Title: "My Happy Ending"

Author: Staargirly

Summary: Takes place after "Back in Black." Ellie has to deal with life after Sean stays in Wasaga Beach. She must find someway to make it on her own, but will this end up turning her down the wrong path?

Genre: Angst

Rating: PG-13

Author's Note: This is my first Degrassi Fan Fic story. I hope those of you who read it, enjoy the story and review! If you haven't seen up to "Back in Black," read at your own risk!

Chapter One

Let's talk this over

It's not like we're dead

Was it something I did?

Was it something you said?

Don't leave me hangin'

In a city so dead

Held up so high

On such a breakable thread

You were all the things I thought I knew

And I thought we could be

You were everything, everything that I wanted

We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it

And all of our memories, so close to me, just fade away

All this time you were pretending

So much for my happy ending

So much for my happy ending

"My Happy Ending" – Avril Lavigne

Ellie slammed the door to the empty apartment shut. Jay and Emma had just dropped her off from their impromptu visit to Wasaga Beach. Her legs hurt from sitting in a cramped position for so long, but not as much as her heart ached.

Sean didn't come back with her from Wasaga Beach; she doesn't even know if he'll ever come back for good. The moment kept playing over and over in her head, like a broken projector. She pleaded with him to reconsider, but he had made up his mind: he was staying. What could she have said or done differently to have made him get into that car? Why couldn't he see that the real person who loved him was her, not those two people who haven't given a damn about him for the last three years?

What's done is done and she can't change that. Now she has to find a way to make it on her own. Now that Sean, her rock, has left her, she has to fend for herself someway somehow.

Ellie shivered from the cold. The apartment was freezing in the October chill. She couldn't turn on the heat because that cost money. Something she didn't have right then.

She curled herself up on the couch in a fetal position, deciding to wallow in her self pity. Snapping the rubber band on her wrist was all she could do to numb the emotional pain. Soon her sadness turned to anger. How could Sean leave her like that? Doesn't "I love you" hold any weight? She didn't say it in vain, but did he? Suddenly, the sadness returned and Ellie was right back where she started from. The tears she held back could no longer be imprisoned.

Not wanting to go through this alone, she picked up the telephone and dialed her best friend Marco's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Marco."

"Oh hi Elle, how are you doing babe?" He could hear her voice quiver and her nose sniffle.

"Not so good."

Ellie got dressed and ready for school early. She was preparing to walk to school that day since she was too embarrassed to ask someone to take her there and the bus was a luxury she couldn't afford.

She opened the door and set out on her trek to Degrassi, but was surprised to see Jay waiting outside leaning against his car.

"Wow Ellie, you look like crap."

"Jay? What are you doing here?"

"I'm giving you a ride to school. Hop in." He motioned for her to get inside the vehicle. "I don't think Sean would be too happy if his girlfriend was mugged on her jumped on the way to school."

Ellie rolled her eyes while opening the car door. "Oh please. If he really cared about me, he wouldn't have left me here alone. And can we please not talk about Sean right now. I'm not in the mood." Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy from crying through most of the night. She fastened her seatbelt and gave Jay a serious look.

He threw his hands up in defeat, then started them on their journey to school.

Ellie sulked into school that morning. She tried to put on a brave face, pretend she wasn't affected by what happened, but it was so hard. All she could think about was that moment; it just wouldn't stop. No matter how hard she tried, the tears kept creeping up without warning. She had never felt more vulnerable.

She arrived at her locker to gather some text books, and Ashley came upon her. The look of concern on her face let Ellie know that the cat was already out of the bag.

"So, I guess you heard."

"Yeah. Craig told me. He heard about it from Marco. I'm really sorry about what happened, Ellie." Ashley put her hand on Ellie's shoulder in a comforting gesture but Ellie just shrugged it off.

"Yeah, thanks." Ellie placed her books in her bag and scanned her eyes across the hall, not wanting to look Ash in the eye. Degrassi Community School seemed to be getting back to normal now that Rick's funeral has passed. She didn't want Ashley's pity.

"Have you talked to him since?"

"No," She said tersely. Her lips were pursed tightly, as if she was biting her tongue for what she really wanted to say.

"So, what are you going to do?"

That was the question Ellie had been asking herself the most. She leaned up against the locker.

Ellie shrugged her shoulders. "Get a job I guess. I don't think I have any other choice."

"What about moving back in with your mom?" Ellie's eyes bulged out of her sockets. She couldn't believe that Ash would even suggest a thing like that.

She slammed the door to her locker shut. "No way. I'd rather live on the street, under a bridge, with nothing than to move back in with my alcoholic mother." She left in a huff off in the direction of her class, not wanting to deal with anymore prying questions. Ashley followed behind her.

"Okay, bad suggestion," She replied, apologetically. "But seriously Elle, what are you going to do? I'm concerned about you."

Ellie stopped scurrying away from Ashley when she reached her classroom.

"Look Ash, I'll be okay. I'm grateful that I have a friend like you that does care about me. But you don't have to worry. I'm fine." Ellie flashed a fake smile to assure that Ashley believed her lie. She waved her off as she entered the classroom, leaving a skeptical Ashley amidst the crowd of students in the hall.