"Alli, I really don't think this is a good idea. I mean, this is the first time my parents have ever left me home for a weekend, alone, by myself. Do you think a huge party is the best way to celebrate that freedom? What if- hey, what if we just watch Twilight and make popcorn?"

Alli sighed and patted her best friend's auburn head.

"Clare, Clare, Clare. It's not a big party. It's a … small … get together. And you know we needed to have it here- I HAVE to see Drew outside of school, and my parents aren't exactly open to the idea of the party. And they'd never leave me alone. Please please please?" Alli batted her big, brown eyes at Clare.

Clare sighed. "Fine." Alli squealed and hugged her friend. It's not like the party wouldn't have happened- everyone was coming in an hour and it really WASN'T a small get together, it wasn't exactly cancelable, but she was happy her friend was finally warming up to the idea.

About an hour later, everyone arrived, and Alli had been right. It was a great party. There was loud music, and dancing, and Eli was there. Not that Clare had been looking for him. But they'd spent the entire party sitting on top of the island in her kitchen, talking. Mostly about her parents, and her sister, Darcy. Then, Alli went over and pulled Clare down from the counter.

"C'mon. About 10 of us are going to go into the dining room and play Never Have I Ever. Drew's there."

"Alli, I don't want to. Eli and I were talking." Alli sighed and glanced back at Eli.

"Eli, come play never have I ever with me and Clare and people." The jet-black-haired boy shrugged and walked ahead of the girls into the dining room, a slight smirk on his face. Clare sighed and let Alli drag her into the dining room. They were positioned so Alli was directly across from Drew, and Clare directly across from Eli, with Clare and Alli sitting next to each other. A blonde girl that Clare vaguely recognized from school spoke.

"Okay, some people play you take a piece of clothing off every time you've done something, some people play you take a sip of beer each time. We'll do both, so we can play longer and no one ends up drunk or naked… in this room. " She winked at a boy she either liked or was dating sitting across the table before continuing. " So basically, alternate each time you've done something between drinking and stripping."

Clare realized there was a red cup full of beer in front of her. She sighed. This really wasn't her scene. But she guessed she probably hadn't done many of the things the people here had, so she didn't mind. Much. Dave started.

"Never have I ever… lied to my folks." Everyone except Dave himself removed something- Clare removed her abstinence ring- and put it in the middle of the table.

"With questions like that, I'll be naked in 10." Alli's crush, Drew, said. Alli looked flirtatiously at him.

About 45 minutes later, they were still at it, and to Clare's surprise, she'd done quite a lot. She'd been reduced to simply the cami she'd worn under her T-shirt and a pair of jeans, and she felt more than a slight buzz in the back of her head that she'd decided was alcohol. It was Eli's turn. Clare had noticed that he'd been staring at her the entire night. He got a devilish grin in his eyes.

"Never have I ever… kissed a boy." And they were on an undressing turn. Clare looked from her cami to her jeans to her cami. She bit her lip, really not wanting to do this. But all the girls at the table, many of them in their bras and panties already anyway, looked at her expectantly, knowing that she'd kissed KC back when they were dating.

Clare sighed and pulled off the cami, revealing a black lacy bra. Eli's jaw dropped all the way to the ground. Alli looked for Clare to Eli and back to Clare. Smirking, she announced,

"We're out of beer!" Clare knew this was far from the truth, but was thankful that Alli was getting these people out of her house. Like she'd predicted, all the people filed out except Eli. What she didn't predict was that Alli followed, whispering in her ear,

"call me later and tell me EVERYTHING. Bye!" She winked and left.

Clare looked a little nervously at Eli. She got up to reach across the table and grab her clothes, but as soon as she stood up, she fell to the ground. She laughed, even though it wasn't really funny. So, this was what it was like to be drunk. Although she didn't think she was drunk- she'd only had half of her cup of beer. Eli jumped up and grabbed her hand, pulling her to her unsteady feet. She pulled the camisole over her head and turned around to thank him, but when she did, their faces were almost touching.

"Eli-" She started to say, but before she did, they were kissing. Finally. They'd known each other for months, flirted, but this… this was what she'd wanted. She stopped as she felt his hands go to her waist. She turned back and looked at her abstinence ring lying still in the middle of the table as Eli kissed her neck, the results of 8 months of pent up hormones spilling out, both of them a little less inhibited because of their drinks.

