I know, I know. I'm a terrible author, I'm so so so sorry for making you wait this long for this chapter, but mad doesn't even begin to cover how my life has been lately. Exams, more exams, finishing college and the never-ending hunt for jobs, plus there was a slight issue with my laptop, but it's all good now.
Here's the next chapter! Much love and remember to review!
Waiting with Clare at the airport was one the hardest things Eli has had to do recently, ever since they had returned to Canada, he had dreaded the day when she had to go back to New York and he would stay here, finish his required course work and finally graduate from Degrassi; only then would Eli follow her back to New York where they would be happy and everything would be normal again.
The only thing standing in the way of that was 4 exams, graduation and two weeks of misery.
Clare's grip on Eli's hand was causing the blood to stop pumping to his fingers, this meant that they had turned purple and they were starting to throb a little; but this didn't bother him, he didn't want to let Clare go, even if that meant losing a few fingers.
A female voice crackled over the tannoy system, "Final boarding call for passengers from Flight 754C to New York." Clare whimper and Eli swallowed back the lump in his throat as he pulled Clare to her feet.
"Time to go, Clare. You need to get on that plane! You have exams as do I" He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face into her curls inhaling her shampoo.
Clare shook her head, and said something that which was muffled by his jumper, so Eli stroked her back and kissed the side of her head.
"It will fly in, you'll barely have time to get used to being alone before I'm back and messing up the place, don't you worry Clare, everything is going to be ok, and we will be fine and happy."
She simply nodded and stroked his cheek, he hated seeing her cry. It was almost as bad as watching CeCe cry, he pressed a final kiss to her lips and nudged her towards the gate.
He waited until she disappeared from view, and then watched her plane take off before finally heading towards the parking garage; his hands deep inside his pockets as he tried to stop the feeling in the pit of his stomach consume him and his thoughts.
Walking the halls of Degrassi again as a student brought back a lot of unwanted feelings for Eli: panic, stress, loneliness, unhappiness, depression; he had spent the previous night with Adam and Drew playing video games in a vain attempt to distract himself from the Clare sized hole that appeared next to him. But being back at Degrassi made Eli feel like all the progress he had made with Clare would be washed away if he even done one thing wrong, he didn't want to fuck up again…he couldn't lose her again.
"Well, well, well…Look whose back and without his little…bodyguard."
Eli's entire body stiffened and he could feel his heart plummeting down towards his feet, or Australia. He rotated 180 degrees to face Talia who had a smug look on her face like she had been right about something and now wanted to gloat about it, and if there was something that Talia was good at, it was gloating.
Eli swallowed trying to wet his dry throat before saying anything, the last thing he wanted for her to know that she had a negative effect on him, because in her twisted, drug addled mind that would be the best way to push Eli down and to have him fall down the dark pit filed with weed, MDMA, all night rave and of course, the devil in all her glory – Talia.
"What do you want? I thought it told you to leave me alone!"
"Oh you did, but you know me Eli, I don't listen very well, especially to people who are hypocrites."
Eli held his tongue and looked her straight in the eye, he didn't want to give her the satisfaction of being able to get a rise of him, so instead he simple masked all his emotions and looked bored as he continued to stare at her.
To anyone who didn't know Talia very well, would see her roll her eyes and walk away from the older boy, but Eli, who had spent large amounts of time with Talia during the previous year could see the panic in her eyes as she tried to regain control of the situation because she didn't deal well with having no control.
Watching Talia's retreating back, Eli knew on some level that she would not be making these next two weeks easy for Eli, she was definitely going to try to hurt him in one way or another.
He felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder, spinning on his heels he found himself face to face with Adam who had a slightly worried look in his eyes as he glanced between Eli and Talia's retreating back. Eli took a shaky breath before nodding, "Yeah man, just…a bit of drama, nothing I can't handle." He shot a shaky grin at Adam who nodded slowly before wrapping his arm round Eli's shoulder steering him in the opposite direction towards Ms Dawes room for their last English class before their exam on the Friday.
