Summary: Song title is As Long As I Got You by The Charmels.
Marisol was gone for the rest of the week.
The sight of an empty seat in three of his classes was almost too much for Eli to handle. It only made the guilt he was feeling even worse. He was glad that she was taking time off to take care of herself but he felt so...numb without her here. He tried hard to focus on other things but it wasn’t working.
It was no use denying that he missed her presence greatly. He missed everything about her from hearing her heels clack against the floors in the hallway to hearing her bubbly voice. He missed her smile more than anything, and the sweet dimples that came along with it. With her not being at school, it made everything more clear that this was all his fault for not protecting her.
Up until now, he had forgotten that he kissed her that night before everything went to hell. He knew that it was a wrong thing to do because she wasn’t Clare, but he needed to know how she tasted after dreaming about it for weeks. He remembered how sweet her lips tasted because of the strawberry lip gloss, how soft her lips felt, and how good she smelled. At that moment, he wanted nothing else but her. However, the memory of that filled him with even more guilt. For one thing, kissing Marisol when he was so in love with Clare was awful and he crossed a line by initiating it. Then there was the fact that he was sure that it would have led to something more intense if they got to her house without the incident happening. The worst part? He wasn’t completely sure that he cared.
He loved Clare, but he liked Marisol and he didn’t realize how miserable her absence was causing him.
He needed to see her, and not just to see her face again, but to make her feel happy. He needed to see her dimples again.
Class ended, and he walked through the hallways, looking for Katie Matlin. He found the head of the school newspaper talking to Drew Torres by his locker. She was blushing and giggling nervously while he talked happily to her, seemingly not noticing.
He coughed loudly to get their attention. Katie turned to face him and fixed him with a hard look. With that one look, he could tell that she blamed him for what happened. He blamed himself too, but coming from her it only irritated him. She could have also been there that night to protect Mare since she apparently knows karate. Where the hell was she?
Their interactions lately have been uncomfortable as it consisted of Eli giving Katie Mare’s homework from the classes they shared together, and Katie would grab the homework, just give him a nod of thanks and then say nothing else and walk away. He hated how much of a snob she was. She acted just like the girls that bullied him and Julia.
“Katie,” he greeted.
“Eli. What’s up?” She replied coldly.
“I would like to do something for Marisol,” he told her.
“I think you have done enough for her, Eli,” she dismissed.
Drew let an awkward whistle while Eli narrowed his eyes.
“Trust me, I don’t think I did. Now she’s been home for four days, and I’ve been worried sick about her and I want to make sure she’s okay,” he explained.
“She’s feeling fine,” she insisted, which made him bristle.
“Okay but I can make her feel even better,” he argued.
“How so?” She questioned with a raised eyebrow.
He spent the next couple of minutes telling her his plan.
She spent today in her bed like she did the last three days. The only time she came out of her room was to bathe, eat, and then go to the bathroom. It was like she was sick. Mentally, she was.
In the daytime, she sat in silent darkness. Sometimes she watched TV, and sometimes she just wanted to look outside. It was almost like she was in prison, but a prison she willingly trapped herself in. Only at night did she have the lights on because she was too scared to sleep by herself.
Marisol knew she was worrying her family and friends. Her mother and Devon tried to get her to talk about the situation but she refused to. In her nightly Skype sessions with her father and little sister, they also tried to get her to talk but she brushed it off and talked about her homework instead. Candy, her little sister, had tried to make her feel better by drawing a nice picture of them playing together last night. Marisol did her best to look grateful for her sister but she still felt terrible inside.
Combined with her not having the energy to dress in anything but her pajamas, she was wasting away and she wasn’t sure if that was really bad or not. It wasn’t like she was really herself anymore.
She overheard the front door open from downstairs. Mom or Devon must have gone out or something. When she heard light footsteps peddling up the steps, she got a little suspicious.
Then her room door opened and Katie suddenly entered her room.
“Mare, get dressed. You’re staying over my house for the weekend,” Katie ordered.
Marisol frowned. “I don’t feel like it,” she turned down.
“I talked to your mom and she says it’s for the best. Now get out of the bed and change,” her best friend ordered again while folding her arms. It was obvious from her posture that Katie was going to stay in that position until she moved.
Marisol sighed as she crawled out of her bed and went to her dresser. She hadn’t picked out an outfit to wear in so long. It felt alien to her.
“Trust me, Mare, you’re not going to regret this,” Katie reassured her.
Marisol wasn’t too sure about that.
Even though it was her car, Katie insisted that she drive over to her house for some reason. Marisol didn’t argue much against the idea because she didn’t even feel like going outside right now, especially to drive.
It was only when they definitely weren’t going in the direction of the Matlin house did Marisol have an odd feeling about this.
