Welcome to the premier of the new Flare long story!
Legal: I own nothing but the idea
Important things to know before reading ~
*Really only one thing to know which is this is cannon up until Fitz takes a sip of the spiked drink at the Night in Vegas dance. After that I take over! That's it, didn't mess with timeline or families or anything.
Okay hope you enjoy!
Ch. 1 Where Paradise Was
(CLARE)
"Eli how could you!" I say with exasperation and indignation that he actually poisoned someone. And under the guise of making peace too!
"He deserved it," Eli replies as his only defense.
I make an irritated scream and run out of the auditorium chasing after Fitz. I find him leaning on the wall near the water fountain, his head back on the wall, his eyes closed, his hand on his stomach. His skin has paled slightly and is beaded by sweat, he was definitely throwing up. He either doesn't hear me approaching or doesn't open his eyes to acknowledge that he has. When I gingerly touch his arm, he does turn his head just a fraction of an inch to look at me and one eye opens a little.
"Are you alright? I am so sorry about Eli," I shake my head looking away. "I knew he had the ipecac, but I thought even Eli wouldn't do something so dangerously stupid and inimical. Especially when you two were supposed to be making peace. I wish he'd have just left it alone, I told him I had it under control."
Fitz doesn't respond, just looks away and closes his eyes again. Then he rips away from me and goes back into the boy's washroom. Even from out here I can hear the sounds of losing the contents of your stomach. The dance is in the auditorium and we're only supposed to use the washrooms in there, so I figure it's pretty safe to enter the washroom. I see Fitz crouched on the floor of one of the stalls.
"You must feel terrible," I comment when he emerges slowly. He gives me a sideways look and I know that was a stupid thing to say.
"Yeah," Fitz nods splashing some water on his face and then leaning on the sink, "really awful."
"You should go home."
"Terrible as I feel I'd rather be here than at home, things the way they are." He doesn't elaborate on "things the way they are" though I suppose I sort of expect him to because I remain silent. I don't know why, it's not like we know each other very well and Fitz doesn't seem like a very open person.
I know he wouldn't even be sick if Eli hadn't tricked him and I feel responsible. I make one of those snap decisions you may come to regret later, but after all he just said I know he has nowhere to go. "You can come to my house, stay the night there," I offer. Now he looks at me, raising an eyebrow and I realize how suggestive that sounded. "You can sleep in the office but after what Eli did I can't let you stay here ill."
"What about your parents? I doubt they'll be too happy about you bringing a boy home, even if he sleeps in another room," Fitz remarks.
"It's date night, they won't be home for at least a couple of hours, an attempt at saving their marriage," I tell him unable to keep the bitterness from voice and he raises an eyebrow again. His light golden eyebrow arching just slightly but he doesn't comment. "Anyway, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission," I remark and he chuckles lightly. He then goes a little green again and looks like he regrets the movement of laughing.
"Okay then, let's go to your place. I'll drive. I should be okay if it's not too far," he says and then his face twists and I think he may not make it.
"It's not far, just about a block," I tell him.
He nods but rushes back into the stall, after another round of him vomiting we leave the washroom. He stops briefly to rinse his mouth at the water fountain and we visit our lockers to get our stuff. I follow Fitz out to his car and tell him how to get to my place once we're in and he's driving. He parks out front although he does park rather close to our neighbors, so it would be hard to know which house the car was visiting. We get out and I unlock the front door, he's definitely not looking all that good, and I worry those minutes in the car were more than he could take.
"There's a washroom behind the kitchen," I tell him.
"I think I'm done throwing up, I don't think there's anything left to come up. I think I just need to lie down," he remarks.
"This way," I say directing him up the stairs. I take him to Dad's home office, it would have been turned into Darcy's room. In fact, there were plans for it until she went to Africa. We do have a foldout sofa for guests. "The sofa pulls out," I inform him, but he looks like that's far too much effort just now. "Uh here, you just sit in the chair and I'll make up the bed."
