"It just takes some time
Little girl you're in the middle of the ride
Everything, everything will be just fine
Everything, everything will be alright, alright"
- Jimmy Eat World, 'The Middle'
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Eleanor's mom had a lot of Botox.
Which, I mean, was understandable because it's not like we all age in reverse. She had just had a lot of work done. And she was relatively orange. And, again, I sound like a horrible person for saying that but it was true.
In all fairness though, she was really nice, and that means a lot in my book. Sometimes I spend various holiday breaks at Keller's house and you would not believe the amount of yelling that takes place between her and her parents. Or maybe you would believe it. Yeah, you probably would. And it's not even like they're fighting with each other; it just really looks like it. And sounds like it.
And even though Eleanor's mom was orange and had Botox, she was still ridiculously pretty. It must have been an Eleanor-family thing. They were all quite attractive.
Anyways, Keller, Harry, and I were all late to brunch, which was being held at some sort of bed-and-breakfast type thing but was in some kind of castle-esque building instead of the cottages that I was used to. Everyone was also wearing pastels while I was in a lime-green sweater, much to Keller's dismay. I'd also really liked that sweater until now when I looked like I hadn't gone shopping since 1995. Yeah, I hate my life.
At least my face had finally stopped bleeding. It had taken awhile and I had caked on the Chapstick over it so the scab would be less visible, but at least I wasn't leaking anymore.
"You made it!" Eleanor leapt up from her chair to hug Keller and I, leaving Harry to fend for himself. He didn't seem all that bitter though. "What about John?" That was kind of Eleanor to pretend like she cared where John was.
"He didn't want to be here." Keller never sugar-coated things. Besides, it wasn't like it was a surprise that John didn't like Eleanor and vice versa.
Eleanor feigned disappointment before grabbing my arm and dragging me towards the table. "You remember my mom and dad, right?" She didn't even give me a chance to answer. "And my sister, Hannah. And you remember Louis and Liam, obviously," she waved her hand in the general direction of the last two.
I blinked. It was a good thing that I had decided to wear my glasses that day. Alright, there was Eleanor's mom, who looked the same, and her dad, who also looked like everyone else's dad. Seriously. He looked like both my stepdad and my real dad and the two of them looked nothing alike. That's how generic he looked. And then there was Hannah, who was three or four years younger than Eleanor, with blonder hair and was a few inches shorter. Louis was a given since I saw him all of the time. And then there was Liam.
Oh my God it was Liam.
And I could finally tell what he looked like since there wasn't a small mob of people around him. Liam had brown hair and brown eyes and... well... he just looked so... normal. The way that everyone described him made it seem like he was from the Wizard of Oz but no, he was just Liam. And he was obviously attractive because he was friends with Eleanor. Eleanor wasn't friends with ugly people. Not that I was attractive. That was why she left me behind on her popular adventures.
