Page 29 of Eleanor & Grey
I liked him so much in that moment—so, so much.
He kept funneling cotton candy into his mouth as I sat down beside him.
“Hold still,” I ordered as I placed the cloth filled with ice against his eye. He cringed a bit as it touched his skin. “Sorry,” I said, pulling the cloth away from him. My fingers gently touched the swollen area of his eye. “I just want to get some ice on it before it gets worse.” I put the ice back against his skin, and he smiled.
“I like that,” he told me.
“The ice on your face?”
“No. I like it whenever you touch me.”
My heart stopped beating, I stopped breathing, and Greyson kept smiling.
I didn’t respond, because I had completely forgotten how to form words, but I was certain my reddened face told him exactly how his words had made me feel.
“So I know today has been eventful, but if you’re up for it, I got one of my grandpa’s favorite kung fu movies on DVD. I figured maybe we could watch it at my place,” Greyson offered.
“Sure, that sounds fun.”
We headed back to his house, and even though I kept looking toward Greyson’s bruising eye, he seemed unfazed by it all. He simply began humming a tune, so I began humming along with him.
We hummed the whole trip back, right until we walked up to Greyson’s house and his smile faded away.
There was shouting coming from inside the house, and I could see his parents hollering at one another through the front windows.
Greyson’s whole demeanor shifted as embarrassment took over. He turned to me and rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, maybe we should hang out another time.”
“Yeah, it’s fine, not a big deal.”
“I’ll talk to you later?”
“Yeah, of course.”
I turned to walk away but then glanced over my shoulder to see him staring at his house with such a look of defeat. It was clear he didn’t want to go into the house with the screaming.
“Hey, I’m still not ready to go home,” I said. “Do you want to maybe go to Laurie Lake to just hang out for a little bitlonger?” He needed the break. He needed something to take his mind off his own sadness.
Maybe he needed me just as much as I needed him in order to not be so broken.
He looked up at me, and I saw a flash of relief wash over his face. “Yeah, OK. Let’s go.”
* * *
“Are your parents always like that?” I asked as we sat on our log at Laurie Lake.
“Even more so lately. I just don’t get it. If they hate each other that much, then why even bother being together? I can’t even think back to a time when they actually liked one another.”
“I’m so sorry, Grey. That has to be hard for you.”
“It’s easier when they aren’t home, and luckily they are hardly ever home. Besides, next year I’ll be off to college, and it won’t matter much at all.”
“Still, I’m sorry.”
I couldn’t imagine living in a home without a strong type of love. My parents swam in each other’s love as if their hearts were oceans. They held each other up whenever times were hard. Their kind of love made the world a better place to be in. I couldn’t imagine them ever not being completely head over heels with one another.
They were the greatest love story I’d ever witnessed, and it was so hard to even imagine the two of them being apart. I swore their hearts beat together as one.
If there was one thing that I knew for sure, it was the fact that there was no Kevin without a Paige.