He sinks down into the leather office chair with a look of relief, as if he'd been on his feet for over twelve hours. I take the cushions off and pull out the sofa, there's clean sheets on it, we always put new ones on after we've had a guest. After grabbing a couple of blankets and some pillows from the hall linen closet and putting them on the bed Fitz smiles at me. I can see by his eyes how very inviting the bed looks, even a pullout sofa.
"Get comfortable I'll make you some tea."
I leave the room and close the door before going downstairs. I turn on the electric kettle and look through our drawer with the teas, I was sure we had some kind of peppermint or ginger tea. I find a box of peppermint and get a mug to put the teabag in, when the kettle boils I pour it into the mug. I grab a spoon and a saucer and return upstairs, I almost walk straight in but that would be impolite and anyway he could be undressing. So, I knock.
"Come in," Fitz calls but sounds almost confused.
"Here, peppermint tea it should help settle your stomach."
"Thanks," Fitz says taking the cup and saucer. He's sitting up in the bed and leaning against the back of the sofa. His jacket is neatly draped over the back of the office chair, I never did see him get a winter coat from his locker or from his car. His shoes are placed neatly by the chair, I don't see his socks so he's either still wearing them or he tucked them into his boots. His pants and belt are folded neatly and placed on the chair, I'm actually a little surprised that he placed his clothes so neatly. With nowhere else to sit I perch on the edge of the bed, he's sort of staring down at the tea, the bag is still in it and he seems confused.
"It needs to steep, you can take the teabag out in a few minutes." He nods and places the saucer with the cup in his lap and then looks at me.
"You're being very nice, and I hate to stir things up, but I have to ask; what do you see in Eli? A girl like you could get any guy she wanted," Fitz says. I smile shyly and bite my lip, feeling my cheeks flush.
"Well, after last year with Jenna and K.C. I was feeling…" my sentence trails off because I don't think there are any words to describe how I was feeling. Fitz nods in acknowledgement, it's not like it was any secret what went on between me, K.C. and Jenna last year. "The first time I saw Eli it was sort serendipitous," I say and see the look of bewilderment on Fitz's face at the long word. "Fortuitous, meant to happen," I clarify, and he nods so I can continue. "I was feeling very glamourous that day having gotten the laser surgery and losing the glasses. With my new haircut and everything I was feeling very much like a new Clare. Only besides Alli no one else seemed to notice, in fact they all thought I had a boob job."
"Like you'd ever do something like that," Fitz laughs.
"Never, but people believed it. Jenna actually thought I'd go that far to get K.C. back," I tell him which brings laughter to his lips. "You can take the teabag out now," I tell him. He pulls it out and places the dripping teabag on the saucer, stirring the tea with the spoon a few times before he takes a sip. "Well, anyway Eli was mysterious and one of the first things he said to me was to compliment my eyes. He did drive me pretty crazy when we were paired to write, we're definitely from two different worlds. He helped me too though, he was very supportive when I first realized my parents were having marital problems."
"Is that why the most used thing in this room is the sofa bed? You're parents marriage problems?"
My mouth drops open and feel tears in my eyes, "I…Dad's been working late nights at the office a lot but I didn't know he'd been sleeping here." It was painful to say the words out loud. I knew things weren't good, but I didn't think Dad was sleeping in here.
"Sorry, I thought you knew since your room is just on the other side of the wall," Fitz apologizes.
"How did you know?" I inquire.
"I found one of his socks in the sheets, and a pillow in the closet with a rumpled pillowcase," Fitz says. I look over to the closet and see that he's right. Not only is there a pillow there are two of Dad's suits, I bite my lip to bite back the tears I feel rushing to my eyes.
(ADAM)
"You cheated on me Drew! Cheated on me with Bianca! I always fall for the worst boys," Alli seethes at my brother. They're right outside the auditorium doors and Alli is very loud.
"Alli, please," Drew tries, he reaches for her, but she flinches back and slaps him really hard across the face.
"DON'T YOU TOUCH ME ANDREW TORRES DON'T EVER COME NEAR ME AGAIN!" Alli screams and runs down the hall toward her locker. She looks to be on her way out of the dance.
Drew watches her and his head hangs, he starts to walk slowly toward the memorial garden. I follow him, it's not the first time my big brother has messed up with a girl, not by a long shot. However, it's not often that I see him so torn down and hurt and I hate to see him that way.
