Loneliness is defined as feeling sad and unhappy about being socially isolated. Eloise thought she was lonely, but she can't be—she's not socially isolated. She has friends and smiles at everyone on she passes on the street. She's also not feeling necessarily sad or unhappy, just kind of empty and cold some times. It's like the coldness you feel when someone lets go of your hand after holding it for a while. You're warm for the moment they're holding your hand, but once they let go, coldness seeps in and you barely feel the traces of warmth that once was.
After freshening herself up after pulling herself together and stopping the waterworks, Eloise climbs out the window, onto the fire escape, and knocks on Peter's bedroom window. She waits patiently outside as the wind whips through her brown hair until Ned approaches the glass.
He pulls the glass up and steps back to let Eloise in. She climbs through.
"Hello," The neighbor girl greets the boys she has grown fond of. Eloise turns and shuts the window she just came in through before facing Ned and Peter, who are lounging around. Ned's got Peter's Spider-Man web-shooter on his wrist and Peter's sitting in his desk chair, the same one Eloise fell asleep in the night before.
Peter looks incredibly better since the last time Eloise saw him that morning. His face is less pale, and he doesn't look like he's in too much pain. Being superhuman must affect his ability to heal faster.
"Sorry I couldn't come over earlier," She apologizes. It feels like she ditched both Ned and Peter, since she didn't walk home with Ned (thanks detention) or come over to see how Peter was doing earlier.
Peter taps his fingers on the arm of the chair to an unfamiliar rhythm.
"It's okay," He says. "Ned was here and you've already done a lot."
Ned unclasps the metal contraption on his wrist and hands it back to Peter, whispering, "Cool."
Peter smiles. "I know." He sets it on his desk.
Eloise's phone vibrates in her back pocket. Her mind immediately goes to her parents finding her room empty and calling her in a furious rage, but when she pulls out her phone and looks at the screen, she's relieved that it's only Elena.
Eloise is confused at first, but then remembers that they were supposed to have another study session tonight.
"Damn it," Eloise murmurs under her breath as she types a quick response.
Ned peers over her shoulder. "What?"
"Nothing, I just forgot I had plans to study with Lucy and Elena tonight at the library," Eloise replies, sending her message. Elena replies within seconds.
Eloise slips her phone back into her back pocket. "Is there anything you need before I go?"
"We're good," Peter waves me off. "Go study with your friends."
Eloise steps over to the window and opens it, sliding out. "Bye, guys," She says before Ned shuts the window behind her. Through the glass, she can hear the boys' muffled bye's.
🕸
"Sorry guys," Eloise says, setting down the McDonald's bag in the middle of the table. Lucy's eyes fill with pure delight as she practically pounces on the bag and rips it open. Eloise peels her jacket off and drapes it over an empty chair before sliding in. "I know how you don't like people paying for stuff for you, but I got you some chicken nuggets anyways because I know they're your favorite," Eloise says, turning to Elena.
She groans guilty. "Eloise, I said I didn't want anything."
Lucy swipes her fries and hungrily devours them. She licks the salt off of her fingers. "Just take the damn nuggets, Elena."
She shakes her head, but a small smile plays on her full lips. "I hate you guys."
"No you don't," Eloise replies with a satisfied smile.
Elena takes the package of chicken nuggets and pops one in her mouth. "You're right."
Eloise cracks open her text book and the girls continue to study. Other than the three of them and the librarian, the library is empty. The only sounds are the turning of papers, an occasional sniff, and the buzzing of the lights above the group.
About twenty minutes in, Eloise's phone resting on the textbook vibrates. Lucy glances at the screen. Her eyes widen.
"Hold up," She says loudly, causing the librarian peer over at us. Lucy grabs Eloise's phone and holds it up, showing Eloise and Elena the screen. "Since when did you and Nerdy Pants start texting each other?"
Elena drops her pencil and looks at Eloise with her eyes wide and her lips curved in a grin. "Are you two dating?"
Eloise goes to say no, that they're just friends, but Lucy exclaims, "I hope so! You two would be so cute together."
Eloise takes her phone out of her nosey friend's grasp. "We're just friends."
Both of their eyebrows raise.
"Good friends, but nothing more, okay?" Eloise tells them in a scolding manner as she looks down at his texts.
"You're smiling!" Lucy points out, her voice louder than necessary. She leans forward. "What'd he say? Was it cute?"
"Calm down," Eloise laughs lightly. "He was just asking me if I could pick something up for him on my way home."
Elena twirls her pencil in between her fingers. "That's still kind of cute, him relying on you and stuff."
Eloise rolls her eyes at her friends and types back a response.
Peter immediately responds.
Assuming that was the end of their conversation, Eloise starts to set her phone back on the table, but it vibrates again.
Her brow pulls forward.
"You're blushing!" Lucy gushes.
Elena pokes Eloise's cheek with the eraser end of her pencil. "What'd he say?"
"Was he flirting with you?" Lucy asks suggestively.
Eloise bites back a smile. Peter's seriously too cute. Well, sure, it's kind of awkward and Eloise hopes she didn't do anything embarrassing while she thought she was walking the streets alone, but it's still cute that he cares enough to take the time to make sure she didn't get mugged or anything.
She ignores Elena and Lucy and types back.
Eloise sets her phone face-down on the table and picks up her pencil. She begins to fill in some practice problems, but when she feels eyes on her, looks up.
Lucy and Elena are watching Eloise with amused eyes. They glance at each other, sharing a knowing look, and then look at their friend again.
