Eleanor & Park Chapter 28 Summary

Park

Park calls home from school, using his counselor's phone, to let his mom know that Eleanor's coming over after school. He knows his mom isn't really fine with it, and he tells her to be nice.
Park "could tell Eleanor was nervous on the bus" (28.8), so he tries to distract her by talking about comics.
They get off the bus together at Park's stop and have a supremely awkward conversation, probably because they're both nervous. Park tries to compliment Eleanor, and she argues back. He ends up telling her she looks like a "sad hobo clown" (28.46), but that he loves it. She smiles.

Eleanor's been thinking about kissing Park when his mom opens the door, so she's glad her thoughts were interrupted, because she has no idea how to kiss anyone.
Eleanor's sure that Park's mom hates her. Or maybe "she hated the idea of Eleanor, of a girl seducing her firstborn son right in her living room" (28.54).
Eleanor tries really hard to concentrate on how nice it is to be with Park, but "it was taking too much of her concentration just keeping herself together" (28.56). She thinks Park's house is perfect and boring, and she doesn't really want to like it, but she keeps thinking about how nice it would be to live in a house like Park's.

Park thinks that Eleanor was right: "she never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something" (28.60).
Just sitting on the couch with Eleanor is exciting—Park thinks it feels like fresh air in the room. She wouldn't stay for dinner or hold his hand, but she said she'd come back if his parents said it was okay.
Eleanor comes over again Thursday and Friday, and on Saturday Park's dad asks Eleanor to stay for dinner. Park's stunned when she says yes.
She's very nervous, but she watches a movie with them afterward, and allows Park to hold her hand. Park's dad makes Park walk her home.
Eleanor tells Park he can't walk her all the way home, of course. They start walking, and Park makes an excuse to divert Eleanor into his grandparents' driveway next door, where they're out of sight. Park tells her, "Next time […] I'll just say, 'Eleanor, duck behind these bushes with me, I'm going to lose my mind if I don't kiss you'" (28.87).
When Eleanor doesn't say anything, and doesn't move, Park leans in; she tells him she's never kissed anyone before so "It's going to be terrible" (28.94).
Park kisses her, and it "wasn't terrible." Eleanor's so nervous that it makes Park feel calmer in comparison, even though he doesn't have a lot of experience either.
When he pulls away, he asks if she's okay. She nods, and he kisses her again.
And guess what? "The second time was even less terrible" (28.106). Practice makes perfect.

When she gets home, Richie asks Eleanor where she's been. She says she went to her friend Tina's house. "Giving up on men already?" (28.115) Richie says, which is, of course, a totally creepy comment.
Eleanor goes into her room, gets into bed with her clothes on, and rests her forehead against the window.