Jacob did not leave without making plans to meet again. Since he and Eli were free Monday afternoon, Chloe invited them to come to the park with them. Eli was reluctant to spend another day in the Browns' company, so decided to bring a book along to read so he would have an excuse not to talk with Faith or Carter.
They met the group in the field of a green field in a downtown park. The day was warm and sunny. Jacob found shade under a large willow, where he sat and talked with Chloe, occasionally joined in the conversation by Logan, who mostly just sat staring blankly ahead, along with Hannah, who was fast asleep.
This left Eli to sit over on the side on the pathway engrossed in his book, and Faith, a few yards away, equally engrossed in a book of her own. Carter was pacing idly back and forth.
"So, I will be holding a small get-together at my place sometime in the future," said Chloe. "And yes Jacob, your brothers are invited."
"You know," called out Carter, "not all of us look forward to parties."
"Well, Faith doesn't have to come if she doesn't want to," answered Chloe.
"Parties get boring after a while, don't you think?" he answered. "I mean, all that loud music is just going to damage our hearing. Can't people just have intelligent conversations, about books and stuff? Right Faith?"
If Faith heard him, she didn't acknowledge it. He glared at her reading her book, sitting in the exact same pose as Eli.
"Hey, Bennet," he called to Eli. "Let's get some exercise. Let's do some laps together." Eli gave him a questioning look, so Carter retorted,
"Come on, don't be afraid. Show us what you're made of, shrimp!" Eli dropped his book and soon the two men were running in circles around the patch of grass. As Carter had expected, Eli began to tire of it much sooner than he did. Everyone was staring at their sudden race. Even Faith was torn away and giggled quietly to herself. Catching her looking up, Carter paused while jogging past her and said, "Why don't you join us?"
"No way, it would ruin the whole point."
"What does that mean?"
"Whatever it means," said Eli, "it will be an insult against us. Best way to avoid it is not give her the chance. Let's keep going."
"No, tell me, please."
"Well," she said, standing up and dropping her book, "either you don't want to sit by the rest of us, so why should I join you? Or you're hoping we'll all stare at you, in which case, I have a better view from here."
"Well, I guess you were right Eli. Now how do we punish her?"
"Simple, just don't give her the respect she expects. Make fun of her. You know her better than me. You must know how."
"How could we ever make fun of someone so flawless?"
"I'd manage a way, trust me."
"Nobody is flawless," said Faith. "Especially to someone whose life's mission is to find flaws everywhere."
"I hope you aren't talking about me," said Eli. "I definitely don't find flaws everywhere. God forbid I ignore what's really good for the sake of a joke. But if there's something to make fun of, I will pounce on it. I guess there's nothing really wrong with you?"
"I always try to avoid where others fail," said Faith. "Idiocies and garbage. Impulses and discrepancies. You know, all the normal stuff."
"How about narcissism and arrogance?"
"Narcissism, yes. Arrogance, I find, is just a word people use to insult those who have a well-placed sense of pride in themselves."
Eli stifled a laugh. "Then there we have it. You're right. You are perfect."
"Again, I'm not saying I'm perfect. You want some of my flaws? Well, there's always my temper. I'm not forgiving. Once someone gets on my bad side, I almost never forgive them."
"Well, now you ruined everything, haven't you?" said Eli. "I can't laugh at that, Faith. That's just sad."
"As I said, I'm not perfect."
"Yes. Your flaw is that you are inclined to hate people forever."
Eli and Faith were staring intently at each other through all of this, almost as though the rest of the world didn't exist. Carter, very annoyed by this, had had enough. "Who wants to play football, guys? Anyone?"