Author's Note: Take note of the fact that this is listed as a drama/romance story and not an angst or hurt/comfort story. It wasn't a mistake.
And before you now make the assumption that Clare just accidentally hit herself with an inanimate object and is embarrassed, let me just tell you that that is not the case.
And if I've done a good enough job of writing the summary and then killing your first assumptions about what happens, by now - hopefully - you're interested.
Read on. :-)
Disclaimer: Alas, I do not own Degrassi.
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Every Black Eye has a Story
Clare tried her hardest to go unnoticed as she walked into school, a pair of wide, dark sunglasses covering most of her face. The problem was that the glasses just seemed to be drawing more attention to her seeing as it was the middle of winter. The more heads she turned, the more Clare tried to hide her face with her hand.
She was so busy trying to keep everyone from seeing her and the suspicious-looking glasses that it was too late when she realized she'd just walked right down the hallway that housed her boyfriend's locker. Of course he saw her right away. Bracing herself, Clare stuck on a smile as she walked closer to him.
"Hey," Eli greeted her, closing his locker. He caught sight of her sunglasses and smirked. "Wow. You look pretty hot in those. Where's the sun though?"
Clare forced a laugh. "No sun, just thought I'd try a new look," she said with a small shrug.
"It's nice," he complimented. "But now I can't see your pretty eyes." Eli smiled and reached out to tuck a piece of her short hair behind her ear.
Smiling uncomfortably, Clare shrugged away from his hand after he accidentally touched her sunglasses. She tried to casually reposition her bag on her shoulder afterwards. "So, uh, did you finish the English assignment?"
Eli narrowed his eyes a little suspiciously and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I did." He studied her face carefully for a little longer, making Clare smile weakly. "Can I see your sunglasses for a minute?"
She chuckled awkwardly and while she shook her head replied, "I don't think so. I have to get to class now; the bell's going to ring soon."
Before Clare could get away, Eli stopped her, pulling her back gently by the arm. "Hiding something, Edwards?" he asked in a light, teasing voice.
"No, of course not."
There was a silent pause, save for the other students around them milling about in the hallway, until Eli suddenly made a grab for her sunglasses. Clare squirmed away from him and there was a small struggle between them until he was finally able to snatch the black glasses off her face.
"No, don't..." Clare protested quietly, too late. Reluctantly, she met his gaze, having a good idea as to what was coming.
Eli stared back at her, particularly at her right eye, looking shocked. Clare had a black eye. Clare Edwards – the girl who couldn't hurt a fly – had a black eye. It looked like it could've been worse, but that perspective didn't really matter to him seeing as it looked bad enough. Eli quickly found himself going from shocked to angry. "What happened to your eye?" he demanded quietly.
"Nothing," Clare quickly insisted. Please believe me.
"Clare." He paused for a second, the expression in his eyes turning dark. "Did someone hit you?" Eli questioned her intensely, getting right to the point.
Clare hesitated slightly, appearing to be thinking about how to reply. That was a mistake.
Seeing her hesitation, Eli spoke up again before she could spout off some fabricated lie, lightly resting his hands on her shoulders. "Tell me who did it."
"Eli, I promise you, it's not a big deal."
"Oh, okay, sure," he said mordantly. "Then why do you have a black eye, Clare? And please don't lie to me."
"I'm not lying; no one hit me," Clare answered stubbornly. It was partially true at least.
"Right, so I suppose you just ran into a wall or got hit by a football then?" Eli suggested sarcastically, nodding his head in a "yeah, sure, I believe you" way. "If that's true then why can't you just say so? And why were you trying to hide it from me?"
She shifted her weight to her left foot uncomfortably. "I'm sorry but I just can't tell you what happened."
Eli looked at her intensely, getting serious again. "Clare, if you can't tell me because whoever did this threatened to hurt you if you told anyone, you don't have to worry about it. I will take care of it for you." His eyes left hers for a moment as he briefly scanned the hallway. "Was it Owen or one of them?"
"No," Clare answered immediately, sounding annoyed that he'd even asked. "You had better not start something with one of them over nothing. We just got done with the Fitz problem."
"Is that why you won't tell me who did it? Because you don't want me to get into a fight?" Eli demanded, raising his voice a little.
"No, it's not. Look, I have to get to class. I'll see you later," Clare said, hurrying past Eli and down the hall.
"Clare," he called after her, to no avail. Sighing in frustration, Eli ignored his nosy classmates' stares and stalked off to his first class.
