do i make you wet?
She pulled back the soiled blanket and set the cat on the clean sheet underneath. Then she climbed from the top bunk to the bottom. Her bookbag was sitting by the door. Eleanor unzipped it without getting off the bed and took Park’s photo out of the side pocket. Then she was out the window and on the porch and running down the street faster than she’d ever run in gym class.
She didn’t slow down until she was on the next block, and then only because she didn’t know where to go. She was almost to Park’s house – she couldn’t go to Park’s house.
pop that cherry
‘Hey, Red.’
Eleanor ignored the girl’s voice. She looked back at the street. What if somebody had heard her leave the house? What if Richie came after her? She stepped off the sidewalk into someone’s yard. Behind a tree.
‘Hey. Eleanor.’
Eleanor looked around. She was standing in front of Steve’s house. The garage door was mostly closed, propped open with a baseball bat. Eleanor could see someone moving inside, and Tina was walking down the driveway, holding a beer.
‘Hey,’ Tina hissed. She looked as disgusted with Eleanor as ever.
Eleanor thought about running again, but her legs felt weak.
‘Your stepdad’s been looking for you,’ Tina said. ‘He’s been driving around the neighborhood all goddamn night.’
‘What did you tell him?’ Eleanor said. Did Tina do this? Is that how he knew?
‘I asked him if his dick was bigger than his truck,’ Tina said. ‘I didn’t tell him anything.’
‘Did you tell him about Park?’
to.’
Tina narrowed her eyes. Then shook her head. ‘But somebody’s going
suck me off
Eleanor looked back at the street. She had to hide. She had to get away
from him.
‘What’s wrong with you anyway?’ Tina asked.
‘Nothing.’ A pair of headlights stopped at the end of the block. Eleanor put her arms over her head.
‘Come on,’ Tina said, in a voice Eleanor had never heard before – concerned. ‘You just need to stay out of his way until he cools off.’
Eleanor followed Tina up the driveway, crouching to get into the hazy, dark garage.
‘Is that Big Red?’ Steve was sitting on a couch. Mikey was there, too, on the floor, with one of the girls from the bus. There was hessian music, Black Sabbath, coming from a car up on blocks in the middle of the garage.
‘Sit down,’ Tina said, pointing to the other end of the couch.
‘You’re in trouble, Big Red,’ Steve said. ‘Your daddy’s looking for you.’ Steve was grinning from ear to ear. His mouth was bigger than a lion’s.
‘It’s her stepdad,’ Tina said.
‘Stepdad,’ Steve shouted, throwing a beer can across the garage. ‘Your fucking stepdad? Do you want me to kill him for you? I’m gonna kill Tina’s anyway. I could get them both in the same day. Buy one, get one …’ He giggled. ‘Buy one, get one … free.’
Tina opened a beer and shoved it into Eleanor’s lap. Eleanor took it, just to have something to hold. ‘Drink up,’ Tina said.
Eleanor took a sip obediently. It tasted sharp and yellow.
‘We should play quarters,’ Steve slurred. ‘Hey, Red, do you have any quarters?’ Eleanor shook her head.
Tina perched next to him on the arm of the couch and lit a cigarette. ‘We had quarters,’ she said. ‘We spent them on beer, remember?’
‘Those weren’t quarters,’ Steve said. ‘That was a ten.’ Tina closed her eyes and blew smoke at the ceiling.
Eleanor closed her eyes, too. She tried to think about what she should do next, but nothing came to her. The music on the car radio switched from Sabbath to ACDC to Zeppelin. Steve sang along; his voice was surprisingly light. ‘Hangman, hangman, turn your head a while …’
Eleanor listened to Steve sing song after song over the wet hammer of her heartbeat. The beer can went warm in her hand.
i know your a slut you smell like cum
She stood up. ‘I’ve got to get out of here.’
‘God,’ Tina said, ‘relax. He won’t find you here. He’s probably already at the Rail drinking it off.’
‘No,’ Eleanor said. ‘He’s going to kill me.’ It was true, she realized, even if it wasn’t.
Tina’s face was hard. ‘So, where you gonna go?’ ‘Away … I have to tell Park.’
Park
Park couldn’t sleep.
That night, before they’d climbed back into the front seat of the Impala, he’d taken off all of Eleanor’s layers and even unpinned her bra – then laid her down on the blue upholstery. She’d looked like a vision there, a mermaid. Cool white in the darkness, the freckles gathered on her shoulders and cheeks like cream rising to the top.
The sight of her. She still glowed on the inside of his eyelids.
It was going to be constant torture now that he knew what she was like under her clothes – and there wasn’t a next time in their near future. Tonight was another fluke, a lucky break, a gift …
‘Park,’ someone said.
Park sat up in bed and looked around dumbly.
‘Park.’ There was a knock at the window, and he scrambled over to it, pulling back the curtain.
It was Steve. Right behind the glass, grinning like a maniac. He must be hanging from the window ledge. Steve’s face disappeared, and Park heard him fall heavily onto the ground. That asshole. Park’s mom was going to hear him.
