Park & Eleanor

Thirteen

park

His arm twitched nervously as he sat at the counter, his mind eons above him. The thought of her hadn’t left his mind since the funeral two days before. It came like a slap to the face just how much he needed her, but what a slap it was. That was the kind of sting he wished he could feel forever. 

The twitch traveled to his palm. What if she came to the shop? No, that wasn’t possible. She didn’t know it existed. Did she? Even if she did, she wouldn’t come. He knew that. 

His fingers tugged at themselves. He needed to stop having all of these ‘what if’ thoughts. He needed to do something. He had to act. She came back in to his life suddenly, and she could leave just as fast. 

He had to do something. Now. Before it was too late. 

eleanor

There was a knock on the door. She wiped at the still present tears under her eyes. 

“I got it, Mom,” she yelled, trying not to let her crying show through. She opened the door. The face in the door smiled at her, and almost instantly, she slammed the door shut. 

park

Was it something he said? No. He just smiled at her. His brows furrowed. Should he leave? No. He came all this way. He knocked the door again. 

eleanor

This could not be happening. No way this was actually real. Park was not actually standing at her door right now. She ran her hands through her now puffy hair. Should she, like, let him in or something? Would that be okay? 

No. She was just going to ignore it. That was what normal people did, right? They ignored their problems until they went away. 

Another knock on the door. Oh yeah. She wasn’t normal. 

park

It must have been something he said. Or something he didn’t say, maybe. Whatever it was, he had done something wrong. Terribly wrong. And he had to apologize. But that meant she had to open the door, and god only knew when she’d do that. He could be standing out here all day for all he knew. And for Eleanor, making him wait for her didn’t seem like that much of a stretch. 

But then, as if he had jinxed it, the door opened. And there, peering out at him with puffy eyes and swollen cheeks, was Eleanor. And she looked even more beautiful than the last time he saw her.