“Katie, where are you going?” Marisol asked her friend in suspicion.
“Just wait and see,” Katie replied to her. It was almost ominous.
“Are you really kidnapping me right now? Marisol asked her in disbelief. Katie just shrugged in response as she continued to drive.
When they pulled up in front of the Goldsworthy residence, Marisol was beyond confused. What the hell was going on?
“Why are we at Eli’s house? Katie, what the fuck?” Marisol demanded.
“Just hush and get out the car,” Katie commanded as she turned the car off and unbuckled herself. Marisol had a million questions and none of them were about to be answered to her annoyance. She should have just stayed in her house.
As they walked up to the front steps of his house, she was feeling anxiety just at the thought of seeing Eli again. She still felt guilty that he had gotten beaten up over her and was still nursing the bruises. There was no way he was going to fall for her now. She nearly got him killed.
Katie rang the doorbell, and it was Eli who opened the door, wearing a band shirt and black skinny jeans. When he saw her, he smiled warmly at her.
“Well, well, well, our honored guest is finally here,” he greeted.
“Huh?” She replied.
It took her a few seconds to realize that there was music blaring loudly in his house and that were people inside his house. She could also smell pizza and wings.
He was having a party.
Katie gave her a gentle shove and Eli eagerly led them inside where multiple Degrassi students loudly greeted her. There were the Torres brothers, several of her Power Squad teammates, Fiona Coyne, K.C., Dave Turner and his girlfriend Alli Bhandari, and Imogen Moreno who looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here.
Marisol was completely dumbfounded.
“I….,” she started off, but she was struggling to say the words. Eli gently grabbed her hand and sat her down on a couch.
“This is a support party for you, Mare. Everyone is here to show how much we miss you at school and we want to let you know that we care about you,” he explained as Katie went off to chat with Drew. Marisol looked around the place. The atmosphere was lowkey but cheerful as everyone interacted with each other. It wasn’t as chaotic as most parties she went to. There were no horny couples or creepy, intoxicated jocks who were desperately trying to get in her pants.
The music was different too. She noticed that no rock music was playing whatsoever. It was all music that she liked.
“I ordered pizza, barbecue wings, and cinnamon twists. Do you want any?” He asked her, and at that moment her stomach growled in hunger.
“Yeah,” she answered. She hadn’t had pizza in a while, and it sounded good right now. Maybe food would help her collect her thoughts about what was going on.
“Adam!” Eli called out to his friend, who was dancing goofily with Dave. Adam turned around and faced them.
“Yeah?” He asked.
“Get Mare a plate from the kitchen,” Eli requested.
“Gotcha,” Adam cheerfully replied as he walked off to Eli’s kitchen.
“You really threw a party for me?” She asked Eli. She couldn’t believe it. Eli threw a party for her. Eli Goldsworthy, the most antisocial kid in the school for a party. For her.
“I needed to see you again and this was the best way possible,” he answered with a shrug.
“You couldn’t just visit me?” She replied, raising an eyebrow.
“Nah, too simple. As you might have realized at this point, it’s not really my style,” he said with an amused glint in his eye.
He smirked at her and Marisol felt her body heat up for the first time in what felt like forever.
“Soooooooo this has been a crazy semester for you too, right?” Drew Torres asked him with a can of beer in his hand. Together they were watching as Marisol happily played a game of Candyland with Adam, Alli, and Dave. She looked just as beautiful without makeup as she did with it on.
Getting board games for the party wasn't difficult at all since he had so many in his basement. In the moments his parents weren’t drunk or high, they would have Family Game Nights where they would play board games with him until he fell asleep at 1 am. Then after they took him upstairs to put him to sleep, they would get drunk or high.
“I guess,” Eli replied, not sure of where this conversation was going and whether he was going to like it or not. This was the first time he and Torres ever really spoke despite sharing a common link in Adam. He mostly avoided Drew, even while he was over his house, because he saw him as a typical dumb jock with terrible morals. He was disgusted when he heard that Drew accepted a blowjob from the girl that outed Adam and later started dating her. He couldn’t fathom betraying his sibling like that if he had any.
“I’m sorry for what happened to you and Marisol, especially Marisol. No one deserves to have that happen to them,” Drew told him sympathetically.
“Yeah,” Eli could only say in response. He liked that Drew added that “especially Marisol” part because she was the only one who deserves sympathy in this situation.
“When I saw that creep trying to rape Bianca in the alleyway, the only thing I had on my mind during that moment was killing him because he was hurting the girl I cared about. But I couldn’t do it, and he beat my ass. It makes me feel like I failed Bianca. She had to kill him for me and she was the one getting attacked at first. It made me feel like less of a man,” Drew lamented.
