Eleanor and Park 2

Matt

The first thing I wanted to tell her was how beautiful she was. Not just today, but everyday. I also wanted to apologize for being a total dick. I get in my head sometimes, and I've explained that to her and she's told me she still loves me. God, I love her. When I look at her, it's like there's no one else on the entire planet but every time I try to explain that to her, I just can't seem to get the words out.
An apology first, confession of love second.
She walked in and it looked like she was glowing. Her eyes were sparkling and she looked like a work of art. I suddenly realized that she was looking right through me, like I wasn't even there. Like I was just a window.
Then I saw Park and I saw their fingers intertwined.
At first, I wanted to get mad. I wanted to yell at her. I wanted everyone in the school to know how mad I was. Yesterday she had kissed me, promised me that she had made up her mind and that the back and forth would stop. Here she was with some skinny Asian prick holding his hand right in front of my face.
But yelling wouldn't help anything. She could stomp on my heart as many times as she wanted and it still wouldn't matter, because I love her. Plain and simple.
So I just watched. She went to her locker, he leaned over. I caught glimpses of her smile, her sparkling eyes. I hated that he made her feel that way, the way I should be making her feel.
But she looked happy.
Park kissed her on the cheek, sparing me from aggressive PDA, and walked to his class as the two minute bell rang. I walked over to her locker. I didn't care if I was late. Fuck Chemistry anyway.
"Hey. Can we talk?" She looked startled to see me. She closed her locker hurriedly.
"Not right now, Matt. I have to get to class."
"Look, you can't just show up holding his hand and not expect me to want to talk about it? Do I need to remind you that just yesterday we were kissing?"
"No, you actually don't need to remind me. Look, Matt-" She began to back away from me, clearly annoyed that she had to own up to her actions.
"It was always him wasn't it?" She stopped.
"That's not fair I-"
"But I'm right aren't I?"
"Of course not, Matt. I loved you, I really did."
"Two weeks ago you were in Minnesota and you were fine. We wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. Now you move here and I think that I'll follow you because why ruin a good thing, but he's here-"
"Park."
"What?"
"He has a name. His name is Park."
"Christ, Eleanor. I don't give a fuck about his name. I care about you, okay?"
"Well, I care about his name."
"Why couldn't you just be happy with this? With me?" The bell for class to start rung, startling us both in the heat of the moment.
"I don't know," she looked like she was about to cry. "Look, I have to go to class. I'll talk to you later." She scurried away while I stood there watching her.
I leaned against the locker behind me and held my face in my hands. I had just gone and ruined it all. Any chance we ever had of working it out. I didn't think it was that unfair to ask questions, but I guess it was. I definitely didn't feel like going to Chemistry now. I walked out the front door and just as I was about to open my car door, I heard someone call out to me.
"Hey!"
I turn around to see a short girl with the tallest hair I've ever seen. She's smoking a cigarette, and she smiles at me slyly. She drops the cigarette and smashes it underneath her heel. She extends her hand towards me.
"Hi. I'm Tina. You're Matt, right?"

Hello everyone! I know it's been a while, and as you can probably tell, my writing has changed a lot since I first wrote this! Given the weird situation we are in due to Covid-19, I figured I'd pick this up. Please bare in mind, I started this a very long time ago without a whole lot of reference to the ending of the book (such as Park now driving the Impala and so on and so forth) so I apologize for any inconsistencies. I also am working in a world that me a very long time ago created, but I hope you enjoy the first new chapter, we will see where this all goes, because I honestly have no clue!  :)