I love writing this story! I thought I'd update again just because of the nice reviews I received. Glad you guys are enjoying the story so far! Please review to tell me what you think!

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Clare sat on the tiled floor of Eli's bathroom with her head very close to the toilet in case she threw up anymore. She spent at least thirty minutes in the bathroom ejecting the contents of her stomach into the toilet and just trying to calm herself down. Not only did she get so drunk that she had a terrible hangover the next morning and couldn't control her vomit reflex but she also lost her virginity to a guy who could very well be a stranger. It's not like they were great friends and they hadn't spoken in years! She also lost her virginity and could barely remember the actual experience.

"God…" Clare groaned and kept her back pressed against the wall. "What is wrong with me? Yesterday, I was a pure, straight-edge, virgin waiting for marriage. Now I'm a girl who got drunk and lost her virginity to a guy that I was in love with years ago who never got the hint. Oh my goodness, he probably thinks that I threw myself at him! This is not good. This is not good."

Clare continued to mutter to herself until she heard a knock on the door. Crap, she thought. Did he hear any of that?

"Clare, I just made some breakfast. You should probably eat or at least drink something after throwing up. I have some aspirin too to help with the hangover. And some extra clothes you can change into because…well…your clothes are kind of…well you get the idea. I'll be in the kitchen when you're ready." She heard Eli's footsteps leave and the bedroom door shut and Clare sighed. Flushing the toilet one last time, Clare finally had the energy to stand up and wash her face and hands. After using some of Eli's mouthwash to clean her mouth, she stepped out of the bathroom and saw that Eli had laid out a pair of sweatpants and a white v-neck shirt for her to wear. She put them on quickly and walked out of the bedroom.

Breakfast was laid out on the dinner table with two plates ready and two glasses of orange juice. Also on the table was a glass of water and a small tablet of aspirin. She reached for the aspirin but Eli's voice startled her. "Eat before taking the aspirin. If you take it now, the stomach ache you'll have is a bitch," he told her. "Oh, sorry. I should watch when I curse."

"I don't mind," Clare replied, shyly sitting down at the table. "Being in college, you hear that all of the time."

Eli laughed slightly. "Right." He took a seat at the table as well and started gathering food onto his plate. When he saw that Clare hadn't moved, he started putting food on her plate. "Seriously, you have to eat. If you go through the day without eating, the hangover'll last to the night. Especially for someone who hasn't had a hangover before."

"How do you know that I haven't had a hangover before?" Clare asked after taking a bite.

Eli felt himself blush a little bit. "Well…seeing as how you reacted this morning, I'd say that was your first time."

"Is this coming from someone who's had a lot of hangovers before?" Clare said without thinking and then she froze. "I'm not trying to say that you seem like a person who would drink often, I'm just saying that you seem to know a lot about hangovers…I mean, I…I'll shut up now."

She started to eat a lot quicker then and Eli laughed, putting a hand on Clare's arm in order to stop her from choking on the food she was stuffing into her mouth. "You didn't offend me. I know a lot about hangovers because I've had a few and I've had to take care of a few friends who've had hangovers. More than I'd like actually. You may think that I have a roommate because of that extra room but that's really for people who want to crash here after partying at night since my place is so close to the club. I've had the absolute pleasure of cleaning up post-hangover moments, if you get what I'm saying."

Clare made a grossed out face. "That must be a lovely job. You should get paid for that."

"Next time someone comes knocking on my door drunk, I'll make them pay me a fee," Eli joked. The two ate in silence for the next few minutes and Eli looked at Clare a few times, making sure she wasn't feeling sick as she ate. Clare noticed Eli's stolen glances but she didn't look at him. She was way more than embarrassed to look at him straight in the eye.

"So…" Eli started awkwardly, putting his utensils down. "I…uh…I'm sorry about what happened last night."

"It wasn't entirely your fault, Eli…" Clare said slowly. "Obviously I shouldn't drink."

This made Eli chuckle. "Obviously we shouldn't drink that much. I think we had like…twenty drinks. Each."

"You're right, it was definitely poison," Clare sighed then took a drink of her orange juice. "Should've stuck to my virgin drink." Clare froze again. "Uh…bad joke."

Eli sat back in his chair and sighed. "So…you were still a virgin?"

"Yeah," Clare admitted to him. "I still believe in abstinence but I guess that's gone down the drain." She lifted her left hand and looked at her ring. Eli felt bad immediately as he saw Clare's expression completely drop.

"I'm sorry," he whispered regrettably. "I am so sorry."

Clare looked up and actually looked straight into Eli's eyes this time. She gave him a shy and reassuring smile. "Again, it's not your fault. We can't take it back. We can only go forward."

"I just feel bad that your first time was due to intoxication that I had a hand of. Your first time should've been when you were married and completely in love and ready, not drunk. You were saving yourself for marriage and I knew that but for some reason, I was just too drunk to even remember that. I was just completely caught up in…being with you," Eli admitted and looked up at Clare through his eyelashes. Clare had an innocent look on her face but then she looked away shyly and held a hand near her face, a defense mechanism for her.

"I regret not keeping in contact with you, Clare. I really missed you," he continued.

"I missed you too," Clare replied. "I think we—"

There was a firm knock on the door and Eli stiffened quickly. Clare heard him mutter a curse word under his breath and she then became confused. He swiftly got up and walked to the door and Clare awkwardly sat in her seat and tried to listen at who was at the door.

