Page 7 of Eleanor & Grey
They were the kind of gray you thought only existed in overwrought romance novels where the hero looked a little too perfect. No one truly had gray eyes. I’d been alive for sixteen years, and I had never come across a boy with a gray stare other than Greyson. Light blue? Sure. Green? Yeah, sometimes, but Greyson’s eyes were so far from anything else I’d ever seen. I understood the appeal.
On the receiving end of his gray stare andthatsmile, I understood why most girls melted into a puddle of helplessness around him.
Oh, God, make it stop.
He gave me a slight wave when we made eye contact, along with a tiny, crooked smirk, and it annoyed me. Those smirks might’ve worked on the Stacey Whites of the world, but they didn’t work on me. I looked down at my book, trying to ignore him.
But those shoes stayed in place. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him lowering, and lowering, and lowering his body before he was kneeling right in front of me. He waved again, with the same forced smile.
“Hey, Eleanor, what’s up?” he said, almost as if we’d always talked and he was just checking in to catch up.
I muttered under my breath.
He arched an eyebrow. “Did you say something?”
For the love of all things right in the world, did he not see my headphones and my book? Did he not know it was June22, 2003? Why did no one seem to understand the importance of binge-reading a novel the second it hit your fingertips?
I hated this world sometimes.
“I said don’t.” I took off my headphones. “Just don’t do this.”
“Do what?”
“This.” I gestured between us. “I know Landon told you to come talk to me to get information about Shay, but it’s a lost cause. I’m not interested in being involved in their weird bet.”
“How did you hear what we were saying with headphones on?”
“Easy—I wasn’t playing anything.”
“Then why wear the headphones?”
OHMYGOSHCANYOUJUSTGOAWAY?
There was nothing worse than when an extrovert tried to understand the deep corners of an introvert’s mind.
I released a heavy sigh. “Look, I get it—you’re trying to bea good friend and all, but I’m honestly just trying to read my book in peace and be left alone.”
Greyson ran his hands through his hair like a freaking shampoo model. I swore he did it in slow motion as the nonexistent wind blew through it. “OK, but can I, like, just hang here next to you for a few minutes? Just so Landon thinks I’m doing him a favor?”
“I don’t care what you do. Just do it quietly.”
He smiled, andholy crap, it was an easy smile to like.
I went back to reading my book as Greyson sat beside me. Every now and then, he’d say, “Just talking your way so Landon thinks we’re buddies.”
I’d respond with, “Just replying so you don’t look as ridiculous as you’re actually being right now.”
He’d smile again, I’d notice that smile, and I’d go back to my book.
Finally, Shay walked up with my Coke and held out a plastic cup with a frozen Popsicle in it. “I couldn’t find ice, but I figured a Popsicle could keep your drink cold for a bit. Plus it’s a cherry Popsicle, so, voilà! It’s a Cherry Coke.” She shifted her stare to Greyson and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, Grey... hey, what’s up?”
“Oh, nothing. Just getting to know Eleanor.” He did that grin thing, and Shay totally fell for it like a freaking gazelle in a lion’s den.
“Oh, good choice. She’s my favorite person in the whole wide world, so you’re in for a treat. I’ll let you guys keep chatting.” Shay waved to me as if she didn’t see the panic in my eyes that pleaded “Abort, abort! Save me.” She wandered off to be the social butterfly she was, and I was left stuck in my cocoon with Greyson.
“How long does this have to go on?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. As long as it takes for Landon to stop throwing the Stacey White situation in my face.”
