Yellow

"Get away from me, Jake!" Clare shouted, hurriedly gathering her belongings in her room.

Jake rushed towards her, desperately trying to stop her from stepping through the door. "Clare, wait! Don't go." He pleaded, reaching for her hands.

Clare shoved him away. "Don't touch me! You cheated on me!"

"It was a mistake. Jenna means nothing to me, I swear! She kissed me!" Jake continued to block the doorway until Clare shoved him aside.

"Really? That's exactly what you told me when you and Alli kissed at the cabin. You're the reason she and I aren't friends, but I talked to her, Jake. I talked to Alli, and she said it was mutual! You're a liar. I can't be around you!" She quickly brushed past him and ran out the door and down the steps. "Oh, and if you're really so pathetic that you get high every night and hook up with hurting girls, I feel sorry for you." The local park wasn't far away, so she quickly biked there, eager to escape anything and everything.

Eli Goldsworthy's phone buzzed with a text from: Clare Edwards.

FROM: CLARE EDWARDS

Eli, I need you. Come to the park. Please.

Clare

Thirty minutes later…

"I gave him everything." Clare whispered, hating the space between her and Eli.

Eli wanted nothing more than to move closer to her, to comfort her, to do something. He couldn't. Too much had happened, and the distance between him and the girl he loved was far too great. He simply leaned back on the grass and stared up at the stars twinkling in the night sky. His heart broke at the thought of someone taking sick advantage of the gift of making love to Clare Edwards.

Clare had not cried yet tonight; she was too angry. She had stupidly and blindly trusted Jake, slept with him, and abandoned everyone else in her life. It wasn't until she had caught him trying to smuggle several servings of weed into his room one night that she began to wonder if she truly knew him. Given he was her stepbrother, so she shouldn't have been sleeping with him anyway. It wasn't until the day that Katie Matlin and Marisol Lewis approached Clare and told her that they had seen Jake and Jenna fooling around in the computer lab that Clare knew her premonition was true.

She turned on her side towards Eli, facing him. He was on his back, gazing up at the stars. "Why did you come, Eli?"

Never once taking his eyes off the shining stars, he answered, "You said you needed me, didn't you?"

She nodded, propping herself up with her elbow. "I didn't think you would come."

Eli didn't dare look at her. "I'll always be here if you need me, Clare. I haven't written you out of my life."

"Don't say that. I never wrote you out of my life. I didn't mean for any of this to happen." Clare whispered, wanting nothing more than to just hold his hand. She knew this could never be done, though. He had his walls up, and they most likely would never come down again.

Eli sighed frustrated, turning his head to finally look into the blue eyes that haunted his desires. They were filled with tears, and the girl they belonged to didn't deserve to be hurting inside. "Nor did I, Clare, but we can't undo the past. You left me. I suffocated you, and you left that hospital room for a reason."

"I should have stayed with you." She murmured, fixing her eyes on a slightly bent blade of green grass.

Eli gently placed a hand on hers. "I wanted you to, but if you had, I wouldn't be where I am right now. I probably never would have gotten the help I needed or come to the conclusion that what I did was wrong. I manipulated you, and I'm sorry." He quickly removed his hand, much to her dismay.

Tears leaked out of her eyes and trailed down her cheeks. "Leaving you was the hardest thing I've ever had to do." She whimpered, wishing he had left his hand in hers. "I was in love with you, Eli, so in love. As soon as I walked into your hospital room and saw you all beaten up like that, a part of me just…died. I wanted to stay with you, but I just couldn't. I was scared."

"I'm trying to let you go." He replied, his throat growing thick with grief.

Clare pushed herself close to Eli, pressing herself against him completely. "What if I don't want you to?"

He grew confused at the heavenly but torturous proximity. "Wha-?"

"Let's start over, Eli. Let's stop wasting time." She tried to throw herself at him, climbing on top of him and desperately trying to reach his lips.

He pulled back and gave her a bewildered look. "Clare, we can't just start over. We have to talk things through; I can't be here for you like this right now. I don't know what to do, Clare. You're always changing your mind, confusing me, and I can't keep up. Just tell me…why." Eli said softly, scooting upwards so he could lean on the tree trunk.

Clare's throat tightened uncomfortably as tears filled her eyes. She began to shake, attempting to prevent the tears from falling and the sobs from escaping. However, she just couldn't. The shaking, hurt, confused girl burst into heaving sobs and tears blinded her. Suddenly, all she could feel was pressure on her lungs as loud sobs erupted from her chest.

