Chapter 2: Witches and Ex-Boyfriends

Eli POV

Great Eli. Just great. You have completely freaked Clare out. How are you ever going to show your face to her again? You just had to keep holding her hand. Idiot.

I groaned and slammed my locker shut. Why did she have to be so irresistible? She just looked so adorable when she was actually having fun. Adorable? What has happened to me? I do not use words like adorable or irresistible. Geez, this girl is turning me into a sap.

By the time I got out of class, it was already time for lunch. I sighed. Great, I'm going to have to face Clare sooner or later. I walked back to my locker and got the stuff I'm going to need later. I closed it and then –

"Hi Eli!" Clare's friend exclaimed. I jumped slightly, surprised by her sudden appearance. "Oh sorry if I scared you," she quickly apologized. I scoffed.

"You didn't scare me," I defended.

"Right," she said sarcastically while rolling her eyes.

"Wait, do I know you?" I asked, trying to look annoyed. In all honesty, I'm going to try to get whatever I can out of her about Clare.

"I'm Alli Bhandari. Clare's best friend and I'm usually known as Sav's younger sister," she replied, obviously irritated by the label. She had her hand held out and I shook her hand.

"And I'm – " she cut me off before I could say anymore.

"You're Elijah Goldsworthy but you prefer to be called Eli. You drive a Hearse, and apparently have a fascination with death. You paint your nails black with a black sharpie. You're Clare's English partner and possibly more," she had a twinkle in her eyes that actually scared me and trust me, there are not much things that scare me. I think Alli just made it on the top of my list.

"Umm…. okay?" I replied uncomfortably. "Stalker much?" I teased with a smirk.

"Nope, Clare just talks a lot about you," she grinned at me.

"Really?" I dragged out the word with curiosity dripping from my tone. "What does she say about me exactly?"

"Hmmm, let's see," she started out. She linked her arm around mine before she started walking, dragging me along with her. I was going to protest but I didn't want her to not tell me. "Along with what I just said, she says that you're so 'UGH!'"

I rolled my eyes. Of course, she would say that about me. "That's it?" I scoffed.

"Pretty much, but in girl world that can mean a lot of things," she smirked at me.

"Like?"

"Well in reference to you, it can mean 'he's so annoying and I just want to strangle him,' 'I'm trying not to like him but he's making it so hard not to,' 'I just want to kiss him,' or 'I'm totally in love with him.' Those are just a few examples," she answered with a smile.

"Interesting," I muttered with a smirk on my face. I wonder which one of those Clare actually thinks about me.

"Well, you seem pretty interested in what Clare thinks about you," she commented with a snarky grin.

"I am not!" I protested quickly.

"Sure you're not," she said sarcastically, "That's why you're here stuck with a girl, whom you barely even know, with her arm linked with yours and you're not saying anything about it because you want to know more about Clare. Come on, admit it!"

"Keep on dreaming Bhandari," I replied with a roll of my eyes. Dang, this girl is good. She let out a groan of frustration.

"Okay fine but tell me what you think about Clare. It's the least you can do," she demanded.

"She's….. hmmm, what's the word…. infuriating? Yeah that's it. She's so infuriating," I answered.

"How so?" she asked with curiosity laced in her voice. I hadn't meant to go so deep in detail. The words just flowed through my mouth.

"Well first off, her mood changes so much. One minute she's sad, and then the next she's all happy. Well, that's probably because of me," I said cockily. She raised an eyebrow. I fake coughed before continuing. "Usually I don't care if people like me or not but for some reason I want her to like me and I – wait, whoa! Why am I telling you this?" my eyes widened as I realized what I just confessed to her.

She beamed at me and then let go of my arm. "It was nice talking to you Eli!" she shouted as she ran down the hall, leaving a trail of laughter. I slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand.

"Great. Just freaking great," I muttered. I walked towards the cafeteria and saw that nearly every table was already filled. I scanned the room and saw the table where Clare was sitting. Alli just so happened to be sitting next to her. That little witch.

"Hey Eli! Over here!" Alli shouted, motioning for me to walk over there. I nearly laughed at the expression Clare had on her face. She was looking back and forth between me and Alli with her eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. I gave Alli an evil glare but decided to go sit with them anyways.

"Hey Clare, Alli," I said her name with annoyance. 'We are not done,' I mouthed to her.

'Oh yes we are,' she mouthed back.

"You guys know each other?" Clare asked with confusion in her voice.

"We just had a little talk," Alli smirked. I clenched my hands underneath the table. I really feel like strangling her right now.

"Yeah," I rolled my eyes.

"Who's this?" a guy with curly hair and nerdy glasses asked.

