Bittersweet Symphony
"No, he is obviously fine, I just saw him the other day.", I say to Principal Simpson, he shakes his head in disbelief. "I'm sorry, but Eli Goldsworthy is dead." I stare at him blankly, then over to my friend, Imogen who is also at a loss for words. "You can go home if you'd like.", Dr. Tara, the therapist that was assigned to Degrassi told me. "No… I have an election to win, with or without Eli.", I say. I stand up and I walk out, leaving Imogen alone with Principal Simpson and Dr. Tara. I don't need that woman telling me what to do just because my ex-boyfriend committed suicide. That was his choice, not mine, so why should my life be dictated around him. As I walked down the halls, I got a plentiful of stares, considering that the news about Eli just got out. I walked into the student council office, where I see my competition, Drew, sitting there. "Oh, Clare, hi. We weren't expecting you to come to the meeting today.", Katie said, in a light, subtle tone of voice. Obviously she thinks I'm some fragile china doll. "Just because someone died, doesn't mean my life died too.", I say to her coldly as I take a seat next to Drew.
It was the next day, and I was still getting stares, so was Imogen, who was Eli's girlfriend at the time. Why am I even getting attention, she should be, not me, Eli meant nothing to me, not after he went off and hooked up with her, and got her pregnant, now he just left her alone with his daughter like they were nothing, selfish prick. Imogen was raising money for a campaign about suicide and ways to prevent it and getting money to give towards mental intervention and mental help. She comes up to me. "Hey… how are you?I haven't seen you since you walked out of the office yesterday.", she said to me, she didn't even seemed phased about Eli's death, neither was I, at least I thought I wasn't. "Why aren't you crying?", I asked her, she seemed to got oddly annoyed by my question. "Life goes on, Clare. I'm upset too, but yet so angry… he just left me alone with Hannah like we were nothing to him.", she said to me, by the time she mentioned Hannah's name, she started to drift off to almost a complete silence, but I could still hear her. "I hear you. I feel the same way. He fucked us over. Both of us.", I say to her, but she doesn't seem too agreeing on that one. What is this girl's attitude towards it anyway, one second she's sad, the next she's mad. Make up your damn mind. "Well… I thought about it, would you like to come over to my place… play with Hannah, and just… talk… we obviously have some dirt to clean up.", Imogen seemed hesitate on her words, but it was enough to convince me. "Sure."
I was then at her house. The whole day was so quick, besides the moments me and Imogen got stares as we walked down the hallway together. Part of those puzzled looks probably came from the fact that we had made it known that we were enemy's. I sat on her couch, and she came over with Hannah. "At least Eli left you something great.", I say to her, she doesn't seem too pleased, but she did love Hannah, so she ultimately had to agree. "Yeah, I guess…", she said to me. "What will you tell her when she get's older?", I asked her, then all of a sudden she froze, tears welled in her eyes. "I told myself I wouldn't cry…", she said, starting to sob. I hugged her, and began sobbing too. Although we didn't want to admit it, Eli Goldsworthy made a mark on us, even if we barely let it show.