"Ooh," Owen breathes sucking in air and pulling in his eyes, "I know that face. Bad breakup, I screwed up royally face. I'll take this one Adam you head back into the dance." Owen pats my shoulder and walks past me toward the memorial garden. He probably is the best one to handle this, I've never dated anyone and my experience with girls is only that I was born as and lived as one for most of my life.
Since Owen is going to take care of Drew, and Alli is probably either trying to find Sav or calling one of her parents to come get her, I do decide to go back into the dance. I look around for Eli but don't see him, I glance around for Clare to make sure Fitz is behaving but don't see them either. I'm starting to think this is bad when Dave, Connor and Wesley find me.
"Adam, you missed it, Fitz got totally sick and ran out. Eli did something he was really proud of himself," Wes tells me.
"Eli was proud of himself until Clare yelled at him and ran out," Dave comments.
"Where are they?" I ask Dave.
"Not sure about Clare, but Eli is sulking in the corner," Dave says nodding to Eli behind the giant fake roulette wheel.
"Thanks," I say to Dave patting his arm and walking between them. Eli looks miserable in his green eyes, but his normally pale face is red with rage.
"She's gone! I tried to find her, and she's just gone! And so is his car," Eli growls at me.
"That doesn't necessarily mean they left together, and what did you do to make her run out?" I question Eli. His face changes, he looks proud yet guilty.
"I went to Clare earlier, gave her ipecac to put in his drink tonight but she gave it back. So, when she purposed a peace treaty, and brought that thug to me I decided to seal it with a drink," Eli tells me with proud smirk upon his lips.
"Eli, you spiked his drink with ipecac?! You intentionally made him ill, no wonder Clare got mad and ran out."
"You can't tell me you don't think he deserved it Adam? After all he's done to you?" Eli growls in anger.
"Fitz is high on the list of people I don't like, and I was not at all happy that she was going this date with him either. I'd have done anything to keep her from doing it, but it was her choice Eli. It was her decision to go with him and she thought she was doing the right thing to protect us all. Right or not it was her decision Eli, one she made for all of us, to protect you. If Clare was in trouble she would have alerted one of us."
Eli turns on me, his green eyes narrowed into angry slits and his mouth set into a thin line. "I can't believe you're taking her side! After what Fitz has done to you? Beating you up, humiliating you by pairing you to spar with Bianca, faking friendship and you don't understand why I had to poison him?"
With that Eli storms out, he stomps through the rear to the stage door and presumably out to his locker. I sigh heavily, Eli needs to blow off steam, he's definitely not going to listen to reason, at least not tonight. I have no idea where Clare went or if she's still with Fitz, but I hope she's okay. I step out of the dance to the hallway to call her, she doesn't answer so I slip my phone back into my jeans. I lean against the wall, I don't really want to go back into the dance.
"Well, this dance went all to hell. I shouldn't have done anything with Bianca, I was weak, but I was hoping Alli wouldn't find out," Drew sighs leaning next to me.
"Where's Owen? I thought he was with you?"
"He was, he helped, cheered me up a bit but I wanted to be alone, to think about my stupidity. How come you're not in the dance?"
"Eli poisoned Fitz and Clare got mad at him, she left I have no idea where she went. I tried to reason with him and he got angry at me, accusing me of taking her side. He stormed out. I tried calling Clare but she's not picking up."
"I'm sure Clare's okay, she doesn't take shit from anyone," Drew says, and it makes me smile.
"That is true, worried about both of them really."
"This dance just sucks, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, it has not been a great dance. If Mom wasn't chaperoning, I'd leave."
"Believe me I thought about it."
"So, hang out here until Mom's ready to leave?"
"Sounds like a good plan to me," Drew nods.
I sigh and lean my head back, closing my eyes, propping a leg on the wall and wondering. I wonder where Clare went off to, I wonder why she's not answering her phone and I wonder if Fitz is with her? I wonder where Eli ran off to, I wonder what he's going to do being as angry as he is, I wonder if he'll find Clare? I also wonder if they're both okay?