Park opened the window quickly and leaned out. He was going to tell Steve to go away, but then he saw Eleanor standing in the shadow of Steve’s house with Tina.
Were they holding her hostage? Was she holding a beer?
Eleanor
As soon as Park saw her, he climbed out the window and hung four feet from the ground – he was going to break his ankles. Eleanor felt a sob catch in her throat.
He landed in a crouch like Spider-Man and ran toward her. She dropped the beer on the grass.
‘Jesus,’ Tina said. ‘You’re welcome. That was the last beer.’
‘Hey, Park, did I scare you?’ Steve asked. ‘Did you think I was Freddy Krueger? You think you was gonna get away from me?’
Park got to Eleanor and took her arms. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked. ‘What’s going on?’
She started to cry. Like, majorly cry. She felt like herself again as soon as he touched her, and it was horrible.
‘Are you bleeding?’ Park asked, taking her hand. ‘Car,’ Tina whispered.
Eleanor pulled Park against the garage until the headlights had passed. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked again.
‘We should get back to the garage,’ Tina said.
Park
He hadn’t been in Steve’s garage since grade school. They used to play foosball in here. Now there was the Camaro up on blocks and an old couch pushed against the wall.
Steve sat at one end of the couch and immediately lit a joint. He held it out to Park, but Park shook his head. The garage already smelled like a thousand joints had been smoked in here, then put out in a thousand beers. The Camaro was rocking a little bit and Steve kicked the door. ‘Settle down, Mikey, you’re gonna knock it over.’
Park couldn’t even imagine a turn of events that would have led Eleanor here – but she’d practically dragged him into the garage, and now she was huddled against him. Park still thought maybe they’d kidnapped her. Was he supposed to pay ransom?
‘Talk to me,’ he said to the top of Eleanor’s head. ‘What’s going on?’ ‘Her stepdad is looking for her,’ Tina said. Tina was sitting on the arm
of the couch with her legs in Steve’s lap. She took the joint from him.
‘Is that true?’ Park asked Eleanor. She nodded into his chest. She wouldn’t let him pull far enough away that he could look at her.
‘Fucking stepdads,’ Steve said. ‘Motherfuckers, all of them.’ He burst into laughter. ‘Oh, fuck, Mikey, did you hear that?’ He kicked the Camaro again. ‘Mikey?’
‘I have to leave,’ Eleanor whispered.
Thank God. Park backed away from her and took her hand. ‘Hey, Steve, we’re going back to my house.’
‘Be careful, man, he’s been driving around in that shit-colored Micro Machine …’
Park bent to clear the garage door. Eleanor stopped behind him. ‘Thank you,’ she said – he would swear that she was talking to Tina.
This night couldn’t get any weirder.
He led Eleanor through his backyard, then around the back of his grandparents’ house to the driveway, past the spot by the garage where they liked to kiss goodbye.
When they got to the RV, Park reached up and opened the screen door. ‘Go on,’ he said. ‘It’s always unlocked.’
He and Josh used to play in here. It was like a little house, with a bed at one end and a kitchen at the other. There was even a miniature stove and refrigerator. It had been a while since Park had been inside the RV – he couldn’t stand up now without hitting his head on the ceiling.
There was a checkerboard-sized table against the wall with two seats. Park sat on one side and sat Eleanor down across from him. He reached for her hands – her right palm was streaked with blood, but she didn’t seem to be in pain.
‘Eleanor …’ he said. ‘What’s going on?’ He was pleading.
‘I have to leave,’ she said. She was looking across the table like she’d just seen a ghost. Like she was one.
‘Why?’ he said. ‘Is this about tonight?’ In Park’s head, it felt like everything must be about tonight. Like nothing that good and this bad could happen on the same night unless they were related. Whatever this was.
‘No,’ Eleanor said, rubbing her eyes. ‘No. It’s not about us. I mean …’ She looked out the little window.
‘Why is your stepdad looking for you?’ ‘Because he knows, because I ran away.’
‘Why?’
‘Because he knows.’ Her voice caught. ‘Because it’s him.’ ‘What?’
‘Oh God, I shouldn’t have come here,’ she said. ‘I’m just making it worse. I’m sorry.’
Park wanted to shake her, to shake through to her – she wasn’t making any sense. Two hours ago, everything had been perfect between them, and now … Park had to get back to his house. His mom was still awake, and his dad was going to be home any minute.
He leaned over the table and took Eleanor by the shoulders.
‘Could we just start over?’ he whispered. ‘Please? I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Eleanor closed her eyes and nodded wearily. She started over.
She told him everything.
And Park’s hands started shaking before she was halfway through.
‘Maybe he won’t hurt you,’ he said, hoping it was true, ‘maybe he’s just trying to scare you. Here …’ He pulled his hand inside his sleeve and tried to wipe Eleanor’s face.
‘No,’ she said. ‘You don’t know, you don’t see how … how he looks at me.’
