Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi or anything else.
Twitter: themusiksnob – See profile for protected tweet explanation.
Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed chapter 1. I'm really excited about this story so I'm glad you're enjoying it, even if it's not the most original thing.
Two things I forgot to mention last time:
Although the story is based on my ideas of what will happen based on the promos, I will not be covering all of the storylines in it. Although I am very intrigued by the Fadam storyline, I just don't have enough time to write it into this story, and the same goes for Alli disappearing. I just don't have enough time to write the 40 chapter story I would need to to cover those well.
Also, this story will have a plotline that may potentially be upsetting to people who have bad past experiences. I'll try to handle it tastefully, but you may need to tread carefully. I don't want to ruin it by explaining, but don't worry, Clare will not get pregnant. Or kidnapped. Or raped by Fitz. Or cut herself.
Many thanks to AlbatrossTam14 for her thoughts and to my twitter friends for their love and amusing conversations. (I used to not even write author notes, so now this is getting ridiculous - stopping now.)
Chapter 2:
"Eli, hand the keys over," Clare said, crossing her arms over her chest, as we exited her house.
"I'm not sure you're ready yet," I teased. "Maybe I should drive until we get to the parking lot. I'm not sure I'm ready to let you loose on the main streets behind the wheel of my baby."
"Fine. But then I get a full hour of driving time, and I get to drive us home afterwards."
"Deal," I said. I got behind the wheel of Morty and took off for Degrassi. I figured the parking lot would be pretty empty since it was Saturday.
I liked how Clare said she would be driving us home. As in, back to her house where her parents were out for the night. I knew we weren't going to have sex, but this would be the first time we were going to sleep together and I was really excited at the thought even though I knew I was going to end up with a massive case of blue balls.
I snuck at a glance at her when I stopped at a red light. She had on a denim jacket over a pink, flowery blouse that was a little too buttoned up. I missed those dresses she used to wear that were pretty modest overall, but showed just a bit of cleavage. An image of Clare straddling me topless popped into my head. I couldn't believe she let me take her clothes off and touch her and that she was the one who suggested it. I was looking forward to seeing if she'd suggest anything else.
"Eli!" she said loudly and I realized the light had turned green. I stepped on the gas. "And you're telling me I'm the unsafe driver? You can't even keep your eyes on the road."
"Sorry, I was a little…" I grinned, "distracted."
"Distracted?" Clare said sarcastically. "By what exactly?" She asked the question in a way that told me she knew exactly what my answer would be.
"Oh, I was just thinking about you…and what we did yesterday."
I could see Clare's cheeks flushing from the corner of my eye. "You mean, throwing out all your newspapers before you serenaded me?"
"Or the part where you took your shirt off and moaned my name while I groped you."
"Eli!" She was so easy to tease.
I pulled into the Degrassi parking lot. "Okay, Clare, we're here." I shut off Morty's engine and passed her the keys.
"There are a lot more cars here than I expected. And people walking around."
I squeezed her hand. "You're going to be fine. Just drive slowly."
"Maybe I should wait for my dad. His car is a lot smaller than this. And I'm not even supposed to be driving with you anyway. You haven't had a license long enough."
"Clare, you've been begging me to teach you to drive for weeks. Don't wimp out on me."
For a girl who had such convictions in certain parts of her life, it wasn't too hard to challenge Clare to do something she didn't want to. "Fine." She slammed the passenger side door and came around. I hugged her before sliding over to the passenger side.
"So you know which one is the gas and which one is the brake, right?"
"Eli, come on."
"Fine, I won't tell you anything. You just drive."
Clare bit her lip. "Okay….seatbelt…mirrors…ignition….brake…gear…" Clare took her foot off the break and we started moving forward slightly. "Eek!" she shrieked and slammed on the brake. I was glad I was wearing my seatbelt since I probably only narrowly avoided a severe case of whiplash.
"You know the car is supposed to move forward? That wasn't a mistake."
Clare took a deep breath and removed her foot once more. This time when the car moved a little she put pressure on the gas pedal and we started moving at around 10 kilometres per hour. She gripped the wheel so tightly I could see her knuckles turning white.
"You're doing great, Clare. Just relax a little. Maybe you could go a little faster. And try turning at the stop sign there."
Clare only increased the speed a tiny bit, and she stopped a little hard, but her turn went okay, and she seemed to be getting a little more confident. We made a few laps around the parking lot and she got more comfortable. She didn't stop quite as hard and she didn't turn too widely.
"See," I teased. "Driving isn't so hard."
"Uh huh," she said, still a little tense.
"Why don't you make a right and we'll just drive around the school? The side roads should be pretty empty."
"Okay," she said tentatively.
"You're going to have to drive the speed limit if we're on a real road," I said gently. She got up to speed and then slowed down at the stop sign at the back of the school. She looked both ways and turned. "Perfect."
There was a guy standing in the middle of the street with his back to us. He was kicking a hacky sack and clearly wasn't paying any attention to us. "Just slow down a little and see what this idiot is going to do." He must have heard the car because he turned to look at us.
No fucking way.
Fitz.
My jaw dropped and Clare let out a shriek. All I could picture was him holding a knife in his hands, calling Clare a bitch and bringing his arm back to stab me and I closed my eyes and tried to count to three or picture Clare kissing me or do anything to get him out of my mind, but when I opened my eyes he was still there, standing in the middle of the street, clearly shocked to see Clare and I driving toward him in the hearse. Driving right at…
"Clare, STOP!" She slammed on the brake and narrowly missed hitting him. I jumped out of the car before she could even put it in park.