(FITZ)
"I'm feeling a lot better now thanks, the tea helped."
"I'm glad. I'm just going to take this downstairs. There's a new toothbrush in the medicine cabinet in the washroom, it's just across the hall," she tells me taking the saucer and teacup back.
I spent about half an hour slowly sipping at the tea while she tried to explain her attraction to Eli to me, quite honestly, I still don't get it, seems to me Clare could do much better. When she realized I was just never going to understand what she saw in Eli she tried to ask about my family, but I wouldn't talk about it, we did talk about my friends. We spent the last hour talking about Bruce, Lucas, Johnny, Owen and Bianca.
"Thanks," I grin.
She leaves the room to go downstairs and I get up and slip my jeans back on, don't want to walk around the house just wearing a shirt and boxers. I hear her rinsing the cup downstairs and I go across to the washroom, I find the toothbrush easily enough and then I hear the doorbell ring. I lean in the washroom doorway, I can just see Clare at the bottom of the stairs opening the door, I can also see Eli at the door, so I stay perched in the washroom doorway to be safe.
"What are you doing here Eli?" Clare asks. The fact that she doesn't sound happy to see him makes me smile.
"I came to talk to you; don't you think Fitz deserved what he got?" Eli asks and my fist clench.
"No, I don't think he deserved to be poisoned and humiliated in front of the school," Clare replies, and I smile again.
"He spent all semester bullying me and Adam and your solution was to go on a date with him and betray me," Eli snarls. He's turning red and I'm worried he might hurt her, intentionally or not, so I go running down the stairs. As soon as he sees me Eli goes red, his fists clench and his jaw tightens so that the sides of his neck bulge. His eyes narrow into thin enraged slits and his mouth goes white it's drawn in so tight. "YOU BROUGHT HIM HOME WITH YOU?!," Eli hollers. I jump down the last few steps, while Clare backs up a few steps towards the kitchen. Now Eli and I are facing each other, staring each other down and then two older people (Clare's parents I assume) come through the outer door.
"Clare, what is going on? Why are Eli and this other boy here?" Her Mom demands from the entryway because they can't really come in at the moment.
"Eli just showed up," Clare explains and then looks at Eli. "Please leave Eli we can talk about this later."
"No, if he's staying I'm staying and we need to talk about this now," Eli replies angrily.
"I think it's best if you leave Eli, you can talk with Clare tomorrow," her dad says in a stern voice. Eli growls angrily, turning quickly he storms out. We hear a car door slam, he starts that creepy hearse and then peels away so fast his tires squeal and we cover our ears. Now that Eli is gone her parent's attention is on me.
"Mom, Dad this is Fitz. He was my date tonight, which Eli got jealous over and he spiked Fitz's drink with ipecac. Fitz got quite sick, so I invited him to stay the night at our place, on the pullout in the office. I just didn't think it would be good for him to be alone and that someone should be around if he felt ill again. I also feel responsible for what Eli did," she explains to her parents.
"It wasn't your fault Clare," I insist to her.
"What about your own house son?" Her dad inquires, and I scratch the back of my head uncomfortably.
"My house isn't exactly…restful. My mom's not the nurturing type, and my stepdad and his son will probably just make it worse. But I'm feeling a lot better now, so I should probably get home."
"No, Clare is right you should stay here in case you get sick again and where we can keep an eye on you. Ipecac isn't necessarily harmful, but we don't know how much Eli gave you, and if he did give you too much that could certainly be harmful. Sleep in the office and just let us know if you start to feel sick again," her dad says, and I smile at him.
"Thank you, Sir, that's very nice of all of you."
"We're going to bed Sweetie, get Fitz settled and then into your own room," her mom stipulates kissing Clare's forehead.
"I will, goodnight," Clare says.
Her dad makes sure the outer door is locked and then the inner door once he comes in from the entry. He hugs Clare, says goodnight to both of us and follows his wife upstairs.
"I thought your parents were going to kick me out, they seem real nice."
"They can be. Do you need anything?"
"You think it would be okay if I took a shower? After all that ralphing I feel kinda gross."