He had never seen Ms Dawes face glow with so much pride when he walked in the room, she looked like she wanted to hug Eli and cry at the same time, while probably on some level wanting to smack him upside the head for being such an idiot, but Eli was sure she wouldn't do that, she loved her job too much to mess it up.
He sat at the same desk he always sat at and tried to ignore the eerie quietness that was coming from the desk behind him; when Clare had been in this class there was always some sort of noise coming from her direction: papers shuffling, muttering as she re-read her own essays and Eli's too, but more often than not she would be engaged in conversation with himself and Adam. He tried focusing on Ms Dawes as she explained details of the book that they had studied. Catcher in the Rye had always been a favourite of Eli's, he was never really sure why, he supposed it was because he felt like related to Holden in some ways. It was now that Eli wished that he hadn't read most books because he wanted to be distracted by a lecture so he didn't think about Clare and the hole in his chest that threatened to swallow him whole, if he even thought about doing something that would jeopardise his future at NYU or his future with Clare.
Instead of listening to his favourite teacher like he should have done, he tried to imagine what Clare would be doing now, she would be back in New York and at class trying to write everything the teacher was saying two minutes before they actually said it, then she would get a coffee and sit down to re-write her notes so that they would be more legible when it came to studying for her exams. After that she would head to the library to check any books that the lecturer may have refer too, once she had done that she would begin the 10 minute walk back to the apartment where she would have a snack before settling down on the chairs to start any assignments she may have been given or to finish up one she had already started. After eating dinner and showering she would settling down in front of the TV to watch a film or curl up in bed to read a book, then she would fall asleep…without Eli being there. That's what bother Eli the most, was that they were so apart and he could do jack-shit about it because he needed to finish high school before he could go back to New York and back to Clare, beside after the rough year that he had, he felt like he deserved to finish high school and graduate with some of his friends, even if they weren't the friends that he had originally planned on graduating with.
Eli missed Imogen and Fiona, he missed their strangeness and their warmth; he had been a terrible friend to them and he really wanted to make that up to them, but they were in Paris now on a field trip from some fancy design school they were attending. He would have to email them soon, so that they could get something set up soon before he headed back to New York and lost himself in the safe bubble that is Clare. They would come back to Canada, of course, Christmas, birthdays, other holidays, but it still wouldn't be the same, it would different because he would have to leave again.
Eli had followed Adam round in daze for the rest of the day, he had continued to lose himself in his own him and he could tell that Adam was becoming concerned; the last thing Eli wanted was for Adam to think he was high, so he tried to engage the younger boy in conversation about video games and comic books, but Eli could tell even though Adam's responses were lively and full of just Adam being Adam – he could see it in his eyes that he was worried.
When they had wound up in The Dot, Adam had finally asked Eli why he was being so distant and non-responsive. Eli sighed and looked at the younger boy who looked like was about to have a panic attack.
"Chill dude, I've been thinking about Clare, this is the first time in over a month that we haven't been glued to one another, it taking me a bit of time getting used to not have her here with me, I just want to be in New York in our tiny apartment, reading books or watching old films."
Adam regarded Eli for several very long seconds before turning his head and pretending to throw up.
"Gross, look I know you're happy to have Clare back, but was there a real need to tell me the lovey-dovey mushy side to it. Yuck, man I feel like I'm going to have to kill a hell of a lot of zombies to erase this memory from my brain." Adam faked a shudder before grinning at Eli.
"Come on then, let's go find you some zombies to shoot." As they were leaving, Eli patted Adam's shoulder to reassure him that he was doing fine, and that everything was going to be ok.
Hopefully this lived up to your expectations, and if not let me know why. I really want to hear your views and opinions on the story, and remember if you have any suggestions for plots or characters, feel free to leave your ideas in the reviews; and I double pinkie swear that you will be given credit!
Much love and remember to please please review! They make me smile!
Marie xx
