"Clare!" my mom yells. Her voice is nasally, as if she was crying. I shut off my laptop and bounce down the steps. I suddenly stop seeing who was in our living room. It's my dad but he's with someone else... a girl. She must have been at least 12 years younger than him. My mom's eyes are puffy and bloodshot.
"This is Sarah." my father says. I don't answer.
"Clare we need to talk." my mom tells me.
"This won't be easy, I'm sure this will be a surprise..." my mom starts, her voice muffled.
"I know. You guys are getting a divorce. Because of Dad. Because he's been...cheating." I feel numb, and broken. A thin, fragile china doll. That's what I feel. No sadness, no fear.
"How..." my dad asks, flabbergasted.
"Randall! How can she not? Sneaking around, for heaven's sake!" that starts the yelling. If I didn't hate Sarah for ruining our family, I may have felt sorry for her, she was standing there, unsure. I can't comprehend what my parents are saying, because they are yelling over each other. I back away, slowly. And then I bolt out the door. I slam it behind me and run as fast as I can. It starts to drizzle, soft water droplets mixing in with my salty tears. Still, no pain. I get to the park and collapse under a tree. My head in my hands, knees pulled up to my chest, sinking down as much as I can, as if I can escape this.
"Your jeans are gonna get dirty."
I lift my head instantly, but then shoot it back down as soon as I see who it is. Elijah Goldsworthy. The most complicating boy in my life. I start to sob, the pain slowly creeping up on me. I can sense Eli sitting down beside me as he hugs me and rubs my back.
"Blue eyes, what's wrong?" Eli murmurs into my hair.
I look at him, my eyes are blurry from tears. He looks sad, seeing me like this. Does he really care about me? I just look at him like a sad puppy looking up at it's owner. Eli gets up and holds his hand out. I take it hesitantly and he pulls me up. His hand doesn't pull away from mine. He slowly intertwines our fingers. I blush. Eli leads us over to his hearse, Morty. I get in and buckle my seat belt. He drives and drives, the sounds of the radio and rain pattering filling the silence of the ride. After a few minutes, Eli speaks.
"Blue eyes?" he asks slowly, turning the radio down.
"It's my parents. My..my dad, he ch-cheated. Their divorcing." I say my voice as strong as I can muster.
Eli looks over at me for a second, a look that says 'I'm sorry'.
"Um, where are we going?" I ask.
He smirks, his cocky self taking over again.
"Somewhere."
"Eli.." I start.
"Edwards, it sounds like you need a break. This is just it, a...break." After a few minutes, we arrive. Eli gets out and holds me close to him so I don't get to drenched in rain. I blush madly, thank God it's dark so he can't see me. I like him so much- but I'm not sure how he feels about me. Adam and Alli tell me he's admitted he likes me, but I'm just not sure, and I'm way to embarrassed to bring it up. We get inside, it's a hotel. He smiles at the manager and she runs over and gives him a hug.
"Elijah!" she exclaims, "it's been years!"
"Hi, Aunt Sue. This is Clare." he introduces me and she gives me a hug also.
"Clare, this is my Aunt Sue. Not my real aunt, but I've known her all my life. She's a family friend." he turns to Sue. "Suit 120?"
"Of course!" she hands him a key. He grabs it throws it up in the air catches it with the other and walks over to the elevator. I follow. The elevator ride up is silent. My phone vibrates. I take it out and see it's my dad. I decide not to answer it. I sigh and throw it back in my bag. Eli shoots me a look but doesn't say anything. We get to our floor and walk into a huge room. A master suite. There's two beds and a couch. There's a flat screen TV and a minifridge, coffee maker, and a balcony. I look out the balcony into the dark night and I sigh. Eli comes over and rubs my back, tracing patterns with his fingers. After a few minutes he says,
"I'm gonna go get some food and stuff."
