AN: Well, long time-no see Fanfiction! This isn't my first Fanfic, but it is my first Degrassi one. So uh, here it goes? I hope it's not TOO horrible, but I'm rusty. So enjoy to the best of your abilities, and review at the end please! Oh and uh, this takes place just a bit before "All Falls Down" or as I like to call it, The happier times of Eclare.
Clare's POV
Ah, today has been such a lovely day so far. Even though it's only morning I awoke to no fighting from my parents. Granted, they weren't talking at all, but it was so much better than the usual screams that I hear. And do to the lack of yelling, I was able to concentrate on getting ready this morning so I was able to leave my house with a head start. This in turn means that I can enjoy my walk to school on this sunny day. It is slightly chilly, but then again, nothing can be perfect.
As I was arriving at school, I noticed Adam and Drew getting out of their mother's car.
"Hey Adam, Drew." I gave a slight nod to Drew. I still wasn't very happy with him because of the whole Cheating-on-Alli fiasco.
"Hey Clare." Adam replied. Drew gave a quick "Hello Clare" and ran off to his locker, to go meet with Bianca, I presume.
"How's it going, Adam?" I asked him.
"Alright, I guess. Still being all "Machismo" as Eli would put it. Speaking of Eli, he wanted me to tell you that he won't be in school today because his dad needed help setting up some new equipment at the radio station. Bullfrog let him ditch today because he really needed the extra help." Adam said.
"Oh, well that's okay. I suppose I can survive one day without my knight in shining armour." I joked, while secretly holding in twinge sadness. Eli and I weren't a couple, but I desperately hoped that we would be someday soon, although I don't think that he has any sort of romantic feelings for me.
"I don't know, it'd be a pretty tough thing to do Clare. Are you sure that you can handle it?" He joked back, while patting my shoulder and laughing.
As we walked into school, we went our separate ways, meeting up before English so we could walk together. I have to admit, I did miss Eli being here. But Adam was really good company too. I haven't talked to him a whole lot, but he reminded me of Eli, in a way. He enjoyed making jokes, and talking about comic books, although I had no idea what he was talking about when he brought that subject up.
Before I knew it, the end of the day had come. Adam had asked me earlier if I wanted his mom to give me a ride home, but said that I would have to wait for him to ask about a project that they had in Media Immersion after school. I declined his offer, saying that I would rather walk home since it was a nice day outside.
So I walked to my locker after school and gathered the things that I would need to take home. By the time that I finished, it appeared that everyone had cleared the hallways to go home. As I was walking towards the main door to leave, someone grabbed my arm roughly and pulled me, causing me to fall into them. As I steadied myself, I turned around to see the last person that I wanted to see, Fitz.
"Uh, he-hey Fitz. Did you need something?" I stuttered out. I knew that Fitz could be dangerous, because he's fought with Eli a few times, and not to mention, threw Adam through a door.
"Yeah, actually, I do need something. This." He said as he pushed me up against the wall. I tried to shove him away, but to no avail. He began to squeeze my butt as I cried for help.
"No one can hear you." He whispered aggressively. He removed his hands from my butt and I let out a sigh of relief. Relief flooded me too soon, though, because he then ran his hands all along my chest. I was extremely scared and uncomfortable now since I knew that I wouldn't be able to get away from him.
I heard a yell come from the other end of the hallway and a few seconds later, Fitz was removed from me and I fell to the ground as his grip was released. I curled myself into a ball as I looked up and saw Adam punching Fitz in the stomach.
"You just don't have any limits, do you?" Adam yelled at Fitz.
Fitz stood up and said "You know what, it's not even worth it anymore," and gave Adam a small shove as he walked away.
Adam slowly approached me and wrapped his arms around me in a hug as tears silently poured down my face. After about a minute, Adam helped me stand up and began to speak.
"Clare, I don't think you should walk home by yourself right now. How about take that offer I gave you earlier and get a ride home from my mom?" Adam asked me.
"Sure." I said quietly. I wasn't in the mood to walk now, anyway.
The ride to my house was a bit awkward, since I was still shaking as I got into the car. Drew and their mom gave me a few quick, concerned glances, but neither of them chose to ask what was wrong, and I was glad that they didn't.
Adam decided to stay with me when we got to my house since neither of my parents were home, and I didn't particularly want to be alone right now. As we watched some random show on the TV, I decided to voice one of my concerns that had been bothering me for the past few minutes.
"Adam, I don't think Eli should know about what happened with Fitz," I said, as Adam slightly jumped at the sound of my voice.
"What do you mean, Clare? Eli cares a lot about you, and he's going to want to know about what happened to you." Adam said as he quickly glanced at me.
"I know he does, and that's the problem. I don't want him to have another reason to start a fight with Fitz" I explained.
"But Clare, maybe Fitz deserves it. Just this once, would it be so wrong for Eli to punch him a few times? He violated you, Clare." Adam said, slightly angry.
"I know that, but if Eli starts a fight with him, Fitz isn't going to be the only person throwing punches. Eli will probably get hurt too, and that's the last thing that I want. So please Adam, don't mention this to Eli." I begged.
Adam looked hesitant for a few seconds, but finally sighed in defeat.
"Okay, I won't tell Eli. But I want to make it clear that I don't agree with this in any way." He said, as I gave him a small hug and thanked him.
A few minutes later, Adam got a text from his mom saying that he needed to come home for dinner. After he left, I decided that I would go to sleep early tonight. I put a note on my bedroom door saying that I went to sleep early and that I didn't want dinner, for my parents.
