Summary: So....Imogen baby, I’m sorry. You’re not going to look good in this fic.
There as references to sexual harassment in this chapter as I’m drawing on my own experiences with it. If it makes you uncomfortable and you want to skip it, the scene starts with “One night later“ and ends with “Right, thank you!” As a further warning, this fic is going to get pretty dark real soon.
The title is The Boy is Mine by Brandy and Monica.
Marisol looked into the mirror inside her locker while applying lip gloss. It was pink and strawberry flavored. It was her favorite because strawberries were her favorite fruit. She smacked her lips with a pop when she was finished. She wondered what shade of lip gloss Eli would like on her? Probably black, grey or a really dark red. Owen always preferred her to wear red lipstick, especially during sex. She didn’t mind lipstick but it didn’t give the same glamorous look lip gloss did in her opinion.
Students crowded the hallway and she mostly ignored their chatter as she primed herself in the mirror. She was going to look hot every day no matter what, especially with Eli being on the market. She found herself liking him more every time they interacted. He was a pretentious film nerd but was so passionate about the subject. It was really sexy.
“Eli! I just read your pages for the new play. So good, so, so good! Your words hit me right....here!” She heard Imogen Moreno, the school freak, exclaim.
Marisol whipped her head around quickly for the source of Imogen’s voice. She scowled when she saw that the other girl had Eli’s hand on her chest while Fiona Coyne looked on with an amused look. She knew Imogen liked Eli. The other girl was pathetically lusting over him every Drama club meeting. She behaved like an annoying little minion as she complimented Eli every two seconds and practically drooled at the sight of him. Marisol hoped like hell Imogen wouldn’t get to play Clara in the play. She decided to tune into their conversation.
“Did you feel that? That’s my heart beating,” Imogen asked him with wide eyes. Fiona walked away from the scene with a snicker. Marisol wanted to vomit up her breakfast, with it hopefully ending up in the other girl’s hair, which was done in two childish pigtails.
“I’m going to need that back, Imogen,” Eli replied with an uncomfortable tone in his voice. It gave her some satisfaction.
“I just wanted to ask you who you saw in the role of Clara. Anyone in drama class cross your mind?” Imogen asked him, nearly bouncing in hope.
“If you want to audition for the part, just sign up,” Eli told her.
“Done!” Imogen replied cheerfully. She grabbed Eli’s hand again, a little too tenderly for her liking, and that’s when Marisol decided to make her grand entrance.
“Hey Eli,” she greeted with a flirty tone as she walked up to them. “Movie Night was so fun but the conversation we had on the phone last night was even better.” The conversation was only about homework for French class, but Imogen didn’t need to know that. The goal was to just make her feel insecure.
It was successful as Imogen’s face crumbled a little. Good.
“Hello Marisol,” she greeted her somewhat coldly.
“Imogen,” Marisol greeted back with a thin smile. Eli gave them both awkward looks. “What’s going on here?” She asked them.
“I was just about to ask Eli for tips on getting the part,” Imogen explained tensely.
“Well if you want to nail Clara you have to fully understand the complex creature I based her on. Clare Edwards is a riddle wrapped in a mystery stuffed inside an enigma,” Eli told her.
Marisol pursed her lips at the statement. Virgin Edwards, complex? A riddle wrapped in a mystery? The girl was a stuffy prude, that’s it. An annoying drama queen is what she really was. Eli was really overdramatic, wasn’t he?
“She sounds like a burrito....and now I’m hungry,” Imogen replied as her mind seemed to drift off into a different plane of existence. Giving Eli one last dreamy look, she practically skipped away from them.
“She’s such a freaking weirdo,” Marisol commented in disgust. She would never forget Freshman Orientation where Imogen showed up wearing bunny ears and whiskers. The girl was a wack psycho and she was positive Imogen had a shrine of Eli or something in her room. She definitely had strands of his hair in a glass jar somewhere.
