𝐦𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧 **𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐮𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫**

mommy's home

After a long day of classes, Eloise headed to the courtyard, her last class not being with Tristan, so she had no idea when he would show up or if he'd even be there at all. 

But he was there, sitting by a tree, leaning his elbow on a thick tree root and extending his legs to a comfortable position. Eloise caught a glimpse of him, Tristan looking around the tons of kids coming through that way and holding a book to his chest tightly. Eloise walked over to him and sat, automatically interested in the book he held so close to his chest it could be mistaken for his child.

"You came." Tristan said, handing her the book. Eloise skimmed her hand across the rim, "Well, I don't know if you have memory loss or something, but I literally said I was gonna be here, and unlike many, I stand by my word."

Tristan tilted his head down so he was in Eloise's peripheral, and Eloise finally looked at him.

"Do you like the book?" Tristan asked, cockily looking down at How it feels to float  by Helena Fox. Eloise let a smirk plaster her face and replied, "I would be, if I didn't give you this book in 7th grade and have one other copy." 

Tristan rolled his eyes and replied, "Just be grateful I kept it that long."

Eloise looked from her rings to his eyes and let confusion take over saying, "What do you mean?"

Tristan let his body rest against the trunk of the tree and said, "I lose a bunch of books all the time or like the are completely demolished, that one just never seemed to get lost in the chaos."

This was partially true. Tristan kept this book in perfect condition because that was the first time Eloise talked to him for more than 30 minutes. He put it away in his desk, keeping it in a nice drawer dedicated to Eloise from that day out with her miscellanous book collection. Tristan liked that about Eloise, she was not an open book but at the same time was. You can't predict what she is doing next, but you can always look at the options. 

"Then I appreciate it, dearly. I'm happy it wasn't lost." Eloise smiled, while turning each page carefully, as if it would rip at the gentlest touch. Tristan grabbed the book from her and Eloise whipped her head around to look at him.

"Wanna ride with me today?" Tristan asked. 

"Why?"

"What do you mean why?" he asked, with a joking tone. He stood up, hovering over her, outreaching his hand to help her up. 

"I mean why ask?" Eloise perked in, grabbing ahold of his hand and standing up straight, fixing her skirt. 

"I don't want to drive alone, you know with the dangerous world we live in obviously." Tristan said, not very convincingly. 

Eloise started walking, Tristan looked at her confused stationed in his spot before Eloise turned back around, halfway across the courtyard. "Are you coming or not, Dugray?" Eloise shouted out. Tristan let a genuine smile invade his face and started jogging to her. Eloise walked to the passenger side of his car and let him unlock the doors before sliding into the seat.

Tristan slid into the driver's seat and started the car, backing out of his parking space. "What do you wanna listen to, Irvine?"

Eloise turned her face towards the radio and flipped through channels until she heard the tune of California Dreamin'. Eloise smiled as she saw Tristan start to turn towards her with a smile. He picked up his water bottle and started singing the lyrics. Eloise had to admit his singing voice wasn't bad but wasn't perfect either.

Eloise grabbed her water bottle and joined in on the singing, both at times pounding their heads to the music, or switching off to give each other a solo moment. 

"California dreaming on such a," Tristan began, looking at Eloise to join in on, "WINTER"S DAY!!!"

They both laughed as the music dimmed down. Tristan looked at Eloise for at least 5 seconds, and smiled even wider. He realized then that he helped Eloise loosen up a bit. Her serious face was now smiling, her once neat hair now disheveled, and her button up shirt buttoned down a bit revealed the top of a black lacy bralette. 

Tristan then looked at the road again and flipped the station to hear the faint words of Dream a little dream of me. Eloise held her water bottle close to her mouth and started singing the lyrics softly, her voice like a breath of fresh air. Tristan gripped his water bottle more and sang as her back up until the song started with, "Stars fading but I linger on, dear..." 

Eloise looked at Tristan shocked by how attractive his voice became out of nowhere, she looked to her right and saw her house, her father's car parked in the long driveway. Tristan made a stop in front of the house and Tristan turned the music down a bit and watched Eloise open the car door. 

"Thank you for the ride, Tristan." she said softly and started walking towards the door, before Tristan yelled out, "I'll see you at 6." 

"Not if I'm not there." Eloise said still walking away.

"But you will be there."

"Bye now, Dugray." Eloise waved as she opened the door to her house. She saw her dad sitting on the couch, with a whole vodka bottle empty and a paper in his hands. She removed her shoes and walked to the living room, coming into view of her father. 

"Hi father." she said cautiously. 

Her father threw the vodka bottle at the wall, nearly missing the TV. "Are you fucking serious, you wanna tell me about this 98?"

Eloise looked at her essay paper and backed away from her father, "I'm still top of the school and it won't happen again. I'm studying harder." Her father bunched the paper up and threw it at her. He started walking closer and slapped her in the face before going down to his knees and sobbing.

"I'm sorry Ellie." he sobbed into his dirty hands. Ellie knelt down to her knees, tears in her eyes from how hard she was slapped in the face and she covered her father with her own body. Her father suffered from IED, and couldn't control himself a lot of the time. She led him to the couch and laid him down. He was instantly out and Eloise covered him. This was Eloise at the age of 4, when her mom began getting out of the house more frequently. 

Before she could say one more thing, her mother walked through the door, looked at her ex-husband and scoffed. "Another episode, I suppose?" her mother questioned while hanging her blazer in the coat closet. Eloise spat out, "Oh so you're back and the first thing you say is something fucking rude. What ever happened to hello?" 

"Darling, if I felt like saying hello, I would've, but how is school?" she questioned going straight to the open kitchen with Bertha, our maid, sweeping. 

"Exceptional, beyond exciting actually. I'm actually getting better in chemis-" Eloise began before getting cut off by her mother, "Doll, I didn't ask about each individual class. You simply talk too much, try and talk less."

Eloise scoffed at her mother and grabbed her stuff to go upstairs but before she did she said, "If you're so fucking smart, you'd see that we have a hard working woman sweeping our kitchen and move the fuck out, out of common human courtesy."

"Young lady! You have no right to talk to me like that." her mother said walking over to the stairs. 

"Mother..." Eloise smirked as the words rolled off of her tongue, "talk less, it rids of those horrible wrinkles you are already getting." 

Eloise fake frowned and stomped up the stairs, all the way to the third floor.