A/N: DISCLAIMER: DO NOT READ UNTIL YOU READ THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE! I used to watch Degrassi a lot, but haven't lately for certain reasons (medical, family, academic) basically, I've been too busy to really watch the show. However, I LOVE Eli and Clare. So I still write Fanfiction for them. Now this is where it gets IMPORTANT I do not know really the whole story about the breakup and who Clare is trying to date or dating and the same with Eli. So, in this story, I am taking some CREATIVE DIRECTION and doing my own thing for it. I do not know all the characters, so I will make them up. The situations will be made up as well. But this Clare and Eli and they do fight and they do break up. I love my reviews and my readers, but I hope NO ONE COMPLAINS or gets angry that this is not sticking strictly to the Degrassi storyline. I hope you ENJOY and can OVERLOOK the fact that I don't know all the details. But, I DO KNOW ENOUGH TO WRITE A GOOD STORY THAT IS TRUE TO THE CHARACTERS OF CLAIRE AND ELI. Please, GIVE THIS A CHANCE. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy
Chapter One:
Fire and Ice
Their first real fight was like a wild fire. A small little campfire – a little bit of lit kindle. It grew into a wild fire and continued to grow and spread, burning everything in its sight – including them. They hadn't meant to say those things to each other, they hadn't meant to fan the flames, but they had. And now, there was no going back. They were done. Over. And it happened as quickly as the fire had begun. They were charred, burnt. Their scars misshapen, horrid. They had become gargoyles with the mutilations covering them, making them into strangers – dark shadows of themselves.
The fight was nothing, just a little spat. Eli had spent too much time working on his car and Clare had confronted him about it. They argued for a few minutes, and then it was done. Until the next fight, and the next. Soon, they were avoiding each other, cold to one another. They became a winter wind whipping at each other with freezing glances and icy shoulders. They no longer laughed together. They no longer where silly together. It was strange.
Their friends noticed. Ali commented. Adam questioned – questions and comments that they didn't know how to answer. They'd both brush it off as nothing. Stress, lack of sleep. Neither wanted to face what they both secretly knew was coming. They were falling apart – unraveling like a tattered tapestry. One thread, and then another, until finally the whole thing was nothing but warn, weathered threads, tangled up in a horrid mess, an inescapable mess.
Clare began eating lunch in the library, Eli in his car. They hardly ever saw each other, and neither knew what had happened. They had come undone. The fights had turned to anger and the anger turned to abhorrence. They loved each other too much, it seemed. They loved each other too much that each icy glance, each thrashing word, tore in deep – too deep – drawing blood and leaving each other weak.
Both were losing sleep. Neither knew what was going on. It was surprising that they had changed so drastically. When they did talk, they fought, and so avoidance became necessity. The ties that bound them at the hip were painfully severed. The heartstrings that had bound the two together, had ripped apart. And everything had happened so quickly.
So quickly it made them dizzy. They were drowning in the confusion and anger. The surface seemed so far away. They could barely see the sunshine dancing on the surface, but were falling deep into the darkened depths, further and further away from that sunlight – those memories.
What was happening to them? They had begun as friends, then more, and finally they were in love. They had laughed and danced and had mini-food fights in the cafeteria. They took long drives together and had opened up about her parents, his ex. But since the anniversary of that horrible, nightmare day, Eli had started to morph into something else. He pushed Clare, trying to desperately get her away from him. He wouldn't ruin her like he had ruined his ex. He wasn't going to deal with that again, he couldn't face it.
Clare couldn't understand. Her parents' fighting had worsened and she so desperately needed him, but he slowly began to drift away from her. The fights started.
The fighting was bad. Hateful words were thrown and crashing down around them. The walls were caving in and were collapsing around them. Chaos.
The chaos made them want to escape. So they ran away – away from the fire, away from the ice, away from the stinging, biting words, away from the pain, and – lastly – from each other.
And now here they were, life interrupted, all because of those petty fights. Clare had finally gotten ahold of him. Eli had finally answered her call. Another fight. Eli wanted – needed – to prove something to her. He was angry, damaged. The scars had made him into a monster and he let that monster out of its cage. He pressed down on the accelerator, ignoring Clare shouting in the phone, and drove.
He didn't open his eyes until he was at the hospital. He was bandaged up and in a lot of pain, but he wouldn't show it. He was fine. He didn't hurt. The cuts didn't sting. The tears were cemented in his eyes. Everything was fine. But the mask was cracking as Clare hurried through the heavy wooden door.
She had yelled at him and accused him of manipulating her. It wasn't really his intention, he just needed to get her attention – and to be honest, with the fighting and pain, he hadn't really cared if he lived or died. But here he was, alive and mostly well, with Clare standing over him, tears streaming her cheeks, yelling.
He tried to explain, but she wouldn't listen. And then it happened.
They were done. They were over. The tapestry unraveled.