The next chapter, will, in fact, be the last chapter. If you have anything you want to see happen in the sequel, just message me and I'll attempt to put them all in. (:
*PS* if anyone has any name suggestions for the sequel, they can also message me, because sometimes it takes me longer to write the name than it does the entire story.
"Eli, I've missed you terribly." My heart stopped beating. Nothing else in the world mattered. The only thing mattered was her voice. It was hoarse and broken, yet it was the most beautiful sound in the world. Why? Because it still existed. It didn't leave this world. I approached her bed with caution, not truly believing that she was awake.
"Clare? You're… you're okay?" I was choking back my tears, but when she nodded, I just let them fall. For the first time in three days, hell, for the first time in three months they were tears of joy. "Oh, Clare, I was so terrified you wouldn't make it. I thought you were going to leave me." I wrapped my arms around her, forgetting that she was lying in a hospital bed, attached to all of these wires. The only thing that mattered was that Clare was alive. Clare didn't leave me.
When she replied, her voice was close to a whisper, so I had to strain myself to hear her. "You honestly think I would leave you here alone? Eli, I'll never leave you." As these words escaped her lips, the tears started to fall down her cheeks. She hugged me tightly, and I squeezed her back. She was really here. She didn't abandon me.
One of the doctors was still in the room and muttered something that contained the words 'young love'. Clare rushed to explain. "Oh, we're not in love. Eli's just my best friend in the entire world. I love him more than anything, but we're not dating." I nodded, trying to make it look like I actually agreed with what she was saying. Oh yeah, I wasn't in love with her or anything.
The doctor scoffed at Clare's statement and replied, "Let's see how long that goes on for." He handed Clare some medication and told her to take it right away. He started to walk out of the room, but took one more glance back at us before he walked away, muttering something that sounded strangely like 'oblivious girl'.
He walked out of the room and Clare laid her head on my shoulder. She looked up at me and smiled. "I honestly don't know why everyone thinks we're dating! Like, doesn't anyone realize that a boy and a girl can be best friends and just that?"
"Yeah, I know. It's crazy. Like, me and you dating? That would never work out." I was obviously lying through my teeth, but I didn't want Clare to realize my feelings for her.
She laughed. "I know, honestly, we would drive each other insane." She looked up at me and smiled. "I'm so glad you were here when I woke up. I was afraid I was going to have to talk to those doctors all by my lonesome!"
I looked down at her and took a deep breath, realizing we still had one very important issue to discuss. "Clare, you know we can't avoid the topic of KC forever. We need to talk about it. You can tell me anything, Clare; I promise I won't do anything else rash."
"Anything, else? Oh, Eli, what did you do?" I shrugged my shoulders, and she continued, "Yes, he did this to me. I'm so sorry, Eli. I'm sorry I lied to you about his doing this before. I honestly thought that time I told you he hit me would be the last time, so I didn't think I had anything to worry about. I didn't know he would get angry because I told him I was happy you forgave him, because I didn't think you would.
Eli, it was terrifying. He completely lost it. We were in the park, and he just threw me to the ground and started hitting me over and over again. All I wanted was it to stop. He was saying things like 'Oh, where's your precious Eli now? I don't see him anywhere. I guess he doesn't really care about you as much as you thought he did now does he? You're a dumb bitch and I don't know why I was ever with you. You're ugly and a stupid whore.'" She paused to wipe the tears out of her eyes, than continued, "Well, I was just hoping it would end. I was hoping I would just die so I didn't have to deal with the pain anymore, because the pain was unbearable. I was lying in a pool of blood when the world finally became black."
I clenched my fists and realize I hadn't hurt KC badly enough. He was dead. Or at least, he would be when I was done with him. "Clare, I swear to God I'll kill him. I'll do it myself. He's going suffer. I'm going to kill him." I was yelling by this point, and she pulled me down.
"Eli, it's okay. Over the past few days, all I've had is the thoughts in my mind. I've been thinking about everything that happened, and I've decided that I'm going to make him pay for what he did to me. I'm going to put him behind bars." I relaxed a little, knowing that this jerk would never be able to hurt Clare again.
There was still one unresolved issue that we had to work out. I knew I wasn't ready to talk about it, but I needed to. It was the only way things would actually get resolved. And Clare was good at talking, and she never judged. That was a good thing, right? Still, I was terrified. "Clare… umm… there's something else I need to talk to you about."
She looked up at me curiously and I smiled, reassuring her that everything was alright. "Alright… what is it Eli? Are you alright? Is anyone hurt? Oh please don't tell me anything terrible happened!"
I laughed to myself. "Clare, you always assume the worst things. No, no one is hurt. But what I need to talk to you about is rather important, so I really need you to hear me out okay?"
She nodded and smiled a little. "Of course, Eli, you know you can talk to me about anything."
I nodded and took a deep breath, preparing myself for what I was going to say. "Clare, I love you so much. You're my best friend and you mean the world to me. But in the past ten years, I've realized something. I don't just love you, Clare. I'm in love with you."