Living With No Direction

3. Distance

Laying on her bed, Clara held the picture to her chest. The memories were flowing through her head like a river. Feeling overwhelmed Clara burst out in tears. She had never really talked to anybody about that day, but she knew she needed to get it off of her chest.

She walked over to her phone and scrolled through her contact list. Finally reaching the one she wanted she pressed the call button and raised her phone to her ear. After three rings, Clara sighed in relief once she heard his voice. "Hello?" their British voice rang from the other side.

"Hey Liam," Clara smiled . She hadn't talked to her husband's former band mates since their wedding, and she was always the closest with Liam so she knew that he would listen to her.

"Clara, hey it's been a while since I heard your voice," he cheered.

"Yeah it has. How have you been?" Clara asked, sitting down on her bed.

"I've been well, you?".

Clara sighed, "No not really," she mumbled. Liam was silent for a few moments before he spoke in a serious tone.

"Is this about Louis, what did he do?"

"No, no it's not about Louis, I just-" she paused conflicted. "Can we meet somewhere? I'd rather talk in person."

"Sure, how about that restaurant where we first met?" Liam said.

"Okay see you in an hour?" she asked.

"See ya," Liam said before hanging up.

Clara laid back on her bed, staring at the ceiling wondering why she was thinking about all of this now, when she was perfectly happy with her husband.

Clara wrote down on a note that she would be out and will be back soon. She didn't want Louis to worry about her. Walking to her car, she looked around at her surroundings. The light breeze was swinging the trees side to side, and there were birds flying high in the sky without a care in the world. She almost envied those birds, for they did not know where they were going but they didn't care; just going where life takes them.

Driving down the street, Clara started to remember something else.
*

It had been three days since her birthday, which Eric ruined. On day one she stayed in her room the entire time. Her dad tried a couple of times to get her out ,but Clara refused. Eric had called her and left messages saying how sorry he was, and that he wasn't himself, but she refused to answer him.

On day two, she actually came out of her room, but only to eat something. Her dad greeted her with a smile when Clara walked into the kitchen that morning. She ran and gave him a hug, crying into his shoulder. Day three was the day when Eric came over. Well he only made it to the front door because her dad refused to let him in.

Today, Clara was laying on her bed when she heard a tap at her window. She chose to ignore it thinking it was just a branch, but when she heard it again she walked over to her window and pulled her curtain aside. Clara's eyes widened once they laid on Eric. He was sitting on a branch of the tree beside her house holding on for his life. "Oh my God!" she said, opening her window.

"Hey there," he said, his voice cracking, he was shivering.

"What are you doing here Eric?"

"If you would let me in, I would tell you" he said.

"Fine," she said holding out a hand and pulling him in. He made a loud thump noise as he fell on the floor.

"Ow," he yelled but she placed her hand over his mouth.

"If my dad catches you here he will kill you" Clara whispered. He nodded and she helped him up.

"I'll get you a blanket," she said heading for her door.

"Okay," he said quietly before sitting on her bed.

"Why are you here Eric?" she said after placing the blanket around his shoulders.

"I needed to see you," he said looking at the floor.

"I missed you" he continued then looked at me. She shook he head and looked away.

"I've missed you too, but I don't think we should be together anymore," she said not looking his way, but she felt his stare burning into the side of her face.

"No no no, Clara you can't give up on us, please give me another chance," he begged getting on his knees. Clara's heart broke at the sight of it, she knew she couldn't let this boy go even if she tried.

"But what about my dad, he still hates you," Clara sniffled not even realizing she was crying.

"I don't know, I'll try to talk to him to see if I could get back on his good side" he smiled hopefully.

"Okay, but under one condition," his eyebrows furrowed at her statement.

"Tell me who you were on the phone with?" as soon as Clara said that his face grew hard and he backed away from her. "Eric?" she looked up at him as he started to pace around the room.

He stopped and took a deep breath. "I got accepted into Harvard " he said slowly. Clara's breath hitched , her mouth tried to form words, but her mind was blurry.

"Clara say something," he cried.

"Harvard is in Massachusetts, on the west coast, two days away from here" she screamed covering her face. "So you were gonna breakup with me anyway?" she got up and yelled in his face.

"No, I thought that maybe we could make this work, I would come over on my breaks" he said hopefully placing his arms on het shoulders.

"You expect me to wait around for you, and only see you like what three times a year, no I'm not gonna do that, the distance would be too much for me," she stated wiping the tears off of her face.

"Clara please, we can make this work, we could try it out for a while and you can break up with me at anytime you want, but I need you for as long as I can have you," he said, tears on the verge of streaming down his face. She thought about it for a while before giving him an answer.

"Okay," Clara mumbled.

He embraced her in a tight hug before kissing her forehead. "You're my forever Clara, I love you so much," he whispered, stroking her hair. Clara didn't respond, but hugged him tighter.
*

A loud honking noise woke Clara out of her daze, she jumped hitting her head on the ceiling in the process. "Ugh" she grunted rubbing the top of her head. She had stopped at a green light, the car behind her drive around but not before giving her a dirty look. Clara ignored the driver and brought her car to live, zooming down the road.
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