"Right," Alli clapped her hands. "Guys this is Eli," she introduced. I gave a small wave and they all said 'hey.' "Eli, this is Dave," she pointed to an African American boy with a shaved head, "Connor," she pointed to another African American boy with glasses, "and Wesley," she pointed to the guy who asked about me.

"Hey," I repeated.

"So are you new here?" Dave asked.

"Obviously," Alli rolled her eyes at him. I let out a small smirk. She can be real mean when she wants to be. Not bad.

"Yeah. I just transferred here from British Columbia a few days ago," I replied.

"Have you ever been here before?" Connor continued.

"Yeah, my grandfather lives a few hours from here so I've been down here a few times before. I'm pretty acquainted with the area," I answered.

"Acquainted?" Wesley asked. I held back a laugh and I saw Clare doing the same.

"It means he's used to it," Clare replied with a small laugh.

"Dude, normal guys don't use words like acquainted," Dave pointed out.

"Tell me Dave, do I look like a normal guy to you?" I teased with a smirk, pointing towards myself.

"Point taken," he shrugged before taking a bite into his pizza.

"Well, since the three of you guys seem acquainted enough. Can you guys stop talking?" Alli snapped. The three other guys shut up but I honestly don't think she meant me too, so I didn't.

"So… when did this happen?" Clare gestured between me and Alli.

"Literally ten minutes ago," I answered with a smirk.

"You know Clare, Eli has some very interesting things to say about you," Alli said with a grin. Clare raised her eyebrow at me and I took a deep gulp. I brought my foot and slyly kicked Alli under the table. Her eyes widened and she let out a shriek. "Ouch!"

"Are you okay?" Clare asked in a worried tone.

"Yeah, I just pulled a muscle," she gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes at me.

"Are you sure?" I asked in a sickly sweet tone. Suddenly, I felt a stabbing pain on my right foot.

"Hell! What's wrong with you woman?" I hissed at Alli as I cradled my foot.

"Heels," she simply stated with a satisfied smirk on her face.

"Okay, seriously what's going on?" Clare asked with frustration laced in her voice.

"Yeah, what is going on?" Dave asked with a suspicious expression on his face.

Just then, the bell rang for lunch to end and I sighed gratefully. "Nothing," I muttered. "I have P.E. next. How about you guys?" I asked.

"It just so happens that we all have P.E. next," Alli had another glint in her eyes. This cannot be good. She linked her arm with Clare and then brought the other on mine.

"This is amusing," Clare chuckled.

"What?" I asked innocently.

"You're linking arms with Alli. This is so not your style," she laughed. She's right. This is so not my style.

"Well it's either this or I face her wrath," I replied smirking my 'stupid smirk,' as Clare would say.

"Good point," she shook her head, a giggle escaping her lips. Adorable. Seriously? We're back to that again? My face fixed into a scowl as Alli dragged both Clare and I towards the gym.

"Uhh Alli," I started to say.

"What?" she snapped.

"Unless you and Clare want to follow me inside the boys' locker room, I suggest that you let me go," I told her, a smirk pulling at the corner of my lips. She let me go and pushed me away.

"Go," she looked up, annoyed, to emphasize her point. I laughed.

"You know you want this," I gestured to myself and grinned at them. Clare stuck her tongue out at me, rolling her eyes just like I would. I did a small mental victory dance and turned around as I walked to the locker room. I got changed into a pair of black basketball shorts and a black shirt – go figure – and walked back out. Suddenly, I felt an arm go around my shoulder.

"What's your business with Alli?" Dave asked. I scoffed and let out a laugh.

"If you're thinking that I like her, you are way off," I took off his arm around me and pushed it to his side. "Word of advice, never put your arm around me again," I said in a low voice. He nodded and scurried off to his friends. I shook my head and smiled to myself. Clare would love to see me right now.

"I see that you're smiling," a voice said. I could tell whose voice that is from miles away. I looked beside me and saw Clare literally beaming with happiness.

"Thought I would give it a try," I smirked at her.

"No please! Your smirk pains me," she said sarcastically, over-exaggerating.

". Funny," I rolled my eyes. "So what kind of physical education do you guys do here?" I asked as she and I walked together towards the benches.

"Well on Tuesdays and Thursdays we do some running and then on the other days we do sports. Right now we're doing volleyball…" her voice began to falter from my hearing as I looked across the gym. A tall guy with dirty blonde hair was glaring at me intensely. I cocked my head to the side and raised my eyebrows, challenging him.

"Clare?" I asked, cutting her off.

"Yeah?"

"Who's that?"

"Jealous ex-boyfriend," Alli sang as she skipped passed us. Hmm, interesting…..

First, I'd like to say how thank you I am for all the REVIEWS I received from the last chapter! Thank you!

I decided to put in some Alli/Eli interaction in here. I think its cute how they can hate each other but work for the same cause :D How about you?

Don't forget to leave your REVIEWS!