Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters (as much as I would like to). They belong to them Degrassi folks (: (didja like my country talk?)

Clare POV

Alli Bhandari, possibly the greatest friend a girl could have, stared up at me from under her thick, mascara-coated lashes.

"Clare. It's time for an intervention," she said, traces of disapproval in her voice.

"What does that mean?" I replied. Play it dumb, Clare. Pray it's not about… him.

Alli sighed, long and dramatic. "KC, you dummy. Jenna, the vindictive little girl she is, is starting to scare him off. It's your turn now, girlfriend. Unless—" she paused to look over her shoulder and ended up smiling. Deviously. "Well, think of the devil, and he shall come! Look, Clare! It's our little friend Eli!"

Eli Goldsworthy, charming, snarky, and an awfully perfect amount of mysterious, turned toward us, surprise written on his face. His gaze landed on Alli, but then flitted to me. The corner of his mouth tilted upwards, but slammed down almost immediately, bending into a frown. He whipped his head around and walked briskly away. I swallowed, suddenly very nervous.

Alli squinted her eyes at me. "What happened to my two lovebirds, Clare?"

"Nothing," I mumbled under my breath. "And according to him, we aren't lovebirds."

She stopped in her tracks. "According to him? I haven't heard this one yet."

I looked back over my soldier. She raised one of her eyebrows questioningly. I bit down on my lip, hard, preparing myself to tell the tale.

"I told him I really liked him and that we should, you know, go out. I was just so sure it was mutual. But then he apologized for—" I paused, choking up for a second. "—for leading me on."

"Oh, Clare," moaned Alli, at my side in a second. "Eli doesn't deserve you."

I pouted for a moment, trying to hold back the flood of tears building up inside my eyes. It was inevitable.

"I-I really thought he liked me! I mean, he sent me all t-these signals. But I was so wrong. I think Eli might… I'm afraid he hates me now!"

Alli pulled me into a hug, letting me whimper pitifully while the other students broke into streams around us, staring.

I felt a gentle pat on my shoulder.

"Thanks, Alli," I said. It was then that I realized: the hand was way too big to be hers.

"Hey Clare," greeted KC awkwardly. "Take it easy, alright?"

Over to my right, I saw Jenna Middleton sobbing into her locker. Originally, KC and I had been going out, but then he started cheating on me with her. By the looks of it, it hadn't been worth it.

Was Eli worth it?

I wiped my tears away and managed to grimace.

"Thanks, KC."