Chapter 2: On My Way
My heart is whole again.
When Eli left Clare it was slow getting home. He hadn't left the house enough to actually get used to his crutches. The frustration was getting to him. He wanted to throw them into the road and just walk home, but he knew he couldn't. He slowly made his way to his front door.
He saw the empty spot where he used to park Morty. "Minor setback" he thought. He had almost lost Clare this time. He was stupid for taking such drastic measures, but that's all he could do to keep her close to him. At least that's all he thought he could do. He shook his head as he limped slowly. "forget about the past" he thought "focus on the future." he limped up the steps to his house and stepped inside.
Clare couldn't stop smiling. She reached her doorstep, before entering her house she paused and let out a sigh of happiness.
When she entered the house she found her father sitting at the kitchen table. He was surrounded by pink socks and had his head in his hands. As soon as he heard the door slam he lifted his head.
"Oh hey Clare" he said trying not to sound as disappointed in himself as he really was. She looked at the kitchen.
"Hey dad" she said not taking her eyes off of the clothes. "what happened in here?"
"oh.. Uh.. Just a little clothes mouth function" he had disappointment written all over his face.
"it's ok dad, let me help fold these and I'll do the next wash" she said starting to fold the clothes.
"I'm sorry Clare, it just seems like I'm not able to do anything right anymore" His solemn expression tore through her like a knife. "what would I ever do if you wern't here?"
She smiled. He didn't mean it figuratively and she knew that. He had trouble with the dishes and now clothes and he wasn't the best cook either. Clare tried to help out the best she could but sometimes it was just too much.
Eli walked in the front door to his house. His two parents were on the couch waiting for him. Cece looked nervous to hear what had happened, as for Bullfrog, he looked like he was about to fall asleep. They were to involved as far as Eli saw it, but, Cece would be excited to hear the news.
"how'd it go?" she asked skipping the greetings.
"fine" he said holding information from her.
She jumped off the couch and ran toword him "in a good kind of fine or I don want to talk about it sort of fine." her sympathetic look made Eli want to laugh.
"just fine"he said with a smile. She knew what a smile meant. He had gone without one for weeks but to see it again meant the world to her. She scooped him into her arms before he could protest and squeezed him.
"ouch" he said when she finally let go "still broken" he joked.
"sorry" she said "I was just so happy" he laughed and made his way to his room.
He looked at the piles of junk that covered the floor. How had it gotten this bad? He was making progress in cleaning up his room when Clare was around. Ever since they had broken up he didn't care anymore. He had made no effort to clean it. He had even started to keep some things that reminded him of Clare. His heart had been so broken, for the second time. He even doubted if it would ever be whole again.
If Clare ever found out about this, he didn't know what she'd do. He couldn't let anyone find out. This was his secret.