Yes, she'd promised to remain chaste. But that was before God had so conveniently forgotten to take care of Clare and her family, before they'd gotten a divorce, before Darcy had been raped.

She turned back to Eli and lead him out of the dining room, into the living room, onto the couch, leaving her purity ring on that table. They resumed kissing, heavily, for several minutes, before his soft, cool hands slid up her shirt slowly. Clare shivered and moaned a little, involuntarily. She froze, then, and put her hands on his through her shirt. He looked at her and whispered breathlessly

"We can stop…" She knew he didn't want to- and the scary part was, she wasn't sure that she did.

"No. Keep… keep going." He smiled and returned his lips to her, as they slowly shifted to a horizontal position on the couch. She felt his hands fiddle with her bra clasp, and then felt it slide off of her. She'd never done this before, but it felt… right. She slid her hands up his finely toned chest- he was still shirtless from their game. He played with the hem of the gray cami and started to slide it up, kissing her stomach as he went up. Then, they heard a deep voice exclaim,

"What the hell?" Damn. Clare knew that voice. Her ex-boyfriend, K.C. Guthrie. It was funny how much three words could sober her up. She and Eli jumped off of each other, her bra falling to the floor as they did so. K.C. stared at it, his eyes wide.

"I… I came back to get my watch… you… Clare?" He sounded angry and sad and hurt and confused all wrapped up in one. Anger overtook, though. He walked over and picked up the bra.

"We dated for months, Clare. MONTHS. And all we did was kiss. I wanted more- God, I'm human. But I RESPECTED you. I ADMIRED you for having MORALS. And now you're rolling around on a couch with this loser? You two aren't even dating!" Clare wiped her lips, as though she could erase everything that had just happened.

"How far would you have gone if I hadn't come in? God, you are such a selfish little… bitch!" Eli jumped up then and, even though he was inches shorter, shoved K.C. backwards until he was out the door.

"Don't you DARE call her that. And NEVER come back here again." With that, he slammed the wooden front door in K.C.'s bewildered face. Clare was sitting on the couch when he returned, tears in her eyes. He sat next to her and hesitantly put an arm around her, kissing her hair.

"I… I can't Eli. I'm sorry. Not tonight. Not like this." Eli pulled away from her so she had to look at him.

"Do you think I care?" Clare sniffled.

"Well… I mean you ARE a guy…" Eli chuckled.

"I just want to be here with you, Clare. I'll sit on the opposite end of the couch if you want, see?" He unwillingly took his arm from around her and scooted down to the end of the couch. Clare giggled a little through her tears.

"No…" She followed him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Everything's just so… messy." She sniffed. "My parents… And Darcy came home last week and she's all… depressed again, becaue Peter doesn't l-l-love her anymore a-a-and I'm scared she'll hurt herself again and K.C… I don't know w-w-what I feel for him anymore but he obviously impacts me and G-G-God is like not even a part of my life anymore and that's always been like w-who I am and…"

"Clare. No matter what happens with your parents, or Darcy, or God, or Peter, or K.C., or ANYONE I'll always lo- I'll always be here for you, okay?" Clare sniffed again and nodded.

"E-Eli?"

"Yeah?"

"Will… will you stay here tonight? Just… stay here with me?" He smiled and kissed her forehead.

"Of course, Clare." He grabbed the remote with one hand and pulled her closer to him with the other, flicking through some of the channels until Harry Potter showed up. Clare smiled a little.

"I love this movie!" Eli laughed.

"Everyone does, Clare." They both leaned into each other, but Clare was asleep within ten minutes. Eli smiled and gently laid her down on the couch, putting a pillow under her head and gently placing the afghan draped over the couch onto her beautiful sleeping form before going into the next room over and stretching out on the couch, smiling to himself. Maybe it hadn't been the best night, but he was happy it had happened. He was overwhelmed at times with how much he liked Clare, but … things were okay.

So, I was inspired by reading all of the Clare/Eli fanfics there are and decided to write one. See those pretty buttons right down there, the "review" and the "favorite"? if you click them, it magically makes new chapters appear faster! Thanks so much. (: