Chapter Eighty-Five
Eleanor’s Point of View:
I had wanted to stay and stare at him for a while as he slept, but I couldn’t, out of fear that he’d wake up and catch me at it, especially since I didn’t want him to stop me from going outside, which he would certainly have done.
Not like I hadn’t done it so many times before, like the creep that I am, but fortunately or rather, unfortunately for me, Eleanor had never suspected anything.
The one time he caught me. I had covered up by pointing at the pool of drool he had left on the bedsheets.
He and Fiona had made it a point of duty to tease him about it for the rest of that week. At the thought of Fiona, I sighed again.
Fiona is the main reason I’m conflicted right now. I’m torn between worrying about her and being jealous of her. The former is eating away at my sleep and the latter is making me feel like the worst person alive.
The funny thing is, I wasn’t right to accuse Kira of keeping secrets. I felt like a bloody hypocrite.
Nobody except my mum, and even she doesn’t know the extent, knows that I have had a crush on James, my best friend, for six years now.
So, cliché really, and I feel like puking anytime I think about it. That’s when I’m not busy checking him out discreetly.
I know he probably thinks I’m out of his league and the irony isn’t lost on me every time Fiona sympathizes with guys. I turned down without a second glance and gave me the “look, you’ll die single.”
I remember the day they came up with a game using all the guys that have ever asked me out. Fiona was a pro that day and James stood on the con side.
I laughed till tears ran out of my eyes that day as they listed the guys, and their features and imitated most of them.
They weighed both sides against each other on an invisible scale. They started with their hands on stomach level.
If they remembered something good, Fiona’s hand went up and if it was something bad, James’ went up.
When they were done listing his characteristics, the highest hand would determine whether that particular person was worthy of dating me.
However, that memory will come to haunt me for two reasons. For one, I watched James’ reaction to the names of the guys I had actually liked and dated, and it wasn’t different from when they had mentioned guys who were scumbags or guys, I hadn’t been interested in.
He wasn’t jealous at all. It was all fun and games for him. Then I noticed that after that day, James changed the traits in him that resembled the ones Fiona had called con in those guys; like adding creamer to coffee.
I had laughed outside and died a little inside the day James struggled through a cup of coffee without cream just to impress Fiona and, like a cliché, she also didn’t realize the guy had a gigantic crush on her.
I rub my arms again to increase circulation. Now that I think about it, it was pretty idiotic to leave home without informing anyone at this time of the morning.
I reached in my pocket for my phone. It’s empty; I suddenly remember that when I had changed the jogger I wanted to wear at the last minute because I had found a tear in it, I had forgotten to transfer my stuff along with it.
I don’t even know how long I’ve been outside, lost in thought and strolling. I started to hurry back home, so I could return to my room before anyone woke up.
Down the street to my house, I saw a few people gathered, and I started to jog down in panic. What happened?
Tristan’s Point of View:
I run my hand over my face again in despair and tiredness. To be honest, I feel like I could drop off my feet right now.
The past few days have been stressful trying to watch over and after the river, especially after the door to her memories was opened.
Speaking of the rival, she walks in now, a hand to her head and her phone to her ear. She glances over at me and throws me an apologetic look. I just smile as best as I can. She drops the call and comes over to me.
“Should we check her room again?” She asks, her fear apparent on her face.
I was thankful as we rode here on my bike that I had been able to service my bike and clear the exhaust the other day because I wouldn’t have been able to ride it down here otherwise.
Without thinking about it, I reached out and pulled a wisp of hair that had escaped from the messy bun on her hair onto her face and tucked it back in.
She smiles a little shyly, and we turn back to go to Eleanor’s room when we hear her mum call outside.
“Guys, she’s here,” I would later tease Fiona about this moment, about how I didn’t know before that time that she was such a sprinter, but for now we both ran outside.
Eleanor seems a little lost to find us all outside the house, and she looks from her mum to James to Fiona to me before she finally realizes what happened.
She looks a little ashamed, scratching her neck with her right hand “Err, I forgot my phone…”
She doesn’t finish the sentence before Fiona barrels herself at her and hugs her fiercely.
“You idiot, I was so worried.”
If anything, Eleanor only looks more ashamed, so I intervene “Let’s go in, people are beginning to peek out of their windows.”
“Let them look, people will always talk anyway. I shouldn’t be bothered about that. I have more things to worry about.”