Eleanor and Park The Sequel: Don't Pass Me By

Chapter 9

Eleanor and Park belongs to Rainbow Rowell.  If you are reading please leave me a comment or a review just to give me some feedback! I'm a new writer and would love to know how I can improve. 

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The Pit smelled of sickly stale beer and burnt cheese, the sound of karaoke singers pierced Park’s eardrums, and the air was hot and humid from the contrast of everyone’s wet jackets against the warm air in the bar. 

Park loved every minute of it. 

Sure, some of Alex’s friends were a bit rowdy and meat-headed sometimes, but Park had never felt so included by a group of guys before.  He had always been The Small One, The Asian One, The Unathletic One.  With these guys, he was just himself: Park.  Or ‘Sheridan’, as they called him.  They took his recommendations for music, invited him to work out at the gym, and Park had even noticed that Dave, who had Intro Sociology with him and Alex, had started wearing faint blue eyeliner when they went drinking.  Park was even starting to enjoy the taste of beer, if it was served cold enough.  He didn’t indulge like some of the freshman on his floor, to the point of puking and forgetting what happened the night before, but he would sip on a glass, and revel in the warm loose feeling that crept up the back of his neck and into his cheeks.

Park looked around the bar now in search of their waitress.  A small voice in the back of his head wondered how any establishment could possibly think their whole table was over 21, and worried that they were about to be denied their beer and thrown into the street by a surly bar manager.  He was distracted from his worries by the conversation among the guys at the table.  Mike, Alex’s brawny friend from the gym, had set up a points system in which a guy would score 5 points for getting a girl’s number, 10 for getting her to kiss him, and 100 for bringing her back to residence.  So far their cumulative points total was 0.  Park found it humorous to know that most of the guys at this table hadn’t even had girlfriends before, let alone anything else.  They knew he had a girlfriend back home, and somehow he thought this had helped win their respect, and exempted him from the competition for female attention.  Park hadn’t mentioned that he and Jen had spoken just a handful of times since that first call he had made, or that she had blatantly ignored his questions about hanging out over the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend.  Not that he had asked too emphatically.  Just as everything with Jen, there was very little drama; which equaled very little passion, and Park didn’t mind one bit. 

There was a lot to distract him here at North.

Something was distracting everyone at the table now.  Mike elbowed Park in the ribs and he glanced up just in time to see a tray of beer go flying, along with whoever had been carrying it.  He reflexively gasped and chortled, laughing and clapping along with the others.  He craned his neck to look at the wreckage, wondering if it was the douchey waiter who had taken their order that had bailed so violently with their beers.  Park laughed louder just at the thought.  He laughed and clapped until he caught a glimpse of red hair.  Red hair, smooth pale skin, and a face he would recognize anywhere.

 Eleanor.