last of the ᴀ ᴍ ᴇ ʀ ɪ ᴄ ᴀ ɴ girls

Grayson titled his head, a soft smile forming at his lips as his eyes met hers. He had too much respect for Eleanor to ever feel pity towards her, last thing Grayson wanted was to make her feel like she was less than him. “No—I wouldn’t do that. You’d be surprised the fucked up shit that’s happened in my life.”

“I think you’d be surprised by just how much it takes to surprise me,” Eleanor said with a sigh as she brought the flask to her lips again. Whether it was a side effect of never getting involved enough to care or simply that she’d gotten numb to what went on around her, the only thing that had surprised her in a long time was him. “You kind of stop being surprised by things when you realize that even Lifetime would think your story was too unrealistic.”

Vincent shook his head and chuckled.”You have a natural resting bitch face. It makes it hard to tell sometimes. Then again you never were one to scare me off”. He responded with a grin. He thought over her question and shrugged.”Why would I want something from you?” He asked curiously.

“No, Vinny, that’s actually me making a genuine effort to get both strangers and ... whatever you are to leave me alone,” Eleanor explained with a sigh. She leaned back in the booth, watching him with narrowed eyes over the rim of her coffee mug, “Hell if I know, but the fact that you’re talking to me while doing that thing with your face suggests you do.”

“No worries—he’s probably not worth meeting then.” If he hadn’t realized it before, Eleanor now definately had his interest. It seemed stupid to want to ask more questions, her expression couldn’t convince him otherwise. “I can’t ask for yours and you can’t ask for mine,” he replied, knowing it would put him in the same position as her.

It took a few seconds for what Grayson had said to sink in. Once it did, Eleanor couldn’t deny that she was slightly curious as to what he could mean but knew that asking would come with the price of digging into her own past. It all just felt like there was too much to tell for something that really had so little information.·“Great. And I’m sure that we have the fifteen seconds it’d take to give you the full family history but the only thing that sounds less appealing than camping is putting up with you pitying me while·we’re camping.”

Grayson felt himself smiling like an idiot at the mention of a purposal, yet he didn’t try to hide the genuine reaction. He hadn’t given much thought to her parents, better yet he’d never asked. So now that Eleanor had been the one to bring it up, he figured why not get to know her a little more. “What do you not think he would say yes or something?” he replied, reaching for the flask and taking down a long enough sip to make his eyebrows furrow. “Or do you not have his number?”

Narrowing her eyes at the smile on his face, Eleanor shook her head as she wished she’d never brought any of it up. Somehow she’d managed to forget that it was normal to want to know things about the person you were interested in and had mistakenly thought Grayson would just pretend she’d never said anything at all. That was what she did whenever anyone said anything even slightly personal. “The second one. No name, either. Sorry if you wanted to play detective,” she snapped, snatching the flask from him and chasing the confession with another sip.

Alice swayed on her feet, eyes wide at the bartender. Her eyes flicked between the woman and the stool she realized she was talking to. “I’m going fucking crazy!” She shouted, laughing hysterically for a moment.

“Crazy, drunk. Same thing, really.” Shrugging, Eleanor drummed her fingers on the bar as she waited for the other girl to figure out what she’d been drinking all evening. It didn’t come as much of a surprise to find out that all she was getting was a color. Actually, it was more than she’d expected. “A cosmo? Sangria? A Dirty Shirley? Any of those ringing a bell?”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Grayson replied gripping her hand back. “I get it though–only time will tell. But like I’ve said it before, I’m sticking around.” He wanted to go on and promise it, but it seemed like Eleanor had already been through enough to know that promises don’t exist. Grayson reeled her in closer, stopping as their lips were only centimeters away. Instead of going for a kiss, he pulled her head down and placed a kiss on her forehead. “Where’s the bottle?”

Eleanor let out a groan as he skipped her lips and pressed his own to her forehead instead. Realizing her reaction, she couldn’t help but let out another grumble of annoyance at the whole thing. Finally pulling away to bring the flask to her lips, Eleanor took a long sip and swallowed with a slight wince before shaking her head at him. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. You might get drunk and ask for my dad’s number so you can propose.” Sighing slightly as she held the flask out to him, Eleanor shrugged her shoulders. “Your guess is as good as mine on that one, fyi.”

Alice had had a rought couple of weeks. She felt completely alone in her world, save for Grayson - who was still in that strange spot where she didn’t know how often she should spend time with him. He was her brother, but she felt like a burden and not much more. 

It would be an understatement to say that Eleanor was counting the hours until the end of the night. In fact, she’d been ready to go home since walking in the door. It had been at least two hours since she’d even bothered to pretend like she was busy, choosing instead to turn a blind eye to any customers that didn’t force their way directly into her line of sight. 

Grayson remained silent, only staring into her piercing Hazel eyes. His hand reached up towards her face, his long fingers cupping her cheek. “Well we’ve come this far– don’t you think that should be proof enough to show you that things are different this time around.” It seemed like his words would never convince her, and he understood. So he decided instead of let his actions show just how much he wanted and planned to stay around.

Eleanor couldn’t help but let out a sigh at his words because no matter how many times he said he understood or that things could be different, she knew that it wasn’t quite so simple. He was underestimating just how bad things could be and she couldn’t even blame him. “Stop it,” she muttered, wanting to pull away from his touch but reaching for his other hand instead. “Different just means it’s going to hurt more. I haven’t cared about about anyone in years and you’re messing that up.”

“Always a ray of sunshine” He retorted with a chuckle.”What are you doing up this early anyway, hunting for your next victim?”

“If you consider people like you confusing scowling for anything vaguely inviting then yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing.” Eleanor looked at Vinny for a few seconds before slowly shaking her head with a frown. “If you want something, the answer is no.”

“You know, you really need to stop trying to guess what I’m going to say next” Vincent replied as he took a seat in front of Eleanor

“And you really need to stop talking to me in public, yet here we are,” she shot back with a sigh.