Eloise sighs. "Just friends, remember?"
Lucy wiggles her eyebrows. "For now."
🕸
Eloise slaps her cards face-up on the floor in the space between her and Peter. Peter, sitting cross-legged like Eloise, peers over his hand of cards and furrows his brow. He glances up at his neighbor.
Crossing her arms triumphantly, Eloise says, "Full house."
He cracks up laughing. "Eloise, we're playing kemps."
Her confident grin falters. "What do you mean? We're playing poker!" Eloise grabs her cards and shoves them in his face. "See? Full house! I win!" She drops the cards on the floor and holds her hand out, palm-up. "Now gimme all your money."
"He's an unemployed sixteen year-old high school student," Ned says from the spinny chair at Peter's desk. He looks up from messing with the wires and technology in Peter's Spider-Man suit. "You wouldn't even be able to buy a cheeseburger from McDonald's with all of his money."
Peter throws a dirty sock from the floor at Ned from over his shoulder. Ned deflects it and bunches up his nose.
"Dude, that reeks."
"Good."
Ned rolls his eyes at Peter's childish attitude and turns back to messing around with the suit. There's a spark, but he ignores it and continues to poke around. Eloise wonders if he'll get electrocuted; but then again, even if he did, he'd just shake it off and dive right back in.
Peter takes Eloise's cards and shuffles them in with the rest of the deck. As he adroitly splits the deck and ruffle shuffles it, she leans back on her hands and studies him. The sun seeping into the room casts its bright shine on the left side of Peter's face, a shadow of his silhouette shading the floor to his right. Eloise's blue eyes travel from his smiling face to the atmosphere getting caught in the sun's rays. Dust particles filter through, catching the light. Watching the dust float around pulls her lips into a small smile as nostalgia casts over her. When she was younger, her parents would lock her in their bland, square home office. There were computers and business books that towered over younger Eloise. She remembers crying, begging her parents to let her out so she could go in her room and play with her toys, but they refused to do so until she finished her work. They didn't let Eloise out until she had completed every problem or flash card set they gave her. The only thing that kept Eloise from not becoming entirely miserable as she was locked in that room was the dust particles that would float through the sun shining in through the small window. She would pretend they were itty-bitty fairies that would help her escape.
That's the only thing that kept Eloise from completely breaking down into tears as she was forced to study. She always pouted, making sure that her parents knew that she hated every second of it. But they didn't ease up until later, when Eloise realized that at school her parents couldn't control if she did her work or not. She got many failing papers, but it felt good.
Eloise glances at Peter shuffling the deck with skill and then at Ned, who is still messing with Peter's suit. She wonders if their parents made them be intelligent and study all day everyday, too. They were accepted into Midtown, after all.
"How about we just play Go Fish?" Peter suggests with a playful smile.
Eloise's eyes trail back to him as she's sucked out of her thoughts.
"That way you don't get confused," he teases.
"Excuse me." She glares at him, but he knows she's just playing around. "You mean so you don't get confused."
He chuckles, his shoulders bouncing lightly. "Okay, whatever. So neither of us get confused, how about that?"
"Sure."
Peter deals the cards out in front of them. As he does so, Eloise continues studying him closely. The flesh of his bottom lip is pulled under his teeth, his lips tugged upwards at one corner, and his eyes bright. You would have never guessed that this boy in front of her was seriously injured just a few days ago. His side is still bandaged and Peter still winces when he twists his torso, but it's almost completely healed already. He and Ned aren't even excited about that part, but rather the fact that Peter will have a cool battle scar.
Eloise takes her cards that Peter sat in a pile in front of her and shifts through them. She glances up at Peter. "Hey, Pete."
He takes his cards and looks up. "El." Peter looks back down at his hand..
"Were you being serious when you said that you watched me walk home and stuff the other day?" Eloise asks curiously.
Peter's face goes red. Ned turns around in his chair and laughs.
"You told her about that?" He laughs, holding his chest. "Dude, that's so creepy. I'm surprised that didn't drive her away."
Peter's face turns even redder. He ducks his head behind his cards and an embarrassed chuckle escapes his lips.
"Um, yeah," he admits. "I did do that for a while."
"How long's a while?" Eloise asks.
He hesitates. "A few months." When her eyes go wide, Peter holds up his hands and explains, "I didn't want you to get hurt or anything! The streets of Queens aren't all that safe, but they're even more dangerous at night. Which, for some reason, seems to be your favorite time of day to take walks." He looks at his cards, trying to distract himself. "So, yeah. I mean, I didn't know you were my neighbor or anything until that time I saw you from our windows, so it's not like I was stalking you or anything."
Eloise is still taken aback. "Wow, okay. I just assumed you only did it, like, twice."
Peter, still as red as a tomato, just shrugs and sheepishly looks away.
"Hey, Peter," Ned speaks up from the desk. "What's this blinking red thing?"
Peter doesn't even have to look over his shoulder to know what Ned was talking about. "Oh, That?" He shuffles the cards in his hands. "Yeah, don't touch-"
There's a loud pop and a spark, and then the lights go out. The only light source being the window.
Peter turns and gives Ned a look.
He leans back from the suit and sets down the tweezers in his hands. "Oops."
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Attached Song: Water by New Hope Club
So I just took a test in my AP Chemistry class and I'm pretty confident that I failed. At least I'm not a senior yet so if I fail this year I still have next year to make it up lol
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