"Sure, let me get you a towel. Oh, you might want to turn the water on now it can take a long time to heat up," she says. I start going upstairs and she turns out the lights downstairs before following me. I turn on the water in the shower while she grabs a towel, I hear her cell phone make a sound and after a moment she makes an irritated noise, then she comes in with the towel draped on her arm. "I'm just going to use the washroom real quick while the water heats up," she tells me putting the towel over the shower curtain rod.
I nod and exit the washroom, hearing the sound of her phone again curiosity overtakes me. It's on her bed and Eli just replied to a text, I click it to see the conversation chain but not to reply.
Eli: I can't believe you're with Fitz tonight and letting him stay at your house!
That's the first text from Eli tonight, followed by about 20 angry emoticons.
Clare: He's just sleeping here, he'll leave in the morning. If you hadn't spiked his drink with ipecac to make him sick he wouldn't be here at all. We can talk about it tomorrow Eli.
Eli: We leave for my grandparents first thing in the morning.
That was his only response. I feel a little guilty now, but I hear the sink running in the washroom, so I set Clare's phone down and get up. Just as she opens the washroom door I'm leaning against the washroom wall.
"The water is all warm now. I'm afraid everything in the shower is for girls," she says.
"That's okay, I mostly just want to rinse off," I reply, and she smiles softly.
"Let me know if you need anything."
I nod, and she goes into her room while I go into the washroom. I lock the door and get undressed, stepping into the shower. It might take a while to warm up but it's a very nice shower, and it's clean. Hardly anything in our house is ever clean, Mom vacuums maybe a few times a year, I do a little sometimes. My stepdad and Steve would probably have to have a gun to their head to ever lift a finger around the house.
After rinsing off and washing up a little with Clare's soap I get out. I dry off, wrap the towel around my waist and brush my teeth. After checking the hallway, I go across to the office again, clothes in hand, I lay them on the chair again except for my boxers which I slip on. I hang the wet towel over the back of the chair, turn out the light and slip into the bed. I sleep great, best I've slept in months actually. Waking up to a nice house and comfortable bed, even if it is a pullout sofa. I get dressed again, hang the towel in the washroom since I don't see a laundry basket. I fold the blankets, take the sheets off the pullout and fold it back up, I put the cushions back on it and take the pillowcase off the pillow. I leave them in the room, the house is pretty quiet even though it's after ten. Clare may still be asleep, but her parents are probably out. When I get downstairs, I find Clare on the sofa, watching cartoons and eating cereal, it puts this great grin on my face. As smart and mature as she is she still likes the simple Saturday morning pleasure of cereal and cartoons.
"Morning," she says when she sees me, quickly wiping the milk that dribbled from her chin, "how'd you sleep?"
"Slept great, best I have in months. Thanks for letting me stay over, you really didn't have to. What Eli did it wasn't your fault."
"I couldn't stand the thought of you sleeping in the school, or the ravine. Do people sleep in the ravine in this kind of weather?" Clare inquires.
"Sure, some of them have nowhere else to go. The van stays reasonably warm, especially if there's a lot of people sleeping in it. The fire is kept up all night with people sleeping by it, there's the little tents and there are other ways to keep warm," I remark with an unintentional lustful grin on my lips and Clare blushes. I realize how I'm smiling and wipe it from my lips. "Listen," I say with an apologetic tone as she begins eating her cereal again, "I'm sorry about you and Eli. I don't think he's at all good enough for you, but I didn't mean for you guys to fight."
"We wouldn't have fought at all if Eli had just made peace with you and let us finish our date. He just couldn't leave well-enough alone. He's at his grandparents for the holidays and hopefully it will give him time to cool down," she remarks with her eyebrows knitted in, showing me just how annoyed with Eli she is. She drinks the remaining milk in her bowl and then looks at me. "Are you hungry? There's cereal, eggs, toast."
"No, I'm okay I should probably get home," I shake my head looking around her living room. I really didn't see it last night, it's nicely decorated and there's a big Christmas tree with lots of ornaments on it and presents under it. There's Christmas lights, and stockings on the fireplace. A little Christmas village with people dressed from a long time ago is on one side table, on the other is baby Jesus and all the people around him. I forget what you call those. It's nice, it's homey, like a Christmas on TV.
