Walking around the mall with Eli was harder than she remembered. Of course, Eli slowed sown his pace a little as Clare crutched along with him. They were window shopping and just having fun. But what Clare didn't anticipate were the penetrating stares she was getting.
The way people looked at her, it was as if she were an alien or a horribly grotesque creature. She stared straight ahead, determined to not make eye contact with anyone. She listened intently on a funny story Eli was telling that involved him, Adam, and his pants on fire.
Clare laughed at how into the story Eli was getting. He moved his arms all around the place to accentuate his feeling, his mouth moving rapidly to include every little detail, and how his body was turned to her as he walked backwards in order to fully look at her.
Another thing Clare noticed was the way some people looked at Eli. Some looks that were directed to him were pity, sadness, righteous (she expected they thought good of him just because he was hanging with a cripple), surprise, and longing (this came mostly from the ladies.)
They both turned to the food court and made their way to the middle. In the middle of the food court was a huge room that was made of glass and window panes. There were plants everywhere, and there was no roof. They walked into the room (which they had dubbed the greenhouse) and sat down. Once Eli got Clare situated in her seat, he went off to go order food for them.
Once he left, Clare closed her eyes. She sat there, just breathing in the scents of the many flowers in pots there and tried to lose herself. She opened her mouth ever so slightly so she could breathe a little better, and she immediately felt collected with herself.
By now she fully opened her mouth, breathing it all in. She felt so calm, and this moment was ruined when she heard the door opened,
She popped open her eyes and instead of seeing Eli like she thought, she instead saw two teenage girls probably a year younger than her.
She could see out of the corner of her eye that they were open mouthed staring at her. They started giggling to each other and started whispering things about Clare that she didn't like hearing about herself.
Clare felt both anger and tears build up and before she could calm herself she snatched up her crutches and limped over to them.
"You think it's funny, do you?" she spat at them. "You think that it is funny to . . . to . . . talk about a cripple like that? It's disgusting, what you're saying. You might as well make fun of a retarded person for not being normal." She yelled.
The whole food court got silent, as they could all hear what Clare was saying. The girls both were speechless until the one on the left spoke up. "Whoa, what did we ever do to you?"
Clare laughed bitterly. "Oh please, don't think I can't hear how you laugh at me, how you make jokes. The real question is what did I ever do to you?"
Both the girls sat there, petrified.
"Do you think I want to be an amputee? That I asked for it?" Clare asked harshly. She heard the door open and spun around to see Eli walking over to her. Once he got to her, he snaked an arm around her waist and said, "C'mon Clare, let's get you home."
Clare nodded stiffly and started crutching very fast out of the room and out of the food court. She was very aware of the fact that all eyes were on her, and she loathed the feeling.
Frustration and anger piled up inside of her head and she was met with a lot of pressure in her mind, she longed to do something to relieve the pressure; but she figured that screaming in the middle of a mall wouldn't help.
Eli caught up with her soon and walked brusquely with her out of the nearest mall exit. When the two finally made it to Eli's hearse in complete silence that was when Eli talked.
"Clare . . . say something. Please." He begged as he turned to her in the front seat of his car. Clare (who had her arms folded across her chest) just looked ahead and shrugged.
"What do you want me to say?" she asked with a hard edge to her voice. "That it wasn't true what they said? Because you know and I know that it was true." She said the last part finally looking at him, a cold stare in her eyes.
"Clare, you can't let it get to you. You have to be the bigger person."
Tears started rolling down Clare's cheeks. "Why do I have to be the bigger person?" she cried, in full tears now.
Eli rested a hand on her thigh comfortingly, "Because there are still people in this world who just don't understand tha-"his voice was cut off by a loud rumble of his stomach. Upon hearing the monster like growl, Clare laughed and she felt like herself again. She smiled a genuine smile at him and said, "We never did get our food, did we?"
…
You're gonna hate me for ending it right there, but I'm seriously going to update in a few days and this is actually building up to something dramatic that happens in the next chapter, so stay tuned!