"Okay, I need a shower." I tell him and go into the bathroom. I take a shower and realize that Eli has given me one of his old Dead Hand t-shirts and a pair of gym shorts. There both black, of course. I change into them, inhaling his scent. It's something like Axe bodyspray and spearmint. It's refreshing. I walk out and see that Eli has gotten us a feast.
"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"
"Yes, Clare. Because I would just love if you're gone forever. Nah, I'm trying to fatten you up so I can eat you when you're sleeping." he tells me, sarcastically. I laugh and roll my eyes. I sit down opposite of Eli, on the bigger bed and look at all the stuff. Pringles, Cheetos, grape soda, carrots (guess he remembers my favorite food), a bunch of candy bars and tastykakes. Eli rips open a Kit Kat and throws me half of it. I take it and eat it slowly. He pours me grape soda and gives me the can of Pringles. We smile at each other. This is exactly what I got when we went to Wawa for lunch.
"20 questions?" Eli asks.
"A little cliché, don't you think?" I tease him. He shrugs.
"Favorite color?" I ask.
"Blue." he answers immediately. He's staring right into my eyes. I look down.
"Same for you." he tells me.
"How original." I note.
"Just answer the question."
"Fine. Uhhh, purple."
Eli raises his eyebrows. I shrug.
"I'm a girl, what can I say?"
We go on like that when Eli stops us.
"Okay, if I ask you, or vice versa, something personal, we have to answer HONESTLY. Go it?"
I start to get nervous. He would only say that if he's planning something.
"Okay." I say.
"Do you like..." he starts. But then a loud clap of thunder sends me jumping into his arms and the power goes out. We haven't had a storm in so long, I forgot how scared I was of them. I whimper slightly when the lightning flashes.
"Blue eyes? Something wrong?" Eli asks, I can sense the smirk on his face when he says it.
"N-no." I try to lie.
"Lies." he says.
"Okay, I might be a little scared of thunder storms..."
Eli laughs.
"What?" I ask. Why is he laughing?
"A little?" he says.
"Okay, well I'm here, Clare Bear."
I hate that nickname! "I know, Elijah."
Eli curses. I know he hates his full name.
After a few hours, the storm is over. I crawl into my bed next to his and try to get to sleep.
Only a few short hours after my body faded into unconsciousness, a strike of lightning and boom of thunder sent me flying right back into Eli's arms.
"So… it's obvious we won't be getting back to sleep tonight." Eli smirked.
"Sorry," I apologized sheepishly. He shrugged.
"No problem. But, it's getting kind of boring…" he started.
"Well I'm sorry my company isn't enough for you!" I tease. Eli laughs.
"I was thinking we could finish that game of 20 questions?"
"Uh…sure." I say. "You were starting to say something when the storm came, right?"
"Yeah. So… do you like… me?" Eli questioned softly, absentmindedly stroking my hair while buckets of rain pour down on the windows.
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"Do you like me, like me?" Eli's voice is nervous and his whole body tenses up.
"That depends… do you like me?"
"Is that your question? Because you can't ask 'til you answer mine."
"Can't you bend the rules…for me?" I ask innocently. I smirk as Eli exhales a sigh.
"Yes, Clare. I like you. A lot. More than just a friend. I've always had. I-I know that I'm just 'friends' with you but I never wanted us to be like that forever, it's just I'm not sure how it would work but I don't really care when I'm around you and-"
I break Eli off with a soft kiss. "As cute as you are when you stutter, I don't like run-on sentences." I tell him, and he laughs.
"Your turn." I whisper to him in the darkness.
"Clare Edwards, will you be my girlfriend?" Eli asks me. I can't help it-I squeal. Eli laughs-again. That's the third time in 10 minutes! I've never heard him laugh so much.
"Yes!" I practically yell. Eli crushes his lips over mine.
Another boom of thunder and my head is buried in his chest. Eli positions himself so his arm is around me and the other is rubbing my back. We lay like that for the rest of the night until Eli's (a.k.a. my BOYFRIEND's) steady heartbeat puts me to sleep.