"You should eat something, unless your stomach hurts still," she tells me rinsing the bowl and putting it in the dishwasher.
"My stomach is fine, but I…"
"You need to eat something Fitz, sit down I'll make you some toast you need to eat that at least."
I sit down, and she puts two pieces of bread in the toaster. When they pop up she sets them on a plate and asks what I want on them. I do that part, butter and grape jelly I find in the fridge.
"I left my towel in the washroom and the dirty sheets and pillowcase on the sofa upstairs with the blankets. I wasn't sure where you wanted them," I tell her after swallowing my first bite.
"Thanks, I'll put them in the laundry," she smiles and go upstairs. I hear her moving around and she comes back a few moments later with the towel and sheets in her arms. She takes those out to the garage and then comes back in. "Thanks for putting the sofa back together."
"No problem," I reply eating my last bite of toast and then I rinse the dish and put it in the dishwasher. "I should get going, thanks for everything, and thank your parents for letting me stay. I'll see you around Clare."
"Bye Fitz," she calls.
I leave her house and look around, a lot of the houses on her street are decorated for Christmas. Decorations in the yards, lights on the houses, even Clare's house has lights on it. I'm sure last night everything was lit up, but I felt too terrible to notice. I get in my car, it takes a couple of tries before it starts up, but it finally does. The drive home is almost crushing in its depression, even leaving Clare's neighborhood for mine is sort of depressing. I don't really mind living in a poor neighborhood, so do Johnny and Lucas but at least they have families that care about them. I park in front of our row house, the whole set of them is run down. There are a couple of houses with meager attempts at decorating for Christmas but it's not like Clare's neighborhood. A string of lights over a door, some tinsel on shrubs outside, that's about it. My old beater of a car fits in perfectly fine here, it looked really out of place in Clare's neighborhood. Mom's car is gone which means she's already at work at the diner, she works a lot of double shifts. Rudy, my stepdad, works at a gas station at night but he's usually loafing around the house most of the day.
"Well," Rudy comments when I come in the front door, "look who finally decided to show his face. Still wearing your dance clothes, it must have gone well."
"Yeah, the dance was great," I reply locking the front door behind me. The dance sucked actually but the rest of the night was pretty good. Not going to tell Rudy that though.
My stepdad chuckles almost in a proud sort of way at the thought that I got lucky last night. He raises a beer to me and goes back to watching TV which shows you the kind of parent he is. I go upstairs to the room I unfortunately have to share with Steve. He looks like he's still asleep on his bed, or rather passed out, I see his bong and a couple cans of beer next to him.
"Yep, home sweet home," I sigh heavily and start changing my clothes. I have nothing clean, so I put on the cleanest things I can find and start gathering up as much of my laundry as I can find. I put it in the cheap plastic laundry basket we have held together with duct tape.
"Fuck-tard you're being fucking loud, what are you doing?" Steve growls.
"Laundry, moron," I reply.
"Good, do mine," he yawns rolling over.
"Do your own fucking laundry," I comment hitting him with a pair of his jeans on the floor.
Steve makes a noise and leaps off the bed tackling me to the floor. He punches me before I can react, and then I punch him back. I hit him in the stomach and get the upper hand, I try to just get off him, but he tugs me back by my shirt and hits me in the stomach.
"KNOCK IT OFF YOU LITTLE SHITS," Rudy screams barging in and hitting me over the head with his beer bottle. I fall back dazed, blood trickling down my face, everything is blurry, but I can just see Steve getting up.
"Fucking fucker," Steve says kicking me hard in the side a couple of times. "Fuck this shit, I'm out of here," he remarks grabbing his wallet. I'm vaguely aware of him putting on his shoes and leaving the room.
I find a shirt and hold it to my bleeding head, lying down on the floor because I feel like shit again. "Home sweet fucking home."
Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, I will update as soon as I can and the update will include Christmas and Clare finding Fitz in trouble.
Next to go up is the premier of the new Clew short story The Best Thing that Never Happened.