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"PROMISE ME you'll see him this time."
Eleanor looks at her mother from the passenger seat of her car, pushing back her bleach blonde hair and giving Mary Ann a dramatic glare.
Eleanor is fifteen, too young to have a license; Mary Ann has to drive her across town to Taron's house when they feel so inclined to hang out there. Taron has a license, but both of them find it counter-productive for him to drive all the way to the suburbs, pick her up, and drive her all the way back to his house. He usually just takes her back home.
"Don't give me that look," Mary Ann says.
Eleanor relaxes her face and unbuckles her seatbelt.
"I'm not going to see him," Eleanor declares.
"He'd be thrilled!"
"No, he wouldn't!"
"Eleanor." She stops opening the door to look at her mom. "I'll give you ten bucks if you at least say hi."
"You're bribing me to talk to my deadbeat father?" Eleanor questions with raised eyebrows, before grinning and saying, "Twenty bucks."
"Deal."
Eleanor extends her hand as Mary Ann retrieves her purse from the backseat, digs out her wallet, and hands a twenty dollar bill to Eleanor.
"Thank you," Eleanor says, examining it gleefully.
"Now, don't tell him I gave you that!"
"If he's even there, that is," Eleanor replies as she shoves the money in her pocket and pushes open the car door, grabbing her backpack from the floor.
"Tell Taron I said hello!"
"I will," she says, getting out of the car.
"I love you!"
Eleanor replies with a mumble, shutting the door. Mary Ann says goodbye before driving off, leaving Eleanor to stand in front of her father's house. She slings the strap of her backpack on her shoulder and sighs.
She hadn't spoken to her dad in weeks, and now she is walking up his steps.
Eleanor cringes as she knocks on the front door. However, the dread quickly passes, for no one answers. Eleanor knocks again after fifteen seconds or so just to make her twenty bucks worthwhile.
"Brilliant," she sighs, gazing at the peeling paint on the door. "Called it. Asshole."
Eleanor shakes her head, turning around and going down a step or two, embarrassed that she even tried. But before she could storm down the rest of the staircase, the door opens behind her and a groggy Ray says, "Eleanor? What, what are you doing here?"
