Chapter 2- A Day in the Life

Eleanor had woken up some time before Theodore did and started to make a pot of coffee. It had been an extremely long night for her. She finished the last trials of her psychology experiment as quickly as possible and drove a four hour drive back to Philadelphia. She was still tired, but she wanted to start her day with Theodore as early as possible. She put the coffee on the burner and crawled back into bed. It had gotten warmer since she returned; the snow stopped falling for the first time in a few days. Theodore woke up and examined Eleanor as she slept. Her pure white skin reminded him of an angel, sent to consecrate his life. He was deeply in love with her, and had been since they were children. When he got out of bed, she did too.

"Good morning, Teddy."

"You're the only one that calls me that," He laughed and she grabbed his hand.

"I would hope so, that's my name for you."

"And it's a name I embrace." Theodore but some sweatpants on and Eleanor grabbed her shirt, "You know I don't mind it, right?"

"Good, because I'm not going to stop calling you Teddy, I like it too much." He leaned in for a kiss and she reciprocated. They feel back into bed and laid there for a while.

"Don't fall asleep; I want to spend time with you today." Eleanor said as she got up.

"Let's start this day," Theodore looked at the clock. It was 9 am.

They moved into the kitchen. Theodore grabbed some cereal and poured some for the two of them. Eleanor grabbed two cups and poured some coffee. They sat down, and there was a knock at the door. Theodore went and got it; it was Alvin and Emily.

"Hey Alvin and," Theodore paused. He didn't know this woman's name.

"Emily," Alvin looked back and introduced her.

"Emily then, have you met Eleanor?"

She looked into the room, but Eleanor had run back into the bedroom and threw on some pants.

"I'm in here!" Eleanor came back out and greeted his new face, "I'm Eleanor, Theo's girlfriend," Theodore smiled; he liked hearing her say it.

"I'm Emily, Alvin's girlfriend," Alvin had a slight look of shock on his face. He tried to hide it, but Eleanor and Theodore could see right through it. There was a small silence.

"Is that coffee I smell?" Alvin said.

"It is," Theodore went back into the kitchen and grabbed two cups, "you two want some?"

"I'd love some," Alvin walked in a grabbed the two cups, "Here you go," he gave it to Emily. She nodded and began to drink it, "Where is everyone?"

Theodore came back from the kitchen with some creamer, "Brittney is back at her place, and Jeanette and Simon should be working with Dr. Long by now," they both were working in a lab with one of the professors on an experiment. They had been very secretive about what it was about, so nobody bothered to pry. Eleanor was the only person who could keep with them when it came to science, but their fields were so different that she never bothered to figure out what they were doing.

Emily finished her cup and asked, "How long have you two been together?"

"Since the beginning of time really," Eleanor laughed and Theodore joined in, "Officially it's been 5 years, but we've known each other for most of our lives."

"That's so nice, I want that-"She trailed off and Alvin looked somewhat distressed.

"We should probably leave, I have to get back to the house to direct clean up. Later you two." Alvin started to leave, Emily went with him. They left before Theodore of Eleanor could say goodbye.

"Well, that was sufficiently awkward," Theodore walked into the living room and Eleanor followed him. They sat down and put on a record.

"Who the hell was that?"

"I have no idea," Theodore said as he lit some incense, "I haven't really seen Alvin for a while and that may have happened while I wasn't seeing him. That was probably who Brittney was talking about last night."

"Did she see them together?"

"She must have. When I saw her again, she was really torn up. They were both talking about some girl, never mentioning her name," Theodore laid down, with Eleanor half on top of him.

"We should do something for Brittney, distract her or something," Eleanor got more comfortable.

"We could go into town today, go to a club or something,"

"Go to a club? You hate clubs!"

"Yeah but Brittney loves them."

"You're just too sweet," She laughed, "I can't exactly imagine you at a club though."

"Trust me, neither can I."

Simon returned to the apartment at around noon, looking completely ragged. He had been working in the lab for hours after not getting much sleep and drinking a bit too much the night before. Jeanette was back at their apartment getting some sleep. Theodore and Eleanor were getting caught back up when he arrived. He dragged his feet in and sat down next to their couch on the floor.

"Good morning Simon" said Eleanor.

"Hello Eleanor. When did you get back?"

"Last night sometime, I think it was at 3 am."

Simon got up and got a glass of water and some painkillers. He sat back down with them and had a cigarette. Theodore had one too; Eleanor opted not to this time.

"Have a little much Simon?" Eleanor said with a laugh.

He looked at her for a second and then responded, "Yes, it was a bit much. I do remember what all happened last night so that's a good thing."

"You did disappear with Jeanette for hours on end, so nobody really knows what happened besides the two of you," Theodore said as he got up to ash, "Oh yeah, we're going to a club tonight."

"You hate clubs." Eleanor laughed after he said that.

"I just haven't given them enough of a chance."

Simon looked perplexed as Eleanor continued to laugh under her breathe. Theodore looked at her as angrily as he could with Eleanor, which wasn't very much. She looked at him with empathy, and he knew it. Simon asked, "Who are we going for?"

"Theodore of course, he wants to dance with all the ladies tonight," Eleanor hugged Theodore as she said this. Theodore laughed with her.

"I'm not sure if I should go, I should be recovering tonight anyway. There's too much to do tomorrow too. I can't be running around doing things tonight," Simon got up and went to the bathroom after he said that. Theodore ran to the door after him and spoke to him through the door.