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"Does it hurt?" Alli asked sympathetically.
"A little; not as bad as before though," Clare told her.
Alli finished up washing her hands at one of the sinks in the girls' bathroom before she turned back to her friend. "Did your parents completely freak out when they saw it?"
"Not really," Clare replied, shaking her head. "I told them both what happened when they got upset at first and they accepted it and went back to 'disagreeing' over the usual." With a tired sigh, she turned to get a look at herself in the mirror. The black eye was admittedly very out of place on a girl with Clare's appearance. It was even more out of place if you also took into consideration what her personality was like.
Alli stood next to Clare, making eye contact with her in the mirror. "Did you tell Eli already?"
"Uh-huh," Clare replied, her tone hinting at just how well he'd taken it.
"Really; you told him…everything?" Alli asked, surprised. She was the only one privy to the whole story.
"Not exactly." She only continued when Alli raised an eyebrow, prompting Clare to say, "I tried to hide it from him with sunglasses this morning until I could get to you and cover it with makeup. But that obviously didn't work. Then Eli got upset and kept trying to get me to tell him who hit me until I just left and came here."
"Wow. So, are you going to tell him the truth now?" Alli questioned bluntly while pulling out some makeup out of her bag.
"Alli, I can't tell him; he'll just get mad."
"He's already mad," Alli reminded her, slightly exasperated with Clare's need for all of the secrecy.
They faced each other then, Alli reaching out to start covering up her friend's black eye with liquid makeup.
"Ow," Clare muttered.
"Sorry."
"Things just got good again with Eli," Clare said, bringing their conversation back to its original topic.
With the slight roll of her eyes, Alli said sarcastically, "Just stating the obvious here, but I'm pretty sure your black eye has already ruined that."
Clare sighed quietly until Alli hit a particularly sore spot. "Ouch, ouch, careful. Please."
"Sorry, sorry," Alli apologized quickly.
"We only have a couple minutes until school starts," she reminded Alli after another few seconds.
"Patience is a virtue."
"And tardiness is a detention."
"Relax, Clare, I'm almost…done," Alli announced, pulling back to admire her work.
"Well?"
"If you look closely, you can tell there was some bruising but you'll be fine from a distance."
"That's all I needed," Clare assured, looking at her reflection in the mirror and smiling a little at the results. "Thanks, Alli."
"What are friends for?"
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"Clare has a black eye?" Adam repeated doubtfully. "You're joking, right?"
"Afraid not," Eli said shortly. "Clare has a black eye and she won't tell me who did it or what happened or anything. All I know is that someone hit her."
"Seriously? Are you sure?" Adam asked, looking concerned.
Nodding quickly, Eli was clearly upset and angry at the situation. "Pretty darn sure."
"I just can't believe it. Who would want to hit Clare?" he said rhetorically. Right after he asked, a theory did occur to him – a theory that would get him in trouble with Clare if he told Eli. Adam decided then to keep it to himself.
They were both silent for a minute, Eli brooding over it with a dark expression on his face.
Adam finally broke the silence and said, "So, what do we do?"
"We're going to find out who hurt Clare and then we're going to make him pay."
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It was only just after second period when Adam appeared at Clare's side as she was opening up her locker.
"Hey, Adam," Clare said as cheerfully as she could manage after having to keep avoiding Eli all morning.
Adam examined both of Clare's eyes for a second, frowning at her in confusion when he didn't see as much of a difference as Eli had earlier described. "I thought you had a black eye."
"Covered it with makeup," she explained absentmindedly while pulling out her history textbook.
Adam paused before asking the obvious follow-up question. "What happened anyway?"
"Nothing," Clare insisted for what felt like the twentieth time that day, sighing afterwards.
"If it's really nothing, then you should be able to tell me…and Eli. Especially Eli," he added. "He's going nuts trying to figure it out and wrap his head around the fact that someone hit his girlfriend."
Clare softened slightly at the mention of Eli but still didn't give in. "I just can't, okay," she said adamantly.
"Clare, come on. It's sort of freaking me out not knowing. Obviously not really as bad as Eli since today he's sort of taken freaking out to a whole new level, but I do want to know."
She went still and after a long moment turned to him. "Adam…you have to promise not to tell anyone – especially not Eli. Okay?"
Adam frowned, not liking where this was going. "We sure are keeping a lot of secrets from Eli lately."
Clare looked at him significantly, pleadingly.
"Clare, I can't-"
"Please, Adam."