“She’s not all bad. She helped me with coming up with the idea of the play. She made me realize that my medication was hindering my creativity and is holding them for me,” Eli explained.
“Wait, what? Isn’t the medication supposed to help your anxiety?” Marisol asked in concern. He shrugged in response.
“Medication doesn’t always work and I don’t really need it,” he replied.
Something about that statement made her feel very uncomfortable. Her mother was a nurse and told her all about the horror stories of the consequences of patients not taking their meds. While she was overlooking it because she wanted him that bad, she couldn’t help but feel that a guy who crashed his car into a wall for his last girlfriend needed some medication.
“Are you sure? Because I heard that-“
“It’s fine, Marisol,” he replied sharply, and she almost winced at his tone. “Anyway I have to get to class,” he said as he moved past her.
Marisol bit her lip in nervousness at what just happened. She didn’t want to feel uncomfortable, but she was. She liked Eli a lot obviously and she liked the challenge he brought, but she wasn’t blind to him being a little....unwell, and something about Imogen encouraging him to not take his meds wasn’t sitting right with her. What if he snapped?
She was worried.
“So now we have TWO girls lusting over you, Elijah. Is there something in the water?” Fiona teased as they did their art projects together. The project was to paint a watercolor portrait of someone. Fiona did her twin brother, Declan, while Eli did Cece. He was a bit of a Mama’s boy, he had to admit. While he loved Bullfrog, he felt that he could talk to Cece about anything and she would be supportive. She was such a gentle soul.
Eli gave his friend a weary look as he mixed green, yellow, and white several times in the dish to replicate the exact shade of his mother’s eyes, or basically his eyes as well. “It’s not like I asked for it. They’re both strange,” he grumbled.
“The power you have over women is strange. What’s so sexy about a guy that dresses in black, listens to My Chemical Romance, and that used to drive a hearse to school?” She remarked with a raised eyebrow.
“Well you’re a lesbian, Fiona. You wouldn’t get the appeal of any guy,” he dryly replied.
“Ah, correct. Men are such strange species whether they’re emo boys or annoying preps like my brother,” she said, sighing, “Anyway, you better not let Marisol and Imogen distract you from the play.”
“They definitely will not,” he affirmed. Movie Night was just one distraction that won’t happen again. The movie was bad anyway and Marisol wouldn’t stop screaming the whole time. And while he appreciated Imogen helping him out with the writing process, he didn’t need for her to get any ideas.
“And don’t pull a Craig,” she added with a warning look.
“What the hell does that mean?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I dunno, it’s a phrase that’s been passing around the school for years before I got here. To ‘pull a Craig’ means to string two girls along at the same time,” she explained with a shrug as she dipped her paintbrush in water. She was faster at painting than he was as her portrait of Declan was already halfway done. From what the portrait was displaying, Eli could tell that Fiona’s twin was really attractive, with sparkling blue eyes, but he also had really shitty eyebrows. They looked like fuzzy caterpillars.
“Didn’t the famous singer Craig Manning go here?” He questioned. While he wouldn’t consider himself a fanboy of the guy, he did secretly listen to him regularly and had his first album. He felt an odd connection to him for some reason.
“Yeah, he was Class of 2006. I heard that even though he was a nice guy, he was drenched in love triangles when he was at Degrassi. Don’t be like him,” she warned. He rolled his eyes.
“I just went through a nasty breakup and I’m not ready for a new relationship. Believe me when I say that I don’t care about Imogen and Marisol fighting over me,” he assured her. Just the thought of it didn’t make sense to him. While they were both very beautiful girls, he didn’t see himself falling for either of them like he did with Julia and Clare. Imogen was too odd and Marisol was too bubbly and ditzy.
“Whatever you say, Barnabas Collins,” Fiona replied with a sigh. She obviously didn’t believe him, and he didn’t understand why. He wasn’t the type of guy to string along two girls.
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One night later, Marisol was once again having a bad shift due to being catcalled by a bunch of perverted older men.
