Elizabeth Jensen woke up from her sleep and looked beside her, expecting to see her boyfriend sleeping beside her, but he wasn't there. It had been two weeks since Justin Foley's death, and Elizabeth was still not used to the new world she lived in. She always wanted to see or talk to Justin, but he was never there. He was never going to be there again. This was just something she would have to get used to.

It was the day of Justin's funeral, and Elizabeth had been dreading it for two very long weeks. She sat up from her bed, glancing down at her phone. The time read twelve-thirty in the afternoon. There were texts from every single one of her friends, saying good morning or hoping she was doing alright. They were all trying to keep a close eye on her.

The truth was Elizabeth was not doing alright. She tried to make it seem like that for her friends, but she was dying on the inside. A part of her was dead, and the other part was slowly dying. She never knew she could feel such a magnitude of pain, but here it was.

She slowly stood up from her bed, taking a deep breath. She was trying to take every day one step at a time, but even that was becoming too hard. It had been over a month since the funeral, and Elizabeth was off her crutches and mostly able to walk normal. She made her way over to her closet, grabbing a black dress from inside. The girl stripped herself of her clothes, tossing them on the ground. Her room had become a mess since the death of her boyfriend. She just did not care anymore. She pulled the dress over her body and tossed her hair up into a pony tail, not worried about how she was looking.

Elizabeth let out a sigh, leaving her bedroom and walking down the stairs. She made eye contact with her mother. Lainie Jensen sent her a sad smile before beginning to pour some coffee for her daughter. "Good morning, sweetheart. How'd you sleep. How do you feel?"

"Awful." Elizabeth answered, moving to sit down at the breakfast table.

Lainie finished pouring the coffee and sat down in front of Elizabeth, setting the coffee in front of the girl. "Is there anything that you think could help with that? Do you want me to get some melatonin?"

The girl shook her head. "It's not going to help, mom. But thanks."

Elizabeth looked down at the coffee cup before lifting it up to her lips and taking a drink from it. She set it back down as her mother began speaking. "Are you sure you don't want to say anything today? I'm sure that Justin would-"

"I said no, mom." Elizabeth cut off her mother. "I can't."

The mother nodded. "I understand." She watched as her daughter ran her finger along the rim of the cup. "Honey, your father and I were thinking that maybe it would be a good thing if you started to see Dr. Ellman."

Elizabeth let out a scoff, looking up at Lainie. "Because he such a good job with Clay."

"Eliza, he did help Clay and still is."

"I don't want to see anyone. I don't want to talk to anyone about him. I don't want to do anything about it, okay?"

"Yeah, I just thought it could maybe help." Lainie took her daughter's hand in her own, but Elizabeth quickly pulled her hand away. "I- uh- have to stop by the church and make sure everything is set up for this afternoon." And with that, Lainie left Elizabeth alone in the Jensen House.

*

Elizabeth sat in the first aisle at the local church, staring at the coffin in front of her. He was in there. She continued looking at the coffin, and did not even notice her three friends sat next to her. "Hey." Isabel Henry spoke as she placed her hand on Elizabeth's knee. "We're for you, okay?"

"You should be here for him."

"That's not what she meant, honey." Jessica Davis sent her girlfriend a glare as she spoke to Elizabeth. "She just meant that we are going to be by your side through all of this."

Ani Achola smiled, sitting on the other side of Elizabeth than Isabel and Jessica. "You're going to get through this, 'Liza."

The girl shook her head. "I can't keep just going through it." She felt tears run down her cheeks. "I don't want to anymore. I keep on expecting to see him everywhere, but he's never fucking there. And I always want to tell him things, but I can't because he's fucking dead." She tried to wipe the tears away, but they were quickly replaced with new ones. "I'm never going to see the love of my life again."

"This is the hardest thing that anyone could ever go through." Ani spoke, cupping Elizabeth's cheeks. "But he wanted you to get through it, okay? He wanted you to live your life. He deserves that."

"I don't want to live it without him."

The three girls exchanged looks, and Jessica let out a sigh. "Well, I don't want to live my life without you, 'Liza."

"Me too." Isabel sent the girl a smile, wrapping her arms around her.

Ani let out a soft chuckle. "You can add me to that." A small smile appeared on Elizabeth's face as the other girls joined in the hug. "We all need you to be you, Eliza. You were you before Justin came along."

After about thirty minutes, the funeral began. The pastor stepped up to the podium to begin speaking. "How did we get here? Again? We made a cruel world; my generation, my parents generation. Too little caring. Too much hate, anger and hurt. We talk a good game about protecting our children, but we leave too much on the table that might surely save their lives." Isabel noticed Elizabeth's hands shaking and grabbed onto them, trying to keep her steady. "Justin Foley died of a disease that, from its inception, thrives in silence. And there are a number of such diseases, a number ills that thrive when we are silent about them. Because we let our fears, our shame, our twisted moral codes keep us in silence, as death stalks more children. I say, enough. Enough shifting blame. Enough pointing fingers. Enough confusing those who report the damage with those who cause it. Let us remember Justin for his accomplishments on the football field and the basketball court. Let us remember his smile that I am told melted a hundred hearts." Elizabeth let out an inaudible sob as she smiled softly. "But let's also remember his death with sorrow and determination that spur us to action. Amen."

Next, Alex Standall stepped up to the podium, unfolding the piece of paper he had put in his pocket and setting it down on the stand. "I'm not sure I can do this. Uh-" He sighed, looking down at the paper. "Uh- I believe- I believe- I believe Justin Foley helped save my life. I didn't like him. And he didn't like me." Elizabeth let out a soft chuckle. That was true. "But- uh - when I needed him, he helped me." Alex looked up at the people sitting in front of him. "Sorry, I'm-" His voice cracked as he stumbled backwards. He ran his hands down the front of his jacket as his father walked up to the stage. Officer Standall helped his son back down to their seats.

Zach Dempsey was the last person to speak. "Last time I was up here, I said I was my brother's keeper. That we all are." He was referring to when he spoke at Bryce Walker's funeral. "Even though I didn't live up to that." He made eye contact with Elizabeth before quickly looking down at the coffin he was standing next to. "Justin hated running. Coach Kerba would make him do a mile, and he would bitch and complain... the whole time." Elizabeth giggled as she watched her best friend speak. "Coach Kerba would tell him that pain is the feeling of weakness leaving the body. But we're all weak, I think. But we're trying to be stronger. And the pain that we are feeling today, is to remind us every day.. to do better." Zach's voice cracked. "To be better."

*

When the funeral ended, Elizabeth stood at the doors to the chapel with Zach. "Thank you for doing his eulogy."

"He wanted it to be you."

The girl shook her head. "I couldn't do that." She let out a chuckle, looking up at her best friend. "And you did way better than I ever could ever could have done anyways. I'm not really one for speeches."

"Yeah." Zach nodded. "Did you still want to hang out tonight?"

Elizabeth nodded, glancing back into the chapel. She saw her brother sitting alone in the center of the first row. "Come over at 7?" She spoke before leaving Zach. She walked over to Clay Jensen and sat down next to him. She glanced forward at the coffin and felt tears rush down her cheeks once again. "He loved you so much, Clay."

"Not as much as he loved you." Elizabeth shook her head, holding out her hand. Clay laced his finger's through his sisters, and leaned his head against her shoulder.

Rewritten
Word Count - 1582

An: this chapter was supposed to be the whole rest of the episode, but that was going to be way too long, so here's just the funeral. Y'all this has made me so depressed writing this holy poop.

Please vote and comment what you want to see for Eliza at the end of this story!

Have a nice day, lovelies 💕