Working Through the Pain

Part Three

Now, on any normal day, Eleanor would be hanging out with her boyfriend doing all that semi- cliché couples' bullshirt like cuddling by the lake or falling asleep in his arms under the moonlight or whatever the fork people did nowadays. But, now, unfortunately, she couldn't do that because Chidi didn't remember who the fork she was.

"Eleanor?"

Breaking out of her trance, she looked up, eyes wide with shock when she saw none other than (surprise)! Her ex-boyfriend sliding in next to her.

"Yeah, hey man." She said nervously, lifting herself up slightly and sitting atop the philosophy book she had just been reading. Even if he didn't remember their lessons, she still didn't want anyone knowing that she read those books for fun.

"What's that?" He asked pointing to the two books on the other side of her. Dang, she had forgotten about those two.

"Nothing!"

She quickly grabbed both books and hid them behind her back, "I-It's nothing..."

The Professor crossed his arms and stared at the young woman, until she finally sighed and handed them to him.

"Kant? Saint Thomas Aquinas?" He said in shock.

"Yeah, I like to call him Tommy Quine-Quine." She joked, making him laugh. She shifted her body to face him, then finally handed him the third book.

"Jonathan Dancy?" He said, "Wow, a lot of different books here. Wow, I have to say that you didn't seem to be the type of person who would be into this kind of readings."

"Yeah, I get that." The blonde said, "I wasn't all that interested in this complicated bull-shirt for a while, but then I met somebody." She said, blue eyes sparkling in the reflection of the sun.

"Somebody? What do you mean by that?"

"Just somebody that help me sort all this stuff out. I'm an eternal being and even this stuff made no sense to me, y'know?"

He nodded, "Makes perfect sense. So, tell me, since we both enjoy philosophy..."

"Oh, no dude. You're getting the wrong idea. I hate this stuff, it is such a buzzkill." It was a lie, though. She did enjoy these books, it was just a guilty pleasure of hers. Chidi tilted his head to the side, not buying it.

"...Since we both enjoy philosophy, I was wondering if there was anything else we had in common? Like, do you enjoy teaching?"

"Nope."

"Spending time with your friends?"

"I don't have any friends." She admitted.

"What about Tahani? She said she was your friend."

"Oh, she's totally not my friend. She's just a sexy, sweet woman who does nice things for me sometimes."

"So... a friend?"

"No! You're not getting it. My thing is different, so shut up." The shorter girl yanked the books out of Chidi's hands and walked inside, shutting her door behind her. She threw the books on to her unmade bed and walked back outside.

"I'm the forking architect. I'm not supposed to have friends."

"Well, that can't be true. I see you talking to all the residents all the time, even Janet. She seems to be very nice too."

"Sure, she's nice, that's like, how she is, though. She's basically a all-knowing robot who barfs rainbows and knowledge on everyone."

"Very vivid image, but alright." He nodded, "How about Jianyu?"

"Dude doesn't talk." She lied, "How could he be my friend?"

He nodded, "Well, it sounds to me like you don't want to get close to anybody. Why is that?"

"You don't know me, dude." She scolded, "Don't pretend that you do."

"... But I'd like too." He admitted, "Just please let me be your friend."

"You sure about that, bud? Because, as I recall, all you ever did on Earth was study and teach philosophy. You had a couple guys that you got along with, but you never really hung out much. You're not really an expert at spending time with a person, and I'm not the best at pretending I care about Spider-Men movies. Like, seriously, there are way too many of them. What is the forking deal with that?"

He laughed, "You do have a point, about friends." He nodded, "Though I'd still like to try to be yours."

"Yeah, that's not the best idea, sorry. Why don't you talk to Tahani? She really likes talking, and I'm sure you'll find something to talk about."

"Bu-But I don't..."

"See ya around, bud." She said, saluting him before walking away.

Chidi was very, very confused.

Why did the architect not want to be friends with him? Had he done something to upset her, he wondered?

Eleanor was a very strange young woman.

Wait, was she a woman? He wasn't completely sure...

Either way, he felt some kind of strange pulling towards her and an odd sense of familiarity.

Had they met before?

Well, he had just died a day ago, so... probably not.

She was an odd girl, Eleanor.

And Chidi was determined to figure her out.

The next morning, he went out on a hunt to find the blonde. Many of the other residents tried to wrap him into some of their conversations, which he politely denied on his search for Eleanor.

But then he smiled when he saw her in the distance, which slipped slowly when he saw her shaking. Tahani was there also, arms wrapped around the girl, stroking her hair as the shorter woman cried into the side of Tahani's frock, who was trying to contain herself from the thought of Eleanor's cheap makeup on her precious designer clothes.

Chidi's heart broke as he watched the scene. Who had hurt Eleanor so much to where she was acting this way?

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and made his way over to the two girls. He took a seat down next to Eleanor and grabbed the blonde's hand to comfort her. Instead, the girl jumped in shock and fell off her seat, groaning in pain when she hit her head.

"What the here, man?" She shouted angrily, accepting the Brit's hand as she helped her up, "Are you alright, darling?"

"I'm fine." She said, wincing at the pain in the back of her neck.

"I-- I apologize, I saw you crying, I was only trying to help."

"Yeah? Well, ya didn't." She winced as she turned her head, "Motherforker."

The blonde walked ahead, cursing to herself the entire time. Tahani gave Chidi a look of sympathy before heading after Eleanor.

Why did everything he did have to hurt somebody else? On Earth, his indecisions had always troubled the people around him. He had made a simple decision for once and he had still hurt somebody.

What did that say about him?

--

A/N: Hi guys! I've been sick the past week, and I was having a difficult time trying to write another chapter when I was feeling that shirty. While I am still a little bit sick, my brain has gotten its shirt together and given me ideas and such. Thank God! Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! I'd love to hear your views on it. Thank you for your patience!

Love,

Sellybelly411