I think I speak for most Eclare writers when I say that these last few months have been hard. There hasn't been a lot of Eclare material to work with, and now with Clew looming on the horizon, my inspiration for this story has just dropped, I didn't want you to leave this story without an ending. This WILL be the last chapter of Blue Eyes; although if Eclare does manage to survive the rest of the season then there may be a sequel, but that's all up in the air just now! I apologise from the bottom of my heart for the crappiness of this chapter, but I couldn't just leave it where I'd left off. I hope you enjoy this last chapter of Blue Eyes and I want to thank everyone that's very read a single chapter of this story, your support has meant so much to me and I can never thank you enough!
If you'd approached Eli at any point during his senior year at Degrassi before he disappeared, to ask about his future or plans for after graduation, he would have scoffed at you then kindly asked you to fuck off, this is simply because the future was a scary deadline that would never go away. Finishing Degrassi was never something he never thought would be possible, even during his downward spiral he knew he was flunking out, and he knew that every time he walked through those glass doors that someone out there still believed he could be redeemed.
Never in a million years, did he expect to be whisked off to New York City with his ex-girlfriend, to be allowed to attend classes at NYU, to get his life back on track and get clean. It had been a crazy year, and although it had been one of the worst years in Eli's life, it was also a time he liked to think a lot about. It proved to him how strong he really was, and how he could overcome anything with the help of those who loved him.
It was this struggle that encouraged Eli to start writing again, he tried with short stories, and small fictional pieces. It went on for a while, badly written pieces of work would litter their already small apartment, until Eli realised that the best things to write about where personal, the experiences where you can go into every gross little detail, so he wrote about his addiction and death and every shitty thing that ever happened to him that made him who he was today, and his finally his recovery and his support system – every shitty little moment of his recovery, details that only he and Clare knew about. He knew it would make his mum cry, but the best writing is honest writing.
He spent 15 months writing, he wanted to give in at least seven times but the desire to make a difference in someone's life was too strong: he wanted someone to read his work and realise that whatever destructive path they were on wasn't answer. So out of that one small idea "Death followed me" was born. It brought up feelings about Julia and Adam that was hard on him and be association hard on Clare, they spent so many night laughing and crying over forgotten memories and old photographs.
Eli violently rubbed his palms across his black skinny jeans in an attempt to dry then, he didn't think they'd ever been this sweaty, he couldn't remember ever being this nervous. He watched Clare walk across the stage, stopping to get her certificate from the Dean. He was so proud of her, she'd graduate with honours and had an interview with one of New York's most prestigious newspapers the following Monday. He clapped and smiled so hard he thought his face might crack. When he and Clare had split up during her senior year at Degrassi, he really thought that that was that, they were never going to see each other, and he had just destroyed the best thing in his life, but of course, things don't always work out in the way he'd imagined. He never believed that he would be here to watch Clare graduate from college, much less live with her and be with her in any sense.
He waited with all the other family members that mingled to get pictures of the graduates in various poses around the room. Like always he spotted his girlfriend from across the room, he was chatting with one of her friends who had also graduated. He slipped his arms around her waist and kissed the side of her head, his lips trailing down to her ear.
"Congratulations Clare, you deserve it."
Clare spun on her heels and threw her arms around his neck, "Thank you Eli, I love you."
Eli tightened his grip on her waist, "You know I love you more, Blue Eyes." He pressed his lips to the top of her head and squeezed his eyes shut, he refused to cry.
No matter how many sips of beer Eli took, he couldn't swallow back the lump that he had been building in his throat since they had gotten back from the ceremony, they had just decided to have a quiet night in before their flight back to Canada in the morning, so Clare could celebrate with her family. So they ordered takeaway and watched films on the couch, Eli knew he was acting weird, and by the looks Clare kept shooting in his direction, she had picked up on his odd behaviour also. He watched Clare move on the couch again, before spinning to face him.
"What the hell is wrong with you? You've been weird since we got home." Her blue eyes were piercing into his soul, he swallowed again, trying to wet his dry mouth.
He kept his eyes trained on her face, as his mind spend through several different scenarios and excuses he could try give her for his behaviour, but before he could even think of a semi-decent one, he opened his mouth and just started speaking.
"Marry me Clare, marry me and make the happiest man who has ever lived. I don't care how you marry me: in a huge white ceremony in a church with every single family member we've both got, right now in a registry office in a court room, or take a road trip to Las Vegas and get married by Elvis, or lets go on holiday to some exotic country and come home and have eloped. I don't care Clare, I just want you to marry me."
He watched so many emotions flicker across Clare's face before finally setting on shocked, Eli moved to his suit jacket that he'd through over the back of the chair and reached into the inside pocket and pulled out a small velvet box and moved to knee in front of his girlfriend, who hadn't moved a muscle, her eyes trained on him as if he might disappear at any moment.
Eli kneeled in front of her, and whispered again, "marry me, blue eyes."
Clare finally responded, she nodded several times before throwing herself at him and attack his face with kisses. "Yes, you absolute idiot! Yes, I'll bloody marry you"
For the second time today, Eli was smiling so hard his face might crack, and even if it did, he didn't care. This was probably going to be the best day of his life, and he wanted to savour every moment of it. He slowly slide the ring onto her finger and kissed her hard. He was home, he was happy, and he was healthy.
I'm sorry that it's so short, I don't have any sort of inspiration for this story and it killed me writing this with only one scenario in my head, and that was Eli proposing. I really hope that you've enjoyed Blue Eyes, and I would really appreciate your comments for this final chapter. Please let me know if there was anything you would have changed/added/deleted. Thank you again for reading, and it's been an honour writing for you.