Sean opened the door to his new apartment and looked around at the boxes he still had to unpack. Sighing he closed the door behind himself and sat down heavily on the couch. His parents were financing the place for him as long as he came home to visit at least once a month. It was smaller than his old place but nicer and closer to Degrassi. His mother had helped him find the apartment and later surprised him with a brand new couch and curtains on the window. The gesture had made him truly realize how much his parents had changed since he had returned home. Things between him and his father were still a little rocky but the man had been the one who saw how badly he wanted to return to Degrassi and encouraged him to do so. Sean had gathered his courage while hiding out in Wasaga and it had been the right time to go back and face his fears. And so far he was. He had avoided that hallway though.
Sean closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Shaking off the feelings of regret and sorrow, he got up and began to unpack. His thoughts settled onto Craig and Ellie as he took some clothes out of a box and tossed them onto his bed. Craig had told him over lunch about how he was bi-polar and how Ellie had helped him through some rough times. She was now attending the University of Toronto but they still spent time together often. Craig had also insisted numerous times that their relationship was completely platonic and Sean could not help but wonder if Craig doth protest too much. Sean had declined the invitation to hang out with them after school, not quite ready to see Ellie especially as Craig's new best friend.
He tore up the empty box a little more viciously than he intended and tossed it into a corner. He had to learn to deal with these changes, accept the fact that Ellie may have moved on. After all he could not really expect her to be sitting around awaiting his return. They had barely spoken once he had left and the few phone conversations they had had been awkward. Eventually all ties between them had been broken.
Maybe there really is nothing between them, he told himself as he grabbed the television remote and flopped back down on the sofa. He found that hard to believe.
A shot rang through the air. He felt the warm liquid on his pants and his knees gave out. They both fell to the ground. As they went down he could see the look of shock on Rick's face, the grimace of pain. He knew instantly what had happened and let the gun he had been struggling for only moments before slip through his fingers to clatter on the tiles.
Sean fought to suppress the memories but they kept flooding through him. He had been forced to come down that hallway when the long route he had been taking the past few days made him repeatedly late to English and the threat of detention hung over his head. But now he would much rather sit through a dozen detentions than the memories of that terrible day again.
Emma ran up behind him asking him again and again if he was okay. He could hear Toby running for help. He got to his feet as Rick lay there, a pool of blood forming beneath his body. His eyes had fallen shut but Sean could only see the look they had held only moments before when the gun had gone off.
"Sean," Emma begged. "Answer me, please. Sean!"
"Sean. Sean?"
Sean realized the person calling his name was not Emma from the past but from the present and he looked up to see her standing a few feet away. "Sean, are you okay?"
"Yeah." He stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked quickly past her. "Yeah, I'm fine."
He ignored her calls after him and hurried down the stairs, through the foyer, and out the door. Breathing in the fresh air he nearly broke into a run to get away. Once he was a good two blocks away, he slowed down and tried to catch his breath, bending forward and putting his hand on his knees. He could see a pair of feet walking towards him and looked up. Ellie. The shock of seeing her so suddenly made him even more breathless. She looked the same but different. She still dressed in all black and rimmed her eyes with charcoal liner but her hair now fell in soft ringlets around her face and she stood a little straighter than he remembered.
"Hey Sean," she said quietly.
"Hey," he managed to reply through his panting.
"Are you okay? You seem a little…like you just ran a marathon."
He nodded, straightening up. "I'm fine. You?"
"Also fine," she replied, taking a few tentative steps towards him. "Heard you came back last week." The unsaid message hung in the air between them: Why haven't you tried to see me?
"Yeah, I've been pretty busy. Classes, unpacking, getting adjusted to life at Degrassi again…"
"Oh. You could have called. Cell number's still the same."
Sean shrugged. "Figured I'd run into you eventually."
Ellie nodded slowly. "Right. Well now that we've 'run into each other', I guess I'll see you." She shook her head and started to walk away.
Sean winced. "Ellie, wait. Look, I…I was going to call you. Really. I do want to talk to you."
Ellie crossed her arms. "Well Craig told me he invited you to come hang out last week. Why didn't you?"
"Well, I thought it would be awkward. You and Craig…"
Ellie raised and eyebrow. "What do you mean, me and Craig? There's nothing going on between us. It would have been three friends hanging out and catching up."
Sean rolled his eyes. "Friends? Are we friends? Can we possibly be? I know you were mad at me for leaving. I heard it in your voice when we used to talk on the phone."
"Yeah I was. But I'm over that, Sean. You were my first boyfriend and I relied on you a lot. Too much. You did what you had to in order to heal from…from what happened. I understand that now." She stepped forward and placed a hand on his arm. "And I'd really, really like for us to be friends."
Sean bit his lip. God this all felt so familiar. Her touch, their closeness…
"Okay." He forced a smile on his face. "Friends."
"Good. I have to be getting back home. Visiting Mom for the afternoon. But we can hang out this weekend. A friend of mine is having a party if you want to come. And we can get some coffee afterwards or something, just the two of us. Catch up."
Sean hesitated then nodded. "Okay. Yeah sounds great."
"Great. See ya then."
"See ya." Sean turned to watch her walk away. He hoped they could be friends. He really did.
Leave more comments and reviews please. I'm trying to get this story finished quickly before I head back to school so updates should be often.