"You fucking asshole!" I screamed. "Get out of the fucking road."
He ignored me and walked toward the driver's door. "I need to talk to you," he said to Clare.
"She doesn't have anything to say to you." I ran over to him and grabbed him by the arm, shoving him away from Clare.
"Look, man. I'm sorry about what happened at Vegas Night. I took it too far. I just wanted to scare you; I wasn't going to kill you."
He took another step towards the hearse and I shoved him away again. "Stay away from Clare. She doesn't want to have anything to do with you."
"I think the girl can speak for herself."
Clare opened the door and grabbed me by the arm. "Eli, calm down and get into the car."
"Not until he swears he'll stay away from you."
Fitz put his hands up in surrender. "Dude, I'm not going to touch her. I just want to talk."
"Go talk to one of your ravine skanks and stay away from my girlfriend."
Fitz laughed. He took a cigarette out of his pocket and put it behind his ear. "Your girlfriend, eh? I thought Clare had better taste than to go out with an ass like you."
Clare tugged on my hand. "Let's go."
But I wasn't done yet. "At least I don't have to blackmail girls into dating me by threatening them."
"At least I'm not so emo that I can't last long enough to please my lady…although I suppose Saint Clare won't get to experience that particular problem."
I was so pissed off that he brought Clare into this fight that without thinking, my fist flew back and I punched him in his face. My hand started throbbing instantly and I stepped back, surprised when Fitz just rubbed his cheek and didn't come after me.
Clare sucked in a breath, shocked and grabbed me by the back of my shirt as if she was going to hold me back. I rubbed my bleeding knuckles. "What's the matter, Fitzy boy? Not so tough without your trusty knife? The police didn't give it back to you after they bagged it for evidence?"
Fitz looked like he was seething with anger, but for some reason, he didn't try to hit me. He spat on the ground. "I should have stabbed you when I had the chance. Just to shut your fucking mouth up."
Clare let out a wailing noise and I realized she was crying hysterically. Shit. I was so obsessed with Fitz that I stopped thinking about her.
"Stay away from her," I said, wrapping my arm around her waist. "She wants nothing to do with you." As Fitz eyed me, I led her to the passenger side door and took the keys out of her hand.
Once she was locked safely inside, I went back around and got right up in Fitz's face. "If you touch her, I'll kill you," I hissed, quietly enough that Clare wouldn't be able to hear it. "I don't care if I go to jail for the rest of my life and I don't care if you take me with you. You touch her, you die."
Fitz took a step back without a word. He stared at us as I put Morty in drive and drove off.
Clare was still crying and my hands were shaking and I was starting to feel really bad. As the adrenaline faded my nerves started acting up and I wished I had my pills on me. I'd been better lately and hadn't needed to take them but as soon as I saw Fitz I just couldn't control myself. Flashing back to Vegas Night was bad enough but as soon as that image popped into my head, another memory kept rushing back – my deepest, darkest secret I had never told anyone, not even Julia. I closed my eyes, trying to force the thought out of my head, but it wouldn't go away. I realized I was still driving and that I was going to kill us both if I didn't open my eyes and get myself together.
I was driving past the park Clare and I sometimes went to and there was a parking space open at so I pulled over, realizing it wasn't safe for me to be driving in this condition. I unbuttoned a few buttons on my shirt but I still felt that choking sensation that meant a panic attack was on the way. I got out of the car, forcing myself to take deep calm breaths as I paced next to the car.
Clare hurried over to me and wrapped her arms around me. Her embrace created some sort of tactile comfort situation; although I initially resisted her, she persisted and the feeling of her holding me definitely started to calm me down. I was starting to feel better but I was a little dizzy, so I sat down on Morty's hood. Clare stood in front of me and held my hands.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
I let out a deep breath. "Yeah…seeing him just brought me back to Vegas Night. I felt like he was coming back to finish what he started." I could just picture Fitz stabbing me, leaving me to bleed out on the floor while he took my beautiful Clare and stole her virtue.
Clare bit her lip. "Well, I don't think that's what he intended, but you certainly didn't do anything to keep the peace."
What the fuck? "Are you pissed at me? He's the psycho who tried to stab me, Clare. I know I screwed up but nothing I did was worse than that."
"You told me you were done." Clare's voice was furious. "After Vegas Night, you swore to me that the fighting was over, the scheming was over. I told you I couldn't be with you if you thought violence was the answer and the first thing you do when you see Fitz is to get him riled up and then punch him in the face. He just wanted to talk, Eli. He wouldn't have gotten aggressive if you hadn't started it."
All the tension that had worked itself out of my body was back as I stared at Clare in disbelief. "You're being naïve. Fitz is dangerous. I was just protecting you."
"Don't." She took a step back from me and I felt my heart breaking. "I don't need you to protect me. I need you to be my boyfriend and to keep yourself safe and out of trouble."
"Clare…"
"I'm serious, Eli. The thought of losing you kills me. You have no idea what it was like watching Fitz holding a knife, ready to take you from me."
"Yeah, I have no idea." My hands were forming fists and I put them behind my back so Clare wouldn't get the wrong idea. I wasn't going to hurt her; I'd never do that, but the amount of pain and tension in my body left me without much control.
She took a step back toward me and rested her hand on my knee. "I'm sorry. That wasn't fair."
"Are we okay?"
"Do you promise me there will be no more fighting?"
I shook my head. "I can't promise that. If he's back…" God, what if he comes back to Degrassi? Simpson wouldn't let that happen, right? "If he comes near you…"
Clare turned away from me. "Take me home, Eli."
"Clare."
"Take me home."
