Disclaimer: Epitome Pictures and Stephen Stohn own all.
Set during "Umbrella".
Haunted
ElixClare
Both Eli and Clare are feeling haunted by the past. It's time for them to let go.
"Clare...can I keep this?"
Eli's face is tortured and he picks up a green stuffed frog. His room is half done and Clare feels confident that they will be done by nightfall. She has already told her father what she's doing, he approved whole heartedly and agreed to let curfew be extended for just this night.
Clare turns. She's been organizing the things Eli wanted to keep and she had to determine if he really needed them. Most were paper scraps, notes Julia had wrote in a flowy girly script that made Clare envious. Her own script was small and hard to read, even Ali had complained. "You're a writer Clare, learn to be discernible!" Clare put it in the "throw away" pile.
Seeing the stuffed green frog and the way Eli clutches it hurts. She wonders if something was to happen to her if Eli would do the same; hoard all her belongings. She tries to fit the sick jealousy feeling, but it's there. The ghost whom she feared would haunt them forever. "What is that?" Clare asks, but she already knows.
"It's...Kermit." Eli breathes out. "It doesn't look like him at all though, does it?" he holds the green frog up for Clare's inspection, even holding it out to her.
Clare reaches her fingers over, feeling a cool breeze blow against her neck. Julia, she thinks in a morbid moment and shivers. She takes the frog. Unlike Jim Henson's version this one is friendly and cute—not that Kermit isn't, of course, but this could be seen on any teenage girl's bed instead of a five year old's. "No, it doesn't."
Eli smiles at a fond memory. "That was Julia. Her real mom bought it for her and she never wanted to let it go. I can't get rid of it."
"It's OK, Eli." Clare hears herself saying even though the words make her stomach feel rumbly. "If it means something, keep it." She reminded. She smiles down at the frog, not wanting to hate Julia for loving Eli first. And it's not that Clare hates someone dead and gone; she's...she's...jealous.
An emotion that doesn't fit well with the young writer. Jealous. Of a ghost, at that. "I understand. It was important to her, like my dad's watch is important to me."
Eli nods. He's wearing the watch now, it looks out of place with his Gothic attire but he's never been one to follow the rules. Looking up at her through his eyeliner, Eli smiles. "You should keep it." He says.
Keep it? Clare pauses, sort of mortified at this. Keep something that belonged to Julia? In her room where she would have to see it everyday...but yet she knows how much this would mean to Eli. "Are-are you sure, Eli?"
"Julia would want you to have it. I know you'd take as good care of it as I have been. Plus, Kermit needs a bed to lay on and not the empty boxes in here right?"
Clare glances down at the frog. Keep Kermit. She nodded once unable to deny her boyfriend this. "If you're sure. I mean I don't want to-"
"I'm sure." Eli says. "I want to change, remember? And, having Kermit with you is..." He searches for the right words. "What I want. Really. It's like you giving me your dad's watch. I won't ever loose it."
Clare smiles. "I know." She says. She leans up to kiss Eli, and he returns it softly. "I'll put him right on my bed when I get home." She promises.
Finally around midnight, they are done with Eli's room. He looks nervous but you can see the floor and the bed now. He takes Clare home and promises to make this up to her. They kiss for a few moments in Morty before Clare reluctantly pulls away. She has Kermit stuffed safely in her backpack as promised, and heads into the house.
It's her father's weekend. "How'd it go?" He asks. "Helping Eli with the cleaning?"
"Good." Clare replies. "We got it all done. I didn't think he'd let go of some of the things he had...but he surprised me." She felt her brow lift slightly, and then pulls Kermit from the backpack.
"Where'd you get that?" Mr. Edwards asks.
She glances down at Kermit. "From a friend. They wanted me to take care of it for them." She says, hugging the frog to her. She could feel Julia swirling around her, but not an angry breeze this time like earlier. "I'm going upstairs. Night, Dad."
Her father echoes her goodnight and Clare opens the door to the room that she and Darcy once shared. It's dressed in Clare's tastes now, her Twilight posters up and the rock bands Eli had gotten her into up as well. Clare walks over to her bed and deposits the frog there by her own teddy. It actually doesn't look bad.
Clare feels a slight chill in the air again. She wonders if Julia will ever be done haunting her. "Don't worry, Julia." Clare whispers. "I'll take care of them. Of both of them."
Heading to her computer, Clare turns it on and opens up her word processor. She suddenly has an idea for a story.
FIN.