Fitz awoke in the morning to the sound of yelling. He rolled out of bed, pulled on a t-shirt and jeans, and slowly walked down the stairs.
"What are these?" Clare's mom yelled, picking up a pair of Timberland work boots. "These certainly weren't here when I left."
He took a step.
"A friend's," Clare said. "They happened to stay over."
"Is this friend of yours a boy?"
He took a step.
"So what if he is! He didn't even go near my room!"
"That's not the point."
And then he couldn't step anymore. Fitz was standing at the bottom of the stairs, watching as the two screamed at each other.
"Ahem," he coughed, and they both turned towards him.
"I could go…" he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "If it's too much trouble for me to be here…"
"No, you don't need to go," Clare said, and her mom shot her a pointed look, which she ignored.
"I'm going upstairs." Clare's mom said sternly. "I need to…think."
At that, she left, leaving Clare and Fitz alone.
"Sorry about that," Clare smiled, acting as if nothing had happened.
"It's fine."
"You must be hungry, want breakfast?"
"Sure," he said, following her into the kitchen where he was handed a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon. He thanked her with a grateful look as he sat down at the kitchen table.
"I'll be right back," Clare said on her way up the stairs. "I need to make my bed."
Fitz then felt guilty for not making his. She seemed to pick up on this, "Ill make yours too."
"Thanks," he smiled.
As he was shoveling his breakfast into his mouth, someone knocked on the door. He waited a few minutes, looking around and expecting Clare or her mom to get it. But when no one did, he placed the last bite of food in his mouth, went over to the door, opened it, and nearly choked to death when he saw who it was.
"What the hell?" Eli said, confused. Panic shot though Fitz and he slammed the door shut in Eli's face. He knew something like this would happen, but assumed he would be long gone by then so he had no idea how to handle it.
"Hey!" shouted Eli as he pounded on the door.
Fitz peered out the curtain and saw Eli make his way back to his car and yell something at his friend Adam, whom was hanging out the passenger seat window with a confused expression on his face.
They both abruptly turned towards the house—towards him— and Fitz closed the curtain quickly, knowing he had been seen. Shit.
He started pacing around the living room as he saw the two figures come towards the door, and start knocking again.
"This must be a joke," he heard Eli mutter.
"I don't know, maybe you should just call her." His friend said.
"What are you doing?"
Fitz spun around to see Clare watching him.
He motioned to the door just as Eli pounded again, "Clare! What's going on?"
"Oh…" she frowned. "Did they see you?"
"I think so. How 'bout I go hide and you pretend nothing happened."
"Couldn't hurt right?"
So Fitz ran into the first floor bathroom and locked the door while Clare took a deep breath, ran a hand though her hair, and opened the door with a cheery, fake smile plastered on her face.
Under normal circumstance, she would have been happy to see her friends, but until the Fitz thing was sorted out, it was definitely not a good idea.
"Hey guys," she said casually and Eli narrowed his eyes.
"Hi Clare…" he said, and brushed past her and into the house. Adam followed close behind, scoping out the room like a detective.
"What's up?" Adam asked, but it sounded more like an accusation.
"Not much, you?"
"Not much as in you are harboring an escaped convict in your house?" he yelled and Eli gave him a look.
"What are you talking about?" she laughed.
"So Fitz isn't here?" Eli asked slowly.
"What? That's crazy! Of course he wouldn't be here! What would make you think that?"
"I don't know, Eli said some crazy thing about him being here," Adam shrugged. "Mind if I use your bathroom?" he said heading towards the door and Clare froze.
"Um… that one's, uh, clogged. You should use the upstairs one." She lied.
"Clare, what's in the bathroom…?" Eli reached for the knob, and turned it, but became frustrated when he found it locked.
"Clare…"
"What! No ones in there!"
"I never said any thing about there being a person in there."
She gulped as Eli stared her straight in the eyes, emerald clashing with sapphire.
Click
They all spun to face the bathroom as the door flew open.
…
Fitz could hear everything that was going on. Clare was actually doing well not to blow their cover, but everything went downhill when Adam said he had to use the frickin bathroom.
Fitz stood up to press his ear to the door in order hear even better, but his socks—his stupid socks—caused him to slip. He started falling, and his hands shot out in front of him, hitting the knob on the door, causing the lock to click. Fortunately, Fitz found his balance so he didn't fall over, but unfortunately the door had flung open and he was left standing there while everyone's eyes were on him.