He finally sighed and, knowing he was going to regret promising this later, gave in and said, "Alright, I promise."
She smiled slightly and positioned herself closer to him to whisper the truth about what happened into his ear.
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Clare apprehensively walked towards her English class where she'd have to face Eli again – something she wasn't looking forward to for once. And a part of Clare knew that eventually she would have to either tell him the truth or come up with a passable lie since Eli was never going to let it go otherwise. And at this point, all of the lies that were coming to mind were worse than the truth.
Before Clare even had a chance to be annoyed with the irony of her situation, she was suddenly being pulled away from the classroom doorway by her arm. A look behind her confirmed her suspicions that it was Eli dragging her to the side of the hall.
"Eli, what are you doing?" she asked before Eli finally let her go and faced her. Pointedly, Clare reminded him, "There's only three minutes until class starts."
"We're not going to class today," Eli responded calmly.
"We'll get detention again," Clare told him, though she'd yet to make a move to leave.
"We're not going to class until you tell me the truth about your black eye." He looked down at her, eyebrows raised, expectantly and stubbornly.
Groaning, she shook her head. "Eli."
"Clare," he said back, mocking her tone.
"This isn't funny."
"I'm not laughing either." His eyes flickered to Clare's injured eye for a moment. "Nice cover-up," Eli said with a sarcastic edge to his tone.
"Thanks," she snapped.
Eli was silent, staring into her eyes intensely before saying, "Talk to me, Clare."
"I can't," Clare replied, wavering slightly this time.
"We're going to be late to class," he reminded her tauntingly.
With one final sigh, Clare decided to just give in and tell him. "Alright, fine, you win. Someone did technically hit me," she admitted.
Eli noticeably tensed up, his eyes narrowing. "Who?"
"You don't know her. It was Angela Taylor," Clare added after he raised his eyebrows, prompting her for more information.
"Okay, help me out here, Clare, because I still don't get it."
Hesitating, she at last said, "Angela is in my self-defense class."
"Self-defense class? Since when are you taking one of those?" Eli questioned, surprised.
"Since the Vegas Night dance," Clare answered carefully.
Simply nodding once, he then asked, "Any reason you didn't tell me?"
"Because I knew that if I told you I was taking the classes because I felt defenseless and useless that night you would just tell me to not even bother or worry because you could 'handle it' if there was a next time."
Eli was unable to come up with an immediate retort or reply since what she'd said was one hundred percent true.
"That's why I've been busy every Tuesday night for the past five weeks. And that's why I couldn't tell you that yesterday during a role-play exercise I was supposed to be the attacker and my partner, Angela, was the victim and after a minute or so of acting nervous she freaked out and accidentally hit me in the eye," Clare finished explaining wryly.
"Well I'll give Angela some credit for being able to punch hard enough to bruise. Those classes must be working," Eli said lightly with a smirk.
"You're not upset?"
"Why would I be?"
"Because I started taking self-defense classes because of what happened with Fitz on Vegas Night," Clare said.
Before Eli had a chance to respond, Adam walked up to them. "Hey," he greeted cautiously. "You guys talking again?" Adam glanced at Clare specifically as he said this.
"Yeah, everything's good again. Clare got her shiner here from some girl who accidentally nailed her in her self-defense class," Eli explained, gesturing with one hand to Clare's right eye.
Clare nodded her confirmation as well, smiling.
Adam looked relieved; he didn't think he could take keeping anymore major secrets to himself. First there was the huge Julia secret he'd had to keep from Clare. And then just a couple of weeks ago, Clare had told him about the self-defense class she was taking because she'd needed Adam to occupy Eli with a guys' night that Tuesday. Then of course there was most recently when Clare told him about her black eye. "Oh good you told him," Adam blurted out with a sigh.
Eli furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Adam accusingly. "You knew and you didn't tell me this morning?"
"Oh, well," he stuttered, searching for an excuse. Then Adam suddenly appeared annoyed as he looked at the two of them. "You know it's not my fault you guys keep making me keep secrets for you."
Clare and Eli glanced at each other.
"Sorry, Adam," Clare apologized with a guilty smile.
The bell rang then, officially making the trio late for English.
"Oh, wonderful, now we're late," Clare sighed.
"It's okay. Just wipe off some of that makeup on your eye and we can tell Dawes we're late because you ran into something on the way here," Eli joked, smirking in amusement at her.
"Very funny, Eli."
The End
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A/N: Thoughts?