Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi. Sigh, thanks for rubbing it in.

Author's Note: I probably spent too much time in Ellie's musings in the beginning, but I'm trying to get into her head. I probably didn't do too great of a job getting into her mindset, let me know if I should work on it more, considering the story's mostly going to be told in her thoughts.

She wasn't exactly sure how she'd ended up here.

She'd walked straight up to the front door and, deciding that it was a particularly bad idea, had turned on her heel and simply left. Now, she was spending all of her time pacing his driveway and she hated how terribly cliche all of this was.

Furthermore, she just wanted to figure out why she was here.

Despite how much she wished she could deny it, she'd never been a simple person. There were times when she couldn't even figure herself out, and when she would have to retrace her steps to figure out how she'd ended up in a particular situation to try and work her way out, she realized the long maze that made up her thought process. Of course, she knew why she wasn't at home, but why her damned feet had guided her to this particular home, she wasn't sure and was giving herself a headache because she couldn't even figure it out. There was the obvious answer, but she would deny it because there had to be some kind of logic behind it.

And besides, he was one of her best friends. He knew more about her than really anyone else did, she could easily say that--just as he'd told her.

"You've seen me down in the gutter. Lower than low. Lower than I want anyone else to see me. That's why you're my friend. My really good friend."

Friends. They knew each other, inside and out, more than anyone else. He'd understand--yes, that all made sense. That was why she was here. They were close--best friends. And to her, the term 'best friend' actually did mean something, instead of that whiney gimmick that the popular girls would use as a substitute for "sidekick, friend that will tell me I look gorgeous even if I don't and will help me pick out an outfit for some stupid date."

There was Marco, and she could have gone to him. She'd begun to wonder if maybe Marco felt a bit betrayed due to her sudden closeness to Craig, but he'd gone to Africa, Ashley had gone to London, and Craig was... here. In group. Everywhere, basically. It wasn't possible for her to replace Marco, and she wasn't trying to, so he didn't need to worry.

"You two have hand signals? We don't even have hand signals!"

He'd meant it as a joke, no concerns, no problems. Marco was her safety wall, he had been since... forever. She really needed to stop this, she realized, snapping herself out of her thoughts. Dwelling too much upon the thought would drive her into flashbacks and thinking on her entire high school life. It was done, she was already here, she needed to get it over with.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Ellie walked up to the front door of the Jeremiah house, rapping her knuckles lightly against the door, hoping to God or whatever there was out there that Craig answered the door, instead of Joey or Angela or someone equally embarrassing. And for once, it seemed, her prayers--if you could really call it that--had actually been answered.

"El?" he questioned her with a slight yawn, and it was safe to assume he'd been sleeping. After all, he was obviously home with no plans and it was roughly two in the morning, so she understood if he was confused by her sudden appearance.

"Hey," she confirmed with a small smile, shifting from her heels to her toes consistently, uneasily.

"Do you.. uh.. wanna come in, or something?" he asked, stepping aside once she nodded. Entering the house and shutting the door behind her, she nodded absently and decided that if she was going to get this done, there was no point in beating around the bush.

"I was wondering if maybe I could... I could stay here. Just for a little while. I got into this huge fight with my mom and..." her voice trailed off and she looked down at the ground. He didn't need her to finish to catch what she meant and by the way she looked so broken, there wasn't any way he was going to say no. Not that he was really planning on turning her down, though.

"Yeah, sure. Don't worry about it," he consoled, beginning to lead her upstairs.

Maybe things wouldn't turn out so badly, she decided, stupid crush or not.