As she served a plate of ribeye steaks, mash potatoes, and coleslaw to a pair of bikers, they both eyed her lustfully in a way that made her skin crawl. It seemed like they were seeing her as a juicy piece of meat rather than a person.
“Well aren’t you a slice of something nice?” One of them remarked to her, and she could smell the strong scent of whiskey from his breath. Marisol found him the creepier of the two as he had beady eyes that were almost black in color, mangled teeth, and a raggedy looking beard. Plus, his head was completely bald.
Despite wanting to shiver, she flashed him a sweet smile.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?” The other one asked her. He was more attractive than his friend but he was still giving her bad vibes.
“Marisol,” she answered.
“A beautiful name for a beautiful girl. You must have been working here all day,” he told her with an unsettling smile.
“Only after school. I go to Degrassi,” she replied, hoping that her being a high schooler would get them to back off.
It did not.
“High schooler? Even better, the younger a girl is the more fresh she tastes,” the man purred at her and it made her skin crawl. The other man then chuckled.
“Right, thank you!” Marisol exclaimed as she walked away from the two men. She almost had the urge to run, but she had another plate of food on the tray to deliver. She felt sick to her stomach.
She delivered Jake Martin’s food to him while he talked happily with Clare. They were on a date, and despite Marisol being mad at Jake for rejecting Katie for that snobbish prude, she hoped they had a long, loving relationship so Clare could no longer be a threat. She watched them share a quick kiss from across the table as she walked away. She didn’t see any passion in it.
She paused when she saw Eli walk in. He looked good as always, and she was about to greet him enthusiastically when she saw him walk over to Imogen, who was giving him the usual, pathetic puppy eyed look. Marisol scowled as she watched them interact, with Imogen grabbing his hand and leading them off somewhere.
However to her surprise, that somewhere was Clare and Jake’s booth. The couple was surprised too when they saw them. Marisol connected the dots immediately.
Somehow Imogen knew that Clare and Jake were going on a date tonight at the restaurant and Imogen plotted to bring Eli here so she could make Clare jealous. Only now, her plan obviously blew up in her face because now Eli was storming off in anger while Clare shot her a nasty look.
Ah, poor stupid Imogen.
Marisol followed Eli out of the restaurant, and outside he was pulling out his phone.
“Eli, wait!” She exclaimed as she walked up to him. “What’s going on?”
“I’m calling Bullfrog to come pick me right up,” Eli snarled as he started to dial buttons..
“You don’t have to do that. I can drive you home after my shift is over,” she offered.
“No thanks. I don’t think I can stand to be in there right now with Imogen. I can’t believe she set me up like that,” he said, seething. Him being so mad at that freak was giving her such glee.
“I told you she was a weirdo, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some tasty food to make you feel better. Don’t call your dad because I’ll take you home. Come back inside and order some nachos or wings instead. They’re on meeee,” she pleaded while giving him a dazzling smile.
“Whatever, fine,” he muttered as he put in his phone back in his pocket. She cheered inside.
They walked back inside together, and Marisol led him to a booth on the other side of the restaurant far away from Clare, Jake, and Imogen. She eagerly took his order, which was Pepsi and loaded fries with bacon and cheddar cheese. Eli was in a stormy mood right now but she was going to make him feel allllllll better.
And it was all thanks to Imogen Moreno, who she passed on the way to the kitchen. Her face was red in embarrassment and her lip was quivering. Marisol stopped and gave the other girl an evil smile.
“Thanks for giving me Eli on a silver platter. I didn’t think it would be that easy but you’re doing so much to make sure he’s mine. Wonderful job, there. You’re doing the Lord’s work,” Marisol mocked Imogen, who growled in response.
“Eli would never go for you. You’re a shallow bitch,” Imogen told her in anger. Marisol simply laughed in response.
“And you’re what? A delusional stalker who managed to piss him off. Have fun with getting him to ever like you, hun,” Marisol sneered as she walked off.
This was a war that she was going to win.