Page 27 of Eleanor & Grey
We sat there watching the dragonflies buzz around, and I took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. “Can I ask you a question? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“Anything.”
“What’s the story about Stacey White? Again, you don’t have to answer, but I feel like since she was the one who kind of brought us together...”
He brushed his finger against his nose. “It’s embarrassing.”
“You don’t have to say, really. I’m just curious.”
He clasped his fingers together, rolled his shoulders back, and cracked his neck. “Well, yeah, I’d be curious, too, I guess. It’s really embarrassing, though.”
“I wear crocheted cardigans with dragonflies on them, Greyson. Embarrassing is my middle name.”
He sighed and nodded, turning to face me. He clapped his hands once. “All right. So Stacey and I were dating for a short period, not long, and I wasn’t even sure if she was someone I should’ve dated, because, well, she’s not really my type. She’s a bit self-absorbed, but whatever. Everything was going good with her, until she was ready to, well, you know...” His cheeks reddened, and for the first time ever, I witnessed Grey getting flustered.
Finally, we were on an even playing field.
“Yeah, I know.” I nodded, trying my best to ease his nerves.
“When I told her I’d never done it, she laughed, thinking I was joking, so I laughed too, trying to play it off. But then when we went to do the act, I couldn’t...” He dropped his stare. “Well, I mean, my nerves... I couldn’t get it... up.” The last words were whispered, and I swore I’d never liked him more. “I was just nervous, and overthinking, and I know it’s embarrassing that I’m seventeen and I haven’t—”
“I haven’t either,” I cut in.
He looked up to me, shocked, which was shocking to me. TheWesley Peters–loving cardigan-wearer was a virgin?
No way!
“Really?” he asked, clearly feeling hopeful that he wasn’t the only one of us left on the planet.
“Really, really. It’s not shocking. I’ve never even been kissed.”
“You’re wrong,” he disagreed. “Thatisshocking.”
I shrugged. “I think people our age make it out to be a bigger deal than it is.”
“Which is exactly what Stacey did. She laughed in my face, and mocked me, saying that the most popular guy in school couldn’t even get her off. So I broke up with her. She didn’ttake that too well and threatened to tell everyone about my, um... performance issues. I told Landon, and he handled it. He had some dirt on Stacey that she didn’t want to get out, so she shut up about it, which led to me owing Landon.”
“I see.”
“Yeah. He’s a dick, but he’s my best friend, so at least he’s a loyal dick.”
“Wow. That’s actually really nice of him... you know, until he forced you to talk to a weird girl at a party by blackmailing you.”
“I don’t regret that,” he said matter-of-factly.
Sigh.“Me either.”
“I owe you, Ellie.”
“For what?”
He cleared his throat and scratched the back of his neck. “The past few weeks since my grandpa passed away, I’ve been really lonely and sad; even when I’m around other people at parties and stuff, it’s been hard. But when I’m with you, I’m not lonely anymore. When I’m with you, I feel like I belong. So I owe you for that. I almost forgot what it felt like.”
“You almost forgot what what felt like?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “Being happy.”
8Eleanor
