Chapter 18 ~ Epic Battles
The next month cannot be described in any singular fashion, it was different for all. For Elijah, it went by painfully slow. Everytime he looked around his apartment, there was an agonizing reminder of Calissa and how she had left him, without a second thought, or fleeting last glance. A picture here, an empty can of Cherry Coke there, the lingering smell of raspberries that hung in the air for two murderous weeks. And what’s more, she left her cat. Sirius was a living, walking, breathing reminder to him every day of the joy, beauty, and simplicity that would never be his. He filled his days with longing and remorse, and Eva. Eva was the only thing left to cling to, the last shred of Callie. Soon, she too would leave him, and go back to the cold streets of New York. For a while, they forgot their differences and Eva took pity on him, it was the least she could do to help his aching heart. She may have been cruel to him, at times, but she could not watch him like this. When they were together, it would seem to the untrained eye as if he forgot about Calissa, but Calissa was always there, always at the back of his mind, and Eva could see it. Eva was merely a distraction. She was a biting, dry, satirical diversion. If he was not in her apartment, she was in his. They were inseparable except at night, and still Elijah felt no peace of mind. He and Eva had become those two friends that are always fighting, but that everyone knows they would rather eat rusty nails than be separated. Compared to his slow agony, the month went by quickly for Eva, everything was a blur of colors, and blue was the predominant one. The baby blue of the skies, her own navy blue emotions, but most of all, the haunted, cerulean blue eyes of Elijah. They showed up in all of her work, even if it wasn’t for ‘Calissa’s Choice’.
Elijah and Eva learned a lot about each other in that short span of a month. For instance, Elijah learned, in an unconventional way, that Eva was opening up her own gallery in New York. She wanted to sell her artwork and support a few other artists in the area. Eva learned that Elijah was a hard-working, caring person with a bit of a temper. And that the loss of Calissa had severely maimed him, it was almost as if he had lost a part of himself. Once, their tempers had flared and a yelling match had ensued. Eva was in somewhat of a bad mood, though she couldn’t say why and her remarks had more of a sting than usual. Elijah was already fragile and found himself snapping.
“Me?!” he had looked at her incredulously after this new onslaught aimed at his lack of responsibility and work ethic. “I don’t WORK? What the hell do you think I do everyday, Eva? Where do you think I go? I go to WORK. Maybe I’m not defending murderers, maybe I’m not performing brain surgery, but it is work! What I do requires talent, patience, and control. I bet you’ve never even seen one of my movies, I bet you couldn’t so much as tell me what movies I’ve been in, not even one. Who the hell are you to judge me? You with your incense and your candles.” He was shaking with rage by now, looking at her with an accusatory stare. He would not submit to her vicious attacks this time, he would not bow his head in defeat. “You sit up in the dark everyday painting and drawing. What do you call that Eva? Work? Is that what you call work? I’m sorry that we don’t all have the amazing talent that you have Eva, we can’t all just sit down and make these beautiful pieces. What? Are you going to paint this as well? Is this going to be a part of your ‘project’?” She had been staring at him, a calm smirk painted on her face, he could not rile her, but finally she had been able to push him over the edge. This was what she had been waiting for.
“Well well well, wonder-boy has a soft-nerve.” Her black eyes challenged his enraged blue ones. “Let me tell you something little boy,” she spat out the last words. “You’re right, I don’t call what you do work. I call it the product of an overactive imagination meant to satisfy the multitudes because their lives don’t have any meaning left. For your information, I have watched your movies. Do you want to know what I think of them? Do you really want to know? I thought that ‘The Bumblebee Flies Anyway’ was excellent, if your pain scenes left something to be desired. In ‘Black&White’, I cringed everytime you spoke. You were the only person in that movie that could not pull of his part, sorry. In the ‘Icestorm’ you did well, if at times you were a little too vacant. Don’t even get me started on ‘Flipper’ or ‘The Faculty’, but your most recent success, ‘Lord of the Rings’, was exactly that. A success.” She looked at him, and immediately her eyes narrowed as she moved to a topic that had indeed hurt her, deeply. “And as for what I do, you have no idea. It’s NOT just paintings and drawings and pretty little pictures. I put meaning into things that otherwise would have been pointless. No, this is not going into my project, this will be for me. My project was to inject meaning into this cold, insensitive, selfish, empty city. Don’t attack me.” And that was how their confrontation had ended, once again, leaving Eva with the upper hand. After that, they had toned down most of their bickering, but never did they stop it, and it made for an eventful month. Now, they were at a loss for something to do.
“I’m bored.”
“Me too. No! I know! I haven’t taken you to my favorite club yet! We can go there.” Elijah looked at her eagerly, it had been forever since he had left the house just to have fun.
“No.” It was a flat refusal, and to most people would have left no room for argument.
“Oh come on!” Elijah Wood was not most people. “We would have fun! Ok, if you aren’t enjoying yourself after an hour, we’ll leave. I promise.” He watched her tentatively, waiting for the refusal.
“Fine.” She must have been tired, that was much too easy.
~*~
Orlando walked into his apartment, and a familiar sight met his eyes. There stood Calissa, staring vacantly out the window, not aware of her surrounding. How many times had he come home just to see her like this? They had both thought that she would be happy in London, but apparently they were mistaken. More often than not, she spent her time thinking or writing, lost in thought. There were a few times when Orlando had been able to make her smile, he had been able to illicit a laugh, but such times were rarer than they should have been and even if he didn’t want to admit it, he knew why. Calissa missed the ocean, she missed Los Angeles, most of all, she missed Elijah.
