for the first time since she crushed his cassette tapes Just barely, not quite around her
‘You could tell Mrs Dunne,’ he said ‘She likes you’
‘Okay, so I tell Mrs Dunne, and I show her whatever awful thing Tina has misspelled on my books – and then Mrs Dunne asks, "How do you know that Tina wrote that?" She’ll be just as skeptical as you were, but without the complicated romantic history …’
‘There’s no complicated romantic history,’
Park said
‘Did you kiss her?’ Eleanor hadn’t meant to ask that Out loud It was almost like she’d asked it so many times in her head that it leaked out
‘Mrs Dunne? No But we’ve hugged a lot’
‘You knohat I mean … Did you kiss her?’
She was sure that he’d kissed her She was sure that they’d done other stuff, too Tina was so little, Park could probably wrap his arms all the way around her and shake his own hands at her waist
‘I don’t want to talk about this,’ he said
‘Because you did,’ Eleanor said
‘It doesn’t matter’