I do not own Degrassi or any of the songs mentioned in this.
Eli pulled up the radio station, just in time for his set of the day. After graduating Degrassi he tried going to college and major in English and study creative writing but with the distractions and habits he gained from his two final years of high school, he wasn't able to focus on his grades. Instead, Bullfrog offered him a job at his radio station and Eli eventually made his way up to getting his own two-hour radio show late at night.
So at midnight he would start his radio show and knew that teenagers going out to parties, people on a roadtrip, or just people who couldn't sleep would listen to his show. He often had callers who were high (on life) after just leaving from a party or they were insomniacs and couldn't sleep. He was one of them. The only reason he agreed to doing a radio show so late was because he had trouble sleeping already and needed something to take his mind away from what he often thought about.
He got settled into his small studio, everyone who had a show had their own in the building, and he put his headphones on. He listened to the song that the pre-recorded show before him was playing and started to organize himself. The list of songs he would play throughout his set was placed on the table beside the main console with the volume knobs and such, connected to the database of songs he had for his show, shown on a small screen. He had a computer also which was supposed to be used for the purpose of the show but he mainly used it to entertain himself during the long periods of the songs.
Eli tapped his hand to the beat of the song currently playing, Somebody to Love by Queen, he was a sucker for classic rock songs. Though this one was a bit more mellow than the usual songs he enjoyed, it was classic. Once the song neared to an end, he pulled the hanging microphone closer to himself.
He pressed a button and he was on air.
"Good evening listeners and welcome to the Morty Midnight Show, I am your host Morty and here is the first song of the night. Stairway to Heaven by a favorite of mine, Led Zeppelin."
He pressed a few more buttons and the song began playing in his speakers. He turned down the volume a little bit and dragged his rolling seat to his computer. On the show website he saw a few callers already dialing into his show and he decided he'd take one after the song was over. It was a long song anyways and sufficed for at least two.
While looking through the list of callers, all screened by a certain place in the building, he got to look at the date. April 22.
Eli froze. He had been dreading that day all week and he suddenly forgot about it. It was past midnight. It was the 22nd of April.
When he was fifteen this date only meant one thing. Then during his Grade 11 year of high school, the date became known for two. The loss of two loves.
Feeling numb and angry and sad and hopeless after realizing the date, Eli watched as the Zeppelin song came to an end and he was on air again. "For any broken hearts out there and still a little bitter, here's for you." Eli pressed In The End by Linkin Park and turned up the volume in his own speakers.
April 22nd of that year left Eli numb. Not only was it a day of loss already but he lost the first and only girl to make him feel alive once again after coming back from a terrible down. He thought that Julia was his first love but no, it had to be Clare Edwards and he had to drive her away with his problems.
Eli tried telling himself he was better after losing Julia and being with Clare helped him but the problems he gained after losing someone was only masked and only grew until it exploded the night of the dance, leading him to crash his beloved car and losing his first love.
But as the song said, it doesn't even matter.
Eli watched as Clare moved on from him, dated her childhood friend Jake through the end of her high school years, and as far as Eli knew (since Adam had yet to report otherwise), Clare and Jake were still together.
Woop-de-freaking-doo.
Once that song ended, Eli took a deep breath and started speaking into the microphone. "The phone lines are about to combust so I'll be taking some calls every break." He clicked on one caller. "Hello?"
"Hi? Hello?" a high pitched girly voice said followed by a giggle. Then several other giggles.
"You're on with Morty," Eli says.
"Is that your real name?" the girl asked and giggles again.
"Maybe it is," Eli replies in monotone. "What are you doing tonight?"
"My friends and I are just driving home from the city," she says. "We have a song request."
"What is it?"
"Can you play Steal Your Heart…by Augustana?"
Eli's heart stops. Why did it have to be this song, on this night? He was going to be haunted by happy memories of his ex on the worst day of his life, just his luck.
"Sure, and you are?" Eli says after clearing his throat.
"Diana."
Eli scrambles to just play the damn song already and once he does and he knows its playing for the listeners, he takes off his headphones and resists the urge to throw them against the wall.
Steal Your Heart. Diana. What other things can be thrown into his face today? Wasn't it just past midnight? It's only been a few minutes into April 22nd and yet, all of these coincidences were just being thrown into his face left and right.
He throws on another song once it ended, the one that was supposed to follow Stairway, and Eli just sits back on his seat with his arms over his eyes. He needed to pull himself together if he was going to last the hour and forty-five minutes left in his set. But it seemed impossible.
Eli knew he was a mess. After the accident when he was sixteen he would never be the same. After getting involved in some drugs in his final two years and spending a year in rehab after, he still found himself lost and out and completely drained. His face never had color. His eyes were now a pale green and had constant bags underneath. His lips were practically white. His skin was cold.
Eli was barely functioning.
"You're on the air with Morty," Eli says once he chooses another caller. "Any requests?"
"Yes," a deep voice says. He sounds happy. Lucky him. "Heartbreak Warfare by John Mayer."
Oh. Nice. Pick a song to just rub it in, Eli thinks. "Nice choice," Eli replies and it's true. He's a fan of Mayer and did enjoy that song. Just not on this day. "Any reason why?"
"It's my girlfriend's favorite," the guy says. "She's loved this song for years now. She's a big fan of John Mayer."
"Your girlfriend has good taste then," Eli smiles a bit.
"She does," the guy laughs. "I'm…I'm actually proposing to her real soon and I couldn't sleep because I'm nervous."
"That's cool man," Eli tries to reply enthusiastically but this only "twisted the knife again" in his heart, like the John Mayer song said. "What's her name?"
"Clare."
Eli wanted to just throw around everything in the room and demolish everything. Tonight, of all nights?
"So this song…" Eli pulls himself together just enough to talk to his listeners. "Is dedicated to a lucky girl named Clare." His tongue was going to bleed with the amount he was biting on it as he said her name. "From?"
"Oh," the guy laughs. "My name is Jake."
Eli plays the song and shoves the mic away from his face. Taking slow and deep breaths to control himself, his anger got the best of him as he let out a loud, long, enraged scream.
It was these kinds of times that he was thankful that the studio was soundproof.
May be a two or three shot, don't know yet! But this idea just came to me and it started out being a simple one-shot then it evolved to Eli working as a disc jockey and I had that amazing idea for the ending of this part and I just couldn't stop writing and it was awesome. The next part should be longer than this.
Please review if you want to see the next part (or parts). It will only be a two or three shot, I promise. Any song suggestions for the next part?
Songs mentioned in this:
Stairway to Heaven- Led Zeppelin
In The End- Linkin Park
Steal Your Heart- Augustana (the relevance will be explained)
Heartbreak Warfare- John Mayer
Please review! Thanks for reading!
