A/N: It is time, my friends, to say goodbye to Callie, Eva, Elijah, and Orlando (oh wait, we’ve already seen the last of Orlando). I’ve had fun writing this, I hope you guys have had fun reading it. I contemplated doing a sequel, but I’m fresh out of ideas. If you have a good one and you wish for me to continue writing, email me and I will definitely consider it. I don’t know if I’m ready to let these guys go yet. For this special occasion, I have written an extra-long chapter, by my standards, that is. (Ok, so it’s not necessarily for this occasion. I was grounded, all right?) Yes, this is the last chapter, and I hope you all enjoy it. You’ve been begging for it, so here we go!!
Chapter 19 ~ Green Blankets, Cherry Coke, Bubble Baths
All of a sudden, Eva remembered why she didn’t go clubbing. The blaring music, the sweating, writhing bodies, the heavy stench of alcohol on the air. ‘But,’ she told herself, ‘this is a good thing. You are helping Elijah get over Calissa; you are helping him get out of the house. Just consider this your good deed for the next one hundred years.’ She glared out over the dance floor, taking it all in for what she hoped was the last time. This scene was all-too familiar to her; she distinctly remembered it from her partying days during senior year. The sporadic, flashing lights, colors mixing and clashing everywhere, an all-powerful DJ standing above the crowd, controlling their movements with the silver discs underhand. She stood there, by her table, watching Elijah. This was supposed to be helping him; this was murder to her, so why the hell wasn’t he dancing? She decided, unwisely, that he hadn’t had enough to drink. Perhaps another shot or two would loosen him up. She made her way through the hazy, smoke-filled atmosphere to the bar where Elijah had been hibernating.
“Two martinis please.” He hadn’t even seen her coming over, but she was on the other side of the bar, so that was understandable.
“WHAT?” The bartender tilted his head toward her, motioning that he didn’t hear her order.
“TWO MARTINIS.” She bellowed. He nodded and went back to swaying to the music as he mixed the drinks. Eva merely shook her head in disgust. When she received the drinks, she traveled over to Elijah, not able to avoid the people around her and sloshing the drinks everywhere. When she finally made it, they were both only about 2/3 of what they had been when she started. Before catching his attention, she poured some from hers into his. “Elijah.”
He didn’t hear her. “ELIJAH!” He still didn’t hear her. She held both of the drinks in one hand and smacked him upside the head. “ELIJAH!” Finally, she had his attention. He took the drink somewhat reluctantly. Maybe she wasn’t so unwise to decide that he needed some more to drink. She motioned silently that she was going back to the table and he just nodded. When she got there, she hailed a waiter and told him to keep an eye on Elijah. “I want you to keep him drinking until he finally decides to dance, ok?” The waiter nodded and that was taken care of. ‘Dear God Eva, why did you ever agree to this?’ She was mentally berating herself as she stared down a stranger who was approaching her for the third time that evening. When he was in hearing distance, she donned a flirtatious look and her body language told him that he was welcome in her territory. He moved closer, still not talking, until their bodies were touching. Moving so swiftly that it was impossible to see her, she put him in an uncomfortable position in less than no time. Her knee was resting near his groin, her hand was clutching the collar of his shirt, slightly cutting off his air supply. “I want you to leave me alone. I don’t want you to come near me, I don’t want you to look at me, I don’t want you to even THINK about me. Is that clear?” Her tone was low and fierce, she whispered every word, but, wonder of wonders, he heard her. Once she had dispatched of him, she turned back to Elijah at the bar-- or, Elijah’s empty spot at the bar. She had lost him. Scanning the floor quickly, she spotted him. Ok, he had a few drinks before she ordered the waiter to start shoving them down his throat, because there he was, in the middle of the floor, acting like a damned fool. ‘Well fuck Eva. This should be fun to watch.’ And it was, until her conscience got the better of her. ‘Go get him. Go get him now before he starts doing a strip show. You moron, how could you get him that drunk? Go get him.’ She scolded herself, yet again, all the way to the middle of the floor where she grabbed Elijah by the arm and practically dragged him back to the table, where he had left his jacket and she her purse.
“Come on, get yourself together, get your stuff. We’re leaving.”
“Aw come on Aaaaayva, thish ish fun! You promished you would come!” Oh yes, he was drunk, he stumbled a little on the stairs to confirm her suspicions. She was amazed he hadn’t passed out yet.
“And come I did. Let’s go, you’re drunk. We have to get you home.”
“No. I want to shtay here. It’sh fun here. Come on Eva, danshe with me!” He grabbed her arms in a crazy attempt to try and get her to dance.
“Oh fuck no, let’s GO!” She pulled his jacket onto his arms, if somewhat lopsided, and pinned his arms to his side, marching him out to the car. He protested the entire way, saying he wasn’t done yet and that she had no right…etc etc. He fell asleep on the car ride home.
She was practically carrying him at the doorway while she sifted through his jacket, looking for his keys. She slipped the key into the lock, almost dropping Elijah on the floor. Quickly regaining her balance, she dragged him in and promptly deposited him in the doorway. Looking around the apartment quickly, she took in everything, not missing one little sign. Elijah whimpered at her feet and she kicked him lightly. “Get up.” No response. “Get up.” A harder kick, still no response. She grabbed a handful of his hair and the back of his jacket, finally he woke.