Eli's eyes widened slightly at the usually composed girl; the only time he had ever seen her cry was when her parents were getting a divorce. He had hugged her tightly in the hallway that day, making sure she knew he didn't mind that she was crying on his shoulder. Now, however, he picked the sobbing girl up and sat her down in his lap. He didn't care that she was shaking, or that they were broken up, or that she may not want him to hold her like this. He gently pulled her head onto his shoulder and patted her curls down as he settled her into a hug. She was finally cracking. The girl who lost her virginity to her stepbrother was crying; the girl who lost her best friend was crying; the girl who just wanted a second chance at love was crying.

"Clare, it's okay. Calm down." He tried talking her down, rubbing her back and rocking her small frame back and forth, but nothing worked. Everything that had gone on in Clare's life was finally shaking her, maybe even damaging her.

"I-I-I can't c-calm down," she rasped out between frantic sobs, clinging onto him like she never wanted to let go. "I-I love you…so much, Eli, please," she was almost shrieking, being torn into pieces when she realized how wrong she had been all this time. Jake would never hold her like this is she was doing anything besides smiling. He would never stand by her, or rub her back and comfort her like Eli was doing right now. "Please, Eli, I-I need y-you," she continued to shake against him, grabbing fistfuls of his leather jacket and crying louder than she ever had in her life.

Eli hushed her and stared up at the sparkling stars. They were shining with what looked like the purest form of hope one could ever imagine. The moon was a crescent, shining down on the two. "Settle down, sweetheart." He whispered, hugging her tightly to him. "I love you, too. We just need to talk. I'm sorry if I set you off, but believe me when I say that I think we can work this out."

Clare held onto his jacket for dear life, burying her face into his neck and inhaling his scent. "Eli…I was so wrong…so wrong, so very wrong. I was a bitch. I miss you so much, I miss Alli, I miss my daddy. I miss my sister." She sobbed, loving the way he ran his hands up and down her back in soothing motions. "Everything fell apart before I even met you, and now that I know you, I wish you could be here forever. Everyone leaves, Eli!"

"Shh, Clare," he tried to begin, but she cut him off.

"No! Everyone leaves, Eli, because I hurt them! Things have been messed up for so long, and I made them worse! I lost Alli, I lost my sister, I lost my father. I can't lose you too! Please, forgive me." Clare finished her short monologue before taking a gasping breath and grabbing Eli's hand. "Please, please forgive me. I want you; I need you." It took all of her energy not to throw herself at him and attack him with kisses making up for lost time.

Eli instructed her to take deep breaths, and she reciprocated his breathing examples. After about two minutes of restoring her breath, Clare finally gained some of her composure. "I'm aware that you have problems in your life, Clare, but you can only fix one at a time. I'm here, okay? Just relax and lay down." He rested his hand on her cheek, lowering her onto the grass and off his lap. He slowly leaned over her, not caring how swollen her face was from her hysterical crying. "Clare, I'm going to kiss you. I need you to stay still." With that, Eli gently kissed her lips, running his hands down her waist in a comforting manner. There was nothing sexual about this kiss; this kiss was simply a test for if the love still lingered between the two. It had been so long since Eli and Clare had kissed. Clare sighed with pleasure and just basked in the warmth of Eli's body pressed against her own. His lips moved over hers, and finally, she couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't just stay still. Something like that of a fire sprung up between the two and suddenly, Clare kissed him back fiercely, hugging him tightly to her.

"Your skin, oh yeah your skin and bones, turn into something beautiful. D'you know for you I'd bleed myself dry. For you I'd bleed myself dry."

"It's true, look how they shine for you."

"Look at the stars, look how they shine for you, all the things that you do."

Clare only pulled back when Eli did. They gasped and held onto each other with everything they had, reaching to regain the relationship they once had. Clare's breath was shaky and ragged as she caressed his cheek. "What do you need me to do to prove that I love you? I'll do anything. I'll make love to you." She bravely kissed his cheek and stared into his eyes, eager for answers.

"I don't need you to do that for me, especially not tonight. Let me get to know you again, Clare. The start of the school year is soon; let's start fresh, just like you said." Eli murmured, kissing her forehead tightly before bringing her nodding head back into his chest and wrapping his arms around her. "Go to sleep, Edwards. You've had a long night. I'll be here in the morning, and then I'll take you home."

The sleepy girl nodded, reaching for his hand blindly as sleep began to overtake her. Smirking, he lay them both down, keeping his arms around her, and intertwined their fingers. The last thing they both saw were the stars shining brilliantly above them.

"Look at the stars, look how they shine for you and everything you do, yeah they were all yellow."

Quick Note- Thank you for reading This could be a two-shot. It depends on how many people want a second chapter. Oh, and "Yellow" by Coldplay gave me inspiration to write this piece. Please review!