"Brittney had a run in with Alvin's new lady and we want to distract her from all of this. You know how she loves the clubs in town; we should try to get in."

"You know it wouldn't be a problem, you guys were known worldwide for a decade," Eleanor ran to the door after Theodore did.

"Were? We're still famous in Japan," Simon retorted as he got out of the bathroom, "I'm not feeling it, you can call Jeanette, she might want to go."

Eleanor looked at him shrewdly, "what's going on between you two anyway?"

Simon looked taken aback, "Whatever do you mean?"

"Well, Simon I don't know it's just weird waking up at my apartment and you always seem to be there but when I talk to Jeanette she insists you two aren't together."

"Can we talk about this when I'm not hung over, Eleanor?" Theodore picked her up over his shoulder and took her back to the living room. She tried to struggle herself free, but Theodore was stronger than she was now.

She gave up, but continued to talk to Simon, "It's really confusing her, what's going on between the two of you," she was still being carried by Theodore, "God Theo please let me down."

"Nope," Theodore looked up at her, and she impotently tried to hit him.

"Whatever, I can talk from up here. She just wants to know what's going on."

Simon walked into his room and got into a towel, "I'm taking a shower now!" he shouted from in the room.

"Leave him alone for a while, he has no idea what he wants to do right now." Theodore had put her down and they sat down on the couch, "I know you're just looking out for her, but he's just confused as to what he wants right now."

Eleanor looked away from Theodore and decided to go out and have a smoke. Theodore put on a record, Belle and Sebastian this time, and went out with her.

Theodore walked outside and she looked at him with full eyes, "I just don't want her to get hurt," her cigarette went out.

"Neither does he."

She looked at him for a second and started into his eyes, "When did you get so wise?"

"When you were gone I guess," He laughed and she grabbed his hand.

"It couldn't have been those two weeks, you were just holding out on me," She laughed.

"You found me out! It was my plan to hold my advice away from everyone," he smiled and she finished her cigarette. They went back inside; Simon had already left.

"So Alvin, the two guys you live with are your brothers?"

Emily and Alvin had spent the entire day together and had gone to grab dinner together. She wasn't much for eating, or at least that was the running joke with her friends. She was a tall, slender girl with deep green eyes and black hair. The restaurant smelled like burn outs and burgers.

"No, I just found two other talking chipmunks at school and decided they were cool to hang with," he smirked and she playfully jabbed him in the arm.

"You're ridiculous," She started to get up, "I'm going to the restroom," She left him there with his thoughts. They were about to go over to one of her friends place for a meet and greet that he had been dreading the last week. Her friends were hard to please. Nothing was good enough for her, and they let him know it almost every change they got. She returned from the bathroom and sat back down with Alvin.

"Are you ready to go? My friends are really excited to get some one on one time with you," Emily said as she grabbed her purse.

"I just can't wait, it should be a blast."

"Whoa, what's with the sarcasm?"

"Your friends hate me, plain and simple. Whenever I'm around you, one of them makes some sort of passive aggressive comment about me."

"That's completely untrue!"

"It's not; it's either that or a backhanded compliment. Example, 'hey Alvin is that a new shirt?', 'why no it's not, why do you say that?', 'oh well usually your red shirts are faded and dingy but this one is so crisp'."

"Who said that and When?"

"Jamie two nights ago when we were at her house."

"Does this mean you don't want to go and hang out with my friends?"

"Considering the evidence, I think it's highly illogical to continue to take punishment from the same people."

"Well, you go ahead and stay right here, and I'll go and hang out with them," Emily stormed off before Alvin could get a word in edgewise. He stared into his drink.

"My, that was quite a confrontation."

Alvin recognized the voice coming from behind him but he couldn't put a face to it, "Whoever you are, you're one hundred percent correct my friend."

"Whoever you are? Look behind you at least."

Alvin peered behind him, not really expecting anyone in particular, "what are you doing here Jeanette?"

"Oh I was at the library working on a few assignments that I need to get done before finals. Now I'm here grabbing the best burger on campus for the first time in a while. Mind if I join you?"

"By all means. Why are you working on a Saturday night? You should be at a party or something."

"Oh after last night, I think I'm done with the party scene for a while."

"I barely saw you last night, what all happened?"

"Well Simon and I went off to the basement and danced for a while and talked with some friends we had in the house. We both just had too much and I just told him too much."

"Drunken words are sober thoughts," Alvin said as he took another drink of his coffee, "Well, it's not like it's all that bad. I'm pretty sure your feelings for each other are pretty plain on the table."

"You would think at this point but it hasn't been. I'm much to shy and he's too reserved. We went back to my place. Nothing happened, but we just talked forever about us and we just came to the conclusion that it isn't the time for anything."

"It isn't the time? If not now then when?"

"You know, later, when we can focus on each other rather than school and our degrees."

"Jeanette, you can still focus on each other and school at the same time. It would be easy enough for the both of you; you're taking all of the same classes and the nature of those classes allows you two to work together most of the time. It's just that, you can be happy and focus at the same time."

"You think so?"

"I know you can," at that moment, Alvin got a text.

"Who's that? Emily?" Jeanette was perplexed by his behavior.

"No, "Alvin read the text carefully, "It's Brittney and she wants me to come over."