The whole walk is completely awkward, but he can't stop thinking about that girl. He's never seen her around—he can't help but wonder when he'll see her again.

"Hey, what's on your mind? You've been quiet the whole walk here," Imogen says to Eli, opening the door for him and Adam. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's just..." He trails off as his eyes set on the same girl from earlier. "It's just... just..." He stops confused with what he was trying to say. "You know what? You guys go ahead and order. I'll be right there."

He begins to slowly walk over to the mystery girl. She was sitting alone and her long black hair was slung around her shoulder this time—it was so distinct, he could recognize it anywhere. "Hey."

"Oh," she says looking up from her book. "Well what do you know? Boy who knocked me over this afternoon... hey."

"I said I was sorry."

She shrugs. "Yeah, I remember. So can I help you?"

He shakes his head. "Do I know you from somewhere?" He asks without meaning to after seeing those eyes again.

"I doubt it," she says slowly staring back.

He looks away. "So what are you reading?"

"Oh this? Pride and the Prejudice." She turns it over to look at the cover. "It's my favourite."

"That was Ju—" He stops himself. "A girl I used to know... it was her favourite too."

"I see," she nods. "So what about you? Have you read it? Do fairly cute boys like you even read?" She jokes.

"Hey, you're looking at the writer of our school play."

"Oh, so that's you, is it? Impressive. So I guess that means you're also the same guy that got that gothic tales comic published last semester."

"Yup."

"Again, impressive." She sips her coffee. "I'm Valerie by the way. Val."

"Elijah. Or, Eli." It's quiet for a moment before their eyes meet and lock for the third time today. "You have really pretty eyes." Hearing how familiar the words sounded on his lips, he smiles slyly to the side.

"Are you flirting with me?" She smirks and puts her book into her bag, sipping the last sip of her coffee before saying, "Look, I've gotta go. It was nice talking to you Eli. See you around?"

"I guess you will."

He watches her leave before turning to look for Adam and Imogen. "So who was that?" Adam asks with a playful smile.

"Val." Eli smiles to himself liking the sound of her name on his lips. "You guys done? Can we go?"

"But we just got—"

"Kay cool," he says cutting Imogen off mid-sentence. "Let's go."

"I've got hockey practice," Adam says after they get outside. "I guess I'll catch you guys tomorrow?" Imogen leans into hug him and Eli can't help but chuckle a little.

"So what did I miss?" He asks Imogen after Adam's gone.

"Nothing really," she says with her nose in the air. "The question is, what did I miss? Val? Who's Val?"

"She's this girl I bumped into this morning. Literally... I accidently bumped into her and knocked her over."

"Huh. Good for her."

He laughs. "Maybe, but I don't know. There's something about her. I hate to even bring it up but when I look at her, I feel like I know her. Almost like we've met before."

"That doesn't give you any reason to feel attracted to her. Eli Goldsworthy, you're just getting over Clare. You're not ready to move on so quickly."

He stops in his tracks. "Getting over Clare? I don't have any feelings for Clare, I've been over her. And as for Val, I never said anything about falling for her either."

She grabs his wrist urging him to continue walking. "But I know you Eli. You fall way too hard and way too easily. And when it's over, who's going to have to be there to pick up the pieces?" Eli ignores it and continues to look straight ahead. "Maybe it's time you just look under your nose. Maybe what you're looking for might be right in front of you."

"What are you talking about?" He asks confused now.

She looks down at her feet. "Nothing. But who cares right? Let's talk about something else now." Suddenly she's a lot more perky than usual. "Adams a really nice guy—we really hit it off."

"Really? That's cool. I think he really likes you." He widens his eyes after realising he just blurted that out.

"Really?"

"Well, I'm guessing..." He says trying to cover it up. "Just a thought."

"I see... well anyways... you know his brother Drew? Parents are going out of town, so he's throwing some kind of party this weekend. I think it'll be fun."

"Party?" Eli repeats raising an eyebrow. "We're not exactly the party types."

"You're too uptight Eli! This will be good for you."

When he gets home he immediately runs up to his room. He recently removed his lock with Juliet's death date as the combination when he decided to get things together. He falls back onto his bed right as a text comes in. It's from Clare: I still need that interview with u for the paper by friday
"Shit," he mutters under his breath. He forgot about that. He hasn't talked to Clare since the first day back and now she's on the newspaper staff covering his play. Clearly, she doesn't get the concept of 'steering clear.' Despite the fact she's the last person he wants to see, he texts back: Right. See u tmrw...