As I changed into my pajamas and got into bed, the only thing I could think about was Adam keeping his promise of not telling Eli.
The Next Morning:
As I was walking to school the next morning, I noticed a hearse pull up to the sidewalk next to me. Of course, I immediately opened the passenger door, knowing who it was in the car.
"Good morning, Edwards. Need a ride to school today?" He asked as I got settled into the car.
"Yeah, thanks Eli." I responded with a smile as he gave me a smirk and drove in the direction of Degrassi.
As he parked Morty, I saw Fitz and his friends on the other side of the parking lot. I panicked, trying to think of a way for Eli and I to get into the school without Fitz seeing us and without Eli questioning it.
As I impatiently waited for him to lock his car, I began speed walking towards the school. Eli caught up with me, and gave me a questioning glance.
"I just don't want to be late for class." I said. Eli gave me a doubtful look since we were already fifteen minutes early but didn't comment on it. Just as we were almost to the door, I heard a voice.
"Hey Clare, Eli!" I turned around and saw Fitz and his friends behind us. I saw Eli tense up a bit beside me.
"Yes, Fitz?" I asked, praying that he wouldn't bring up yesterday.
"Oh nothing. I just wanted to say that I had fun yesterday." He said, as all of the colour drained from my face. I gave him a disgusted look, grabbed Eli's wrist, and marched up the steps as I heard Fitz and his friends laughing behind us.
As I let go of Eli's wrist, I hoped that he wouldn't question me about what happened. But luck just wasn't on my side today, as he asked,
"Clare, what was Fitz talking about?" He asked me with a slightly angered expression.
"Nothing, let's just go to class." I said, quickly and nervously. As I turned to walk away, Eli stepped in front of me.
"No, I want to know what happened yesterday. Obviously something did, and don't try to deny it!" He said as he saw me open my mouth to protest. He continued, "So let's go sit down and you can tell me what happened." He finished.
"As we went to go sit in the Zen garden, I was reluctant to talk. I knew Eli would be angry, so I really didn't want to tell him. But I knew he wouldn't let me leave until I did, so I began.
"Okay so yesterday after school, as I was leaving, Fitz came up behind me and grabbed my arm. When I asked him what he wanted he said "this" and pushed me against the wall and," I stopped, because I could visibly see Eli getting angry. His fists were at his sides and his beautiful green eyes had darkened.
I went over to him and grabbed his hands to unclench his fists. After a few seconds, he had slightly calmed down.
"And?" He pushed me to continue, his eyes clenched shut.
"I don't know if I should…" I said in a whisper. Eli leaned his head back against the wall.
"Clare, please." His voice broke. "I need to know, for the sake of my sanity, what happened."
"It really wasn't that bad, I mean, I'm okay now and Adam came to help me and stuff too." I said, stalling.
"Clare! Just tell. Me. What. He. Did." He pleaded.
"I took a deep breath, and sighed. "After he pushed me against the wall, he grabbed my butt and was squeezing it. Then he released it and ran his hands over my chest. Adam came a bit after he started touching my chest." I said, preparing for the worst.
I was expecting Eli to jump up, yell, tell me that he was going to set something up for Ftiz, anything like that. I most definitely wasn't prepared for this reaction.
He was quiet for a few moments, but then I heard him murmur quietly, "I'm going to kill him." And when he looked up and I saw it in his eyes, he was dead serious.
"Eli, no! You can't do anything to him! You could get in huge trouble, or worse, hurt! You can't do it, Eli, please"! I cried to him.
"Clare, what do you expect me to do? He touched you! He violated you! He did something to you that you didn't give him permission to do! That's sick and disgusting! No man should ever touch a woman like that unless they're given permission! And no man should especially touch you if you didn't give them your permission!" He ranted to me angrily.
"Eli, we both know what he did was wrong! But you starting a fight with him isn't going to change the fact that it happened! Instead of worrying about Fitz, worry about me! Stay with me and tell me that it's going to be okay! I need someone to tell me that's it's going to be okay! I'm scared!" My voice broke on the last word, and by that point, I was sobbing.
I saw realization in Eli's eyes as he now understood that I needed him with me. He rushed over to me and pulled me down to the ground with him, me sitting on his lap with his arms around me.
"Shh, shh, it's okay Clare. Everything's okay. He's not going to touch you again. I'm going to protect you." He murmured in my ear as I buried my head into his chest, sobs still wracking my body.
His arms tightened around me as we sat there, him murmuring soothing things to me. After a few minutes, I finally calmed down. I removed myself from Eli's chest and began to stand up as his arms removed themselves, almost reluctantly it seemed, from me. As he began to stand as well, I figured that I needed to apologize to him.
"I'm sorry Eli. I didn't mean to get so emotional with you." I apologized with a blush on my face.
"You don't need to be afraid to tell me how you feel, Sweetheart. If you're sad, tell me. If you're happy, tell me. If you're angry, tell me. And especially if you're scared, tell me." He said as he wrapped me in another hug.
I stood there for a few seconds, saviouring the contact, before I pulled away.
"We should probably get to class," I stated shyly.
"Yeah, I guess we should." He gave me his famous smirk, and we walked out of the Zen garden, hand in hand.
AN: Okay, so I hope that it was to your liking. If it was, tell me in a review. If it wasn't, tell me in a review. Because you know that you want to click that sexy little button below. :)