After a long day of nothing and more nothing, Tristan left the house late and Eloise felt his touch and smell linger. She felt the now nonexistent hands of Tristan on her thigh as she laid herself down, she felt the weight of his forearm on her waist, she even felt the breath on her back from every time he scooted closer. She exhaled and it was all gone.
His smell, his touch, his presence was all gone within that one exhale. That one shaky exhale.
Eloise felt a smile creep onto her face as she remembered the way she felt at that moment then she stopped, her face was blank.
"What the hell is wrong with me", she questioned. She closed her eyes and felt her breathing get harder again as she thought of Tristan in any way, her heart beat almost out of her chest. She fell asleep with the image of him plagued in her brain.
The next morning, she woke up with a pounding in her head. She brushed her teeth as normal and got ready for school. She was all calm and slightly in pain until she finally got her backpack and walked out the door.
Beep beep. "I thought I was gonna have to go inside and bring you here myself, Irvine," Tristan said, as he was parked in her driveway. Eloise looked past his shoulder as he walked closer to her.
"I didn't know you were gonna pick me up, I was gonna walk," she said, her arms crossed, looking far down the road. Tristan tried following her eyes and then gently placed both hands on both sides of her face to put her attention to him, "Hello, earth to Eloise!"
"I'm here, Dugray!", she spat and threw his hands off her face, with a big eye roll.
"Well, I called about 10 times and no answer, are you alright?", Tristan asked looking into her eyes with concern. "10 times?", Eloise questioned with narrowed eyes.
"Okay, so I called twice, still, there was no answer," Tristan said flicking his hand as if the detail didn't matter.
"Mhm, well I have to get to school," Eloise started to speed, she couldn't even look at him without her breath starting to harden and her heart starting to pound, she kept thinking about yesterday, how their lips were so close to touching, how she thought she felt him.
She shuddered the idea off as she felt two hands tickle both sides of her waist.
"Stop!", she said as she laughed and tried to run. Tristan ran to his car, grabbed his backpack and started running after her. He enveloped her into his arms, trapping her from moving and tickled her slightly by poking her waist. She turned and went right for his neck, and he started jumping crazy, laughing so hard, birds in the area were flying away. Eloise started running and as Tristan regathered himself, he ran after her. As he caught up, he smiled as he walked next to Eloise.
"The sun really brings out your eyes, you know that?", Tristan said, staring at her side profile.
"My shit brown eyes, Dugray?", Eloise joked, with a little laugh as she said it.
"I don't know I've always had a thing for brown eyes, I think they're gorgeous. You do them justice," Tristan said, casually changing his focus to the school in the distance, while Eloise focused on his side profile now with a slight smile. He looked down from the school to her and smiled back.
"Thank you, Tristan," Eloise said, smiling harder and focusing back on the school.
"You're welcome, sweet pea," Tristan said putting an arm around her. "Sweet pea?", Eloise mocked. They both laughed at this, and finally after 5 more minutes of walking reached school.
They both entered and went to their classes. The day went by quick.
Tristan picked Eloise up from her last class and Tristan said, "So, what are you doing Friday?"
"Well most likely studying, why what's up?" Eloise asked, Tristan shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Just asking."
Eloise saw Imogen at her locker. Tristan lost his hold on Eloise as she ran to hug Imogen. Imogen looked at Eloise, "Babe, you can't even tell me you're not getting ready to pose for vogue, you look gorgeous."
Eloise smiled and kissed Imogen's cheek saying, "Don't even, have you seen yourself, you are meant to be America's top model, baby." Imogen smiled at this and looked over to her right, her smile fading. Eloise looked over, following the people she was looking at Tristan and Gilmore.
His arm resting on the locker beside hers. "He's a good for nothing goblok (english translation: dumbass)," Imogen rolled her eyes and her hand slipped onto a hard invitation. Eloise looked back at her hands and said, "What's that?"
"I don't know, probably some dummy putting shit in my locker," she opened it to reveal an invitation. Eloise looked over it and then looked at Gilmore, Imogen meeting her focus. Imogen looked at Eloise and said, "Anjeunna diaku maén sabudeureun teuing pikeun lalaki hiji (english translation: he likes to play around too much for a man).
"Hm," is all Eloise replied as she looked over at the both of them. The world was not sinking but Eloise was at that moment. Imogen got Eloise's wrist and started towards the both of them, throwing the invitation out, Gilmore watching as she did so. Eloise just kept her focus forward, not making eye contact with anyone or anything. Eloise heard Tristan's voice but not the words, she felt dumb.
She straightened herself out, fixing the small tie around her neck and her face went completely blank, "You wanna go home together." Imogen jumped in excitement and said, "Oh my God, yes of course, Ellie. We can do so much together."
Eloise smiled and started running with Imogen as they both walked to Imogen's limo. Imogen never learned to drive so her parents still send for her driver for her, her mom and dad were there just not as much. She grew up with herself, she played by herself, she parented herself which really shows in how good her self-discipline is. Imogen was the dream child, and there was no one who could say differently, she was a dream child to Eloise, and they quite literally bonded over such when they were younger.
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