Page 135 of Eleanor & Grey

If I couldn’t have all of his love yet, I didn’t want to keep falling for someone who wouldn’t be able to catch me.

“We go back,” I told him, walking over toward him and sitting beside him on the bed. My hands gripped the side of the mattress, just like him, and I gave him a slight nod. “We go back to how it was before that night.”

“But…” He stared at me so apologetically and I wanted to shake the guilt in his eyes. I needed him to know that I fully grasped how much his soul was struggling. Greyson was at war with himself, fighting to move on while still trying to hold on to the past.

He wasn’t ready to let her go, and I had to respect that.

My love was patient. For him, I’d wait forever.

“It’s okay, Grey. I swear, I’m okay. We’re okay.”

He gave me a half grin, and I gave him the other half. “I meant everything I said, Ellie, about how I feel about you. I just want you to know that I meant all of those words.”

I believed him, too. How could I not? He was my Grey. The first boy to ever leave his mark on me. “I know you did, but you don’t need a lover right now, Greyson. You need a friend. Let me be that. Let me be your friend.”

He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. “You have no clue how much I need that, how much I need a friend.”

I knew, because I needed one, too. We each needed the other, maybe not lips against lips, but hearts against hearts. Maybe we’d both needed someone to talk us through the hard days, to get us closer to the light.

“You don’t talk about her, do you?”

“No.”

“Because you don’t want to?”

He shook his head. “No, because people get tired of a person’s sadness. They all start moving on, and expect you to do the same.”

I tilted my head and looked up into those gray eyes that I’ve loved so long ago. “Tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“Everything single thing about her.”

51

Eleanor

“Hey, Eleanor? Can you come get me?” Karla asked as I answered the phone. It was around ten p.m. on Saturday, and I was beyond confused by her call. Claire and Jake were on a trip, so Lorelai and Karla stayed home for the weekend, which made the fact that she was calling me pretty odd.

“Please,” she cried.

Her voice was low and shaky. I sat up straighter in my bed.

“What do you mean, come get you?” I asked. “Aren’t you in your room?”

“I was, but I, um, I snuck out to go to a party. I…” She started to sniffle. “Please just come get me, okay?”

“Where are you?” I questioned, hopping out of my bed and tossing on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. I scrambled around to get my shoes on, and I grabbed my purse and keys as she gave me the address.

“Are you hurt? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, it’s fine. I just…I just want to go home,” she started sobbing into the receiver and it broke my heart.

“I’m on my way. I’m coming.”

“Just don’t tell Dad, alright? He’ll never trust me again,” she warned through her tears.

“Just stay there, Karla, okay? I’m on my way,” I said once more, trying to give her all the reassurance that I could over the phone.

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