“Yeah,” Eli repeated, and it was making him feel really uncomfortable that he was identifying with what this meathead was feeling. He didn’t know the full details of what happened with Drew’s gang situation. He only heard the rumors flying around school that Drew was jumped by like ten gangbangers while trying to fight one of them that Bianca was cheating on him with. To suddenly know the real situation and how similar it was to his own encounter with the bikers made him feel….bad.
“It’s hard even sleeping at night these days. I get these….nightmares about the gang still coming after me even though I’m trying to put this all past me. Even though I try not to think about her, I worry about how Bianca is doing. I haven’t spoken to her at all recently and it’s like she pretends I don’t exist. I wonder if she’s scared like I am,” Drew rambled to him while taking a huge swig of his beer. Eli was starting to think Drew may have been a little toasted right now. It just occurred to him that Drew had like two beers before this talk. He didn’t know why Drew was choosing to confide in him of all people and at this time.
“I think I was falling in love with Bianca before this all happened, and I really miss her. I thought Alli was the first girl I really liked, but B….she’s different. I don’t know what it is about her, but even though I broke up with her I can’t stop thinking about her even though she’s bad for me,” Drew continued.
Eli has thought the same of Clare once, and a part of him was scared that whatever feelings he had for Marisol was steering in that direction as well.
“Do you dream about them? The bikers?” Drew asked him. His blue eyes were filled with curiosity, and Eli was surprised at how innocent they looked in that moment. Maybe it was the booze kicking in.
“Only about what they would have continued doing to Mare, if I hadn't gotten there at that moment,” Eli answered. He gave up all hope that he was going to dream about something else at this point.
“You’re not scared of them coming after you?” The other boy questioned.
“They could kill me and I would be fine with it. It’s not like there’s much to live for these days,” Eli admitted. He wanted to get Clare back, and the play was the only thing not driving him to self-destruct at the moment, but he was scared that she really was in love with Jake. For what reason, he didn’t know.
Marisol was also keeping him from falling completely into the abyss as making sure she didn’t fall in with him was his other priority. “They can do whatever they want to me but I want her to be left out of it. She’s already been through enough and it’s all my fault,” he added, feeling like shit now.
“I feel that,” Drew replied. He then took one final chug of his can of beer. “I’m going to get another beer,” he told him before walking away.
As he watched Marisol squeal in excitement because she won the game, Eli wondered why he was starting to see Drew Torres in a different light.
This was her fourth slice of pizza.
Marisol chewed on the cheesy goodness that was Domino’s pizza. She savored every bit of the garlic and buttery taste that she missed. She forgot how much she loved pizza until now. The cinnamon twists were also amazing and the sweet flavor of them popped well in her mouth.
The party continued for another three hours before everybody left. Katie had gone home with Drew and Adam, and it was just her and Eli. She reassured her friend that she could drive herself home when she was ready to leave. She wasn’t though.
Eli was sitting next to her on the couch again, and they were now watching a movie together. It was some sort of romantic comedy. He was drinking a can of Pepsi as he tried to be invested in the plot. She could tell that he wasn’t. He looked like he was doing a lot of thinking right now.
“Thank you so much for tonight, Eli. I didn’t expect for you to care so much about me,” Marisol told him in gratitude. Truth to be told, she was almost overwhelmed by how much he cared. Eli had somehow gotten everybody to bring her gifts. Katie, Drew and Adam had gotten her bouquets of daisies, and sunflowers, her favorite flowers. K.C. bought her flowers as well, roses. Alli and Dave had bought her a big box of chocolate strawberries. Chantay bought her a manicure set and Anya got her a pair of cute earrings with a matching necklace. Fiona bought her a bottle of perfume and Imogen bought her some lip gloss. She didn’t know he managed to even get everyone to do this.
Eli himself had bought her a stuffed, white toy bunny with chubby cheeks and purple eyes. It was so adorable and unexpected coming from him.
“Don’t be silly. Of course I care about you,” he replied with an amused smile.
“You used to think I was an annoying cheerleader when we met,” she pointed.
“Oh you’re still an annoying cheerleader. I just tolerate you now,” Eli joked playfully while she rolled her eyes.
“You’re such a jerk,” she whined.
“You know you like it,” he teased while smirking.
Marisol looked at him while her feelings for him started to take over again. He looked good tonight, he almost always did except for his hair, but even that was slightly combed tonight. His beautiful green eyes were looking at her with what she was sure was love for her.
She leaned over and kissed him on the lips. He tasted of wings and Pepsi but she didn’t care. She pulled away and wanted to giggle at his befuddled look.
“What was that for?” He asked.
“A thank you kiss. For everything,” she explained.
“Oh okay,” he replied, blinking his eyes. There was a tense moment of silence.
He then pulled her into a deeper, more passionate kiss. They proceeded to make out on his couch.
It felt like forever until they stopped.