Eleanor & Park Chapter 14 Summary

Eleanor

Ever since the maxi pad incident, DeNice and Beebi have started talking to Eleanor in gym class. DeNice and Beebi ask her to come sit with them at lunch.

While Cal asks Park when Park's going to get his driver's license, Park watches Eleanor in English. Cal tries to convince Park to ask Kim to the homecoming dance, but Park doesn't want to hear about it.

Despite Eleanor's worries that Park will stop talking to her, he keeps chatting. In fact, they can't seem to stop talking—"They talked every second they were sitting next to each other" (14.37).
They talk about music, television, and comics, and they "agreed about everything important, and argued about everything else" (14.44).
And when they disagree, Eleanor can always make Park laugh.
They argue about whether or not the X-Men are sexist (she says yes, he says no), and Eleanor confesses that if she could have any power, it would be flying. Park agrees.

After taekwondo, Steve teases Park about going to see Eleanor (throwing in a racist dig or two, because that's just the kind of thing Steve does). Park walks over to Eleanor's, guessing which house is hers.
At Eleanor's house, Richie answers the door. Park thinks he looked "too young to be Eleanor's dad" (14.78), and Richie goes back inside. When Eleanor comes out, she looks terrified: "As soon as he saw her, he knew it had been a mistake to come here" (14.85).
Park's brought over the new Watchmen comic so they could read it together. They sit on the step of the nearby elementary school and read it, but as soon as they're done, Eleanor leaves.

When Eleanor gets back inside, Richie immediately asks if Park is her boyfriend. She says no, and lies that Park came to talk to her about homework. Just as she closes the door to the bedroom, she hears Richie say, "I know what you're up to. Nothing but a b**** in heat" (14.106). Wow.
Eleanor doesn't let herself react; she "let his words hit her full-on. Took them right in the chin" (14.107). Back in bed, she clenches her eyes shut "until she could breathe without screaming" (14.107).
She'd kept Park separate from Richie in her head until now, "but now Richie was in there, just pissing all over everything" (14.110).
She can't think about Park now without thinking of Richie leering at her. In the dark, Maisie asks if Park is her boyfriend, and she denies it.