Thanks guys for reading! This is my first Eclare fic! Just let me know what you think :) Also, find me on Tumblr at .com to chat. Here we go…

Chapter One: Surprise

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock

Her eyes shot daggers at the clock sitting on her nightstand. A sigh escaped her rosy lips as she noticed the time. "3:01," she mumbled as she sat up in her bed. The light flickered on with the touch of her hand, revealing her tidy bedroom surrounding her. It still bothered her to this day how clean it would stay, ever since that day.

"Why did you even come here with me? I thought you loved me!"

Six months it had lasted. Their teenage dreams broken apart from the stress of finances and university. He waited for her. He waited a year to go to school so they could be together, living in his parents' home for an extra frustrating year just so they could be together. But he loved her. God, did he love her. He would have given her the moon if he could. It was just too much. The constant bickering and clashing. They didn't know how hard it would be to jump from high school sweethearts to being grown-ups, living together in an apartment, trying to pay bills and going to classes.

His emerald eyes flickered open in the darkness of his extraordinarily small loft. The clock glared at hime from across the room. "3:01," he half-laughed, wondering somewhere inside if she was awake too.

"Baby, I'm sorry. I just need some space."

She had put too much pressure on him. She knew she had. But he was failing one of his courses and they needed the aid they were getting from the school. Their entire living situation depended on it. Her need for perfection drove him away and it killed her everyday knowing that she was the reason he left and never came back.

She twirled the tiny fake silver band around her finger, a tear sliding down her face at the memory. She poured herself a cup of tea, the fluorescent lights flickering above her in the run down student apartment. Their apartment was falling apart and their furniture was less than extraordinary, but that never used to matter. It was all so exciting and so fresh at one point that it just hadn't mattered. They had each other.

She walked slowly back to her bedroom, standing in the doorway, her eyes gazing at the scene in front of her. Everything was in its' proper place and put away. The bed, though she had just climbed out of it, looked well-kept and neat. The entire place was perfection. And she hated it.

"If you leave, don't come back. I mean it, okay? You don't get to just abandon me."

He wasn't sure whether it was his anger or his love that made him walk out that night, but, either way, he regretted it every single moment of every single day. He hated that she was pushy and needed perfection from him every fucking day, but he knew she did it out of love. He loved her, though. Loved her enough to see how badly his words would tear her apart. They fought. A lot. And every time, he drove daggers molded from spiteful phrases through her heart and he hated himself for it.

Whatever force was brewing in the air that night drug him out of his bed and into his cleanest clothing. He dragged himself out the door and out into the brisk December air. He shivered, his hoodie not enough to keep him totally warm, and began the three block trek to their place. He played with the silver ring on his finger, trying to concentrate on the warmth of the memories and not the cold of the early morning.

"You know I don't want to leave…..It's just time that I do."

She stared down at the fresh cup of coffee in her hand. Two sugars and one creamer. They still knew how to make her coffee from all those late nights they spent here. The waitress came by and brought her a fresh blueberry muffin, smiling sadly at the single girl. Her blue eyes had faded from a brilliant baby blue, to a foggy grey color. The sadness was written across her face. She missed him. She would have done anything to get him back when he left a year ago. She just didn't know how to reach him. She had hoped for the longest time that she would run into him here and be able to spill her heart out and apologize for all the horrible things that she did. She had dreams of running into him on the street and falling back into his arms, but she knew that they were just dreams and that what they had was simply a memory.

"I'm sorry. You will realize this is for the best someday"

He entered the diner with a ring of the doorbell and brushed the snow off his hoodie. The waitress glanced up at him and nodded with a slight smile, giving him the signal to take a seat. He headed toward their booth, when his breath hitched in his frozen chest. It was her. He would recognize that curly head of hair anywhere. Before he had the opportunity to turn and run, his feet were dragging him towards the table. He wasn't sure what he would do or say, but he knew this was it. The opportunity he had been waiting for. For the longest time, he had wanted to go back, apologize, beg her to take him back, but fear kept him from running back to their apartment for nearly the last year. He had just assumed she would have moved on and found a way to be happy. Now, he didn't know what to think.

"But….Eli…..Please….I love you"

She spun her ring on the table, watching it dance underneath the light above the table. She sighed and slipped it back onto her finger, letting a tear slip down her face. Her cold coffee was just not making her feel any better. Usually coming here made her feel more at home, like she did when she was with him, instead of a stranger to the city. She placed her head in her hands on the table and began to silently sob into them, not caring who saw. She couldn't do it anymore. She stood up, grabbing her purse and coat as quickly as she could before running right into someone and falling, letting this person catch her in the process. When she looked up at who was holding her, she gasped, realizing he was gazing back down at her tear-streaked face.

"Going somewhere, Edwards?" He couldn't help but smirk at the clearly upset woman in his arms. She couldn't stop staring at him, her eyes fixated on his own, and she used all she could to muster out of her own throat—

"Eli?"