“Goddammit woman!!” He quickly jerked himself away, massaging his head.
“Look around Elijah. Look around, tell me what you see.” He mumbled something about seeing his apartment and staggered back into his room to get some needed rest. The newfound irony of the situation caused a Mona Lisa-like smirk to play across her lips. He would realize it in the morning, but it just figures that she would go and get him completely smashed tonight, of all nights. She quickly removed the heels she had donned for the special occasion and ran up the stairs two at a time to finish her master canvas. You see, Elijah was too drunk to notice the empty can of Cherry Coke on the coffee table. The alcohol blinded him, so it was understandable that he missed the green chenille blanket slung across the living room chair. And the vodka had screwed with his senses, so he couldn’t be expected to notice the pleasant scent of raspberries that pervaded the air. But Eva did.
~*~
The pain seared through his temples when he woke up the next morning. A glance at the bedside clock told him that it was eight in the morning. If he had had such a wild night the night before, what the hell was he doing up at eight in the morning? He should be asleep until noon at least. Then he realized what had disturbed his slumber. Water. Running water. Someone was running a bath down the hall. He rolled out of bed, groaning at all the aches in his body, as the water cut off and someone entered the bath. “Jesus Eva, eight in the morning? Why are you doing this to me?” He whined all the way down the hall to the bathroom. Steam filled the small room from the scorching hot bubble bath and the unmistakable smell of raspberries hung in the air. He was concentrating on shutting the door as softly as possible, not on the person in the tub. The grating tones of Alanis Morissette streamed through the speakers of the CD player he distinctly remembered taking out of the bathroom. It had reminded him too much of Calissa. He peered at himself in the mirror, still not turning to the bathtub. “Eva, are you trying to kill me? First you get me dead drunk, then you wake me up at eight in the morning. What’s more, with a fucking bubble bath! You’re using Callie’s shower gel, did she leave it behind? Seriously, are you trying to torture me?” With those last words, he turned to unleash his full wrath upon Eva, and found himself choking it back. There was Callie, her blonde hair tied back in a bun, her eyes shut, she was obviously savoring the moment. “C-Ca—Calissa?” He looked like he was about ready to cry, but he still had control of himself.
“That would be me.” She still hadn’t opened her eyes.
“What are you doing here?” He had to convince himself that she just came back to pick up her cat and some of the other things she forgot. He had to convince himself of that because if he could make himself believe that, then he wouldn’t lose the control he had fought for for so long after she left.
“Well, to the naked eye, it would appear as if I’m taking a bath. But really, I’m plotting a way to take over the world.” She opened her eyes and grinned at him. There it went. There goes the control, out the window. Her tone softened, the grin left, replaced by a tentative expression, as if she didn’t know or she was afraid of his reaction to her next statement. “I came back.”
“You came back. That’s all, you came back?” He slipped to the floor, not believing what he was hearing. Then, more to himself than to her, “She came back.”
“Yes. I came back. And if it’s alright with you, I plan on staying this time.” She still maintained the tentative/afraid look.
“Alright with me?” She nodded, hesitantly. “Alright with me? Of course it’s alright with me!! What are you smoking that you would ever think it wasn’t alright with me?” The grin returned.
“I dunno. I guess I just thought you would be pissed at me for leaving so suddenly.” He shook his head, still in disbelief.
“No. Sad, not pissed. Very sad. But that’s ok, it’s over, it’s behind us, it doesn’t matter anymore. You’re here, that’s all that matters.” He paused for a moment and then, “Why did you come back?” She sighed and sank further into the water. This was the one question that she didn’t have a clear answer to.
“I got to London, and it was great. And Orlando was great. The apartment was great, the city was great. Everything was great. Except me. I wasn’t great. I wasn’t good. I wasn’t happy, I wasn’t even ok. No matter what Orlando tried to do for me, I just couldn’t be happy. Something was missing, almost as if a part of me was missing. Then, I figured it out. You. You were missing. You were that part of me, you are part of me.” She took in a deep breath and furrowed her eyebrows, going over what she had just said in her head, trying to figure out if it made any sense.
“I love you.” It was sudden, but somehow, not unexpected.
“I love you too.” They sat there in relative silence for the better part of an hour until they heard Eva bounding down the stairs. Chances were she had already heard everything they said through the vents and decided that they had had enough ‘alone time’ and that her presence was necessary.
~*~
March 31, 2002
She came back, like I knew she would. I have to laugh at her though, it took her a lot longer than I expected. I said two weeks in London, tops. Orlando must be something else for her to stay a whole month. Or maybe she just felt guilty about leaving him, and thought it was her duty to stay with him. At least she finally listened to me. Did I tell her to come back? Hell no. But apparently my voice permanently resides in her brain, and this time she listened to it. Everyone is happy here; it is my time to go. They don’t know it yet, but when the lovebirds awake in the morning, I will be gone. I’ve left them all something though. For Elijah: a painting of Callie on Oscar night. For Callie: a charcoal of Elijah’s eyes. I even sent something to Orlando: a group picture that we all took at the Oscars. It might seem cruel to remind him of that night, but I’m hoping he realizes that she does love him, and that she will always love him. It’s just that everyone has his or her place in the world, and here is where she belongs. She found her missing part, maybe one day I’ll find mine. I’ll be sure to let you know when I’ve found my permanent niche.
Eva
THE END!!
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