"Eli!" Clare heard a female's high pitched voice exclaim Eli's name and suddenly, her jaw dropped. She ran to Eli's room in order to find her clothes, shoes, and clutch. Luckily, Eli set aside her things on his bed so she had quick access to them. She also saw the ripped condom wrapper on the floor and quickly picked it up and put it into the pocket of Eli's sweatpants. She put on her shoes, which thankfully were flats, and ran out of the bedroom quickly only to almost run into Eli and the girl at the door.

"Hi," the beautiful blonde girl said awkwardly. "Eli, who's this?"

Clare almost scoffed to herself but she looked down and pressed her lips together, slightly shaking her head. Eli saw this and quickly recovered. "This is Clare," he said. "Clare, this is my girlfriend Valerie. Val, this is Clare, an old friend from high school."

"Nice to meet you," Valerie said politely and Clare just smiled back. "Not to be rude or anything but what are you doing here?"

Eli awkwardly stuttered and put a hand to the back of his head, confused as to what to say to his girlfriend of five months. What could he say? Lie or tell the truth?

"I went out last night for my best friend's birthday and I got a little…well, I got pretty drunk and I just recently saw Eli again and he mentioned he lived near the club so I..uh…called him and asked him if I could stay here for the night because I drove to the club and I didn't want to drive. It was really sweet of him to let me stay here, I was just getting my keys which he took to make sure I wouldn't drive home in the middle of the night," Clare said quickly and swiftly and so believable that Eli himself almost believed her.

Valerie nodded slowly. "Okay, well that was really nice of you Eli. Why are you wearing his clothes though?"

"Accident," Clare replied sheepishly. "Too much to drink. Not pretty. I'll have your clothes back to you as soon as possible, okay? I have to go. Got a call from Alli and she's pretty worried about me. See you around?"

Valerie and Eli nodded and Clare almost ran to the door to get away from there.

"Wait!" Eli called for her and she stopped at the door. So close…

"You forgot to take your aspirin," he told her and she walked back to the dining table. Eli was holding out the pill of aspirin and the glass of water. She swallowed the pill quickly and then left. She thought about slamming the door but acted against it, not wanting Valerie to think anything weird about her exit.

Clare ran to her car as quickly as possible without looking suspicious. She set aside her clothes on the passenger seat and drove to her apartment which she shared with Alli. Unlocking the front door, she practically ran into the apartment and quickly laid down on the couch. Her headache was still there but all she wanted to do now was just think and have a girl talk with Alli.

When she heard a giggle coming from Alli's room, she groaned. The bedroom door opened and Alli's laughing became louder when she and Drew came into full view in the living room. "Oh my God!" Alli jumped when she saw Clare laying down on the couch. "You scared the crap out of me Clare! I didn't know you were home!"

"Just got here actually," Clare sighed. She eyed Alli and Drew's holding hands. "I see you two had some fun last night."

"We did," Drew smirked and Alli hit him in the arm. "Okay, okay. I have to head to work now. I'll see you ladies soon, I hope? Nice seeing you again, Clare."

Clare nodded and Alli walked him to the door. Clare laid still on the couch and waited for Alli to come back. When Alli did, it was as if she was floating. She sat down on the opposite couch and could not wipe the grin off her face.

"You're glowing Alli," Clare laughed.

"What can I say? It was the best birthday ever," Alli sighed dreamily. "What happened to you? Last time I saw you, you were talking to Eli at the bar. I presumed you went to his house afterwards since I saw your car still parked. Did something happen with him?"

Clare turned her head to Alli and gave her a look. That's when Alli lost it.

"You slept with him? Oh my gosh! Clare!" she yelled loudly. "But-, why? How? Why? Tell me EVERYTHING!"

"Alli, please calm down. This is not a good thing," Clare groaned into her hands. Alli sat back down again and Clare sat up and crossed her legs, leaning her elbows against her knees.

"So other than the fact that you broke your abstinence vow, why is this a bad thing? Eli's back in your life! You were completely in love with him in high school and now you have a second chance to make it work with him. What's so bad?" Alli asked curiously, laying down on her stomach.

Clare grabbed a pillow and put it on her lap and began tugging at the stitching. "Alli, he has a girlfriend."

"Oh shit," Alli replied bluntly. "And you know this how?"

"Because I met her," Clare sighed. "She came while Eli and I were eating breakfast. I covered for his lying ass though. He was saying this stuff about being caught up with me when we…you know. He was all like, 'I regret not keeping in contact with you, I really missed you' and all that crap. All the while, he has a girlfriend who's gorgeous. Like, super gorgeous. She's probably on one of your modeling magazines."

"Did she question you? Like why you're there and…wearing his clothes?" Alli questioned curiously.

"Told her that I was wasted and asked Eli if I could stay there for the night and that I stained my clothes so I had to change clothes. Almost believed myself for a second," Clare admitted. "I was like, thrown off there. I was about to suggest that he and I should start over and like…you know, get to know each other and start off on a clean slate and then Valerie comes knocking on the door."

Alli raised her head up slightly. "Valerie sounds like a complete bitch name, I hope you know that."

"She didn't seem like one though," Clare groaned, stuffing her face into the pillow. "She seemed sweet and understanding and did I mention she was beautiful? Because she was. Is. Gah, I wish I had a time machine."

"So how did the whole sleeping with him start? Were you like, drunk or something?"

"Too drunk," Clare admitted. "Seriously. Never thought I'd get that drunk or be drunk or even drink for that matter!"

"Was he drunk too?"

"Obviously," Clare scoffed.

"You sure?"

"What? You think Eli would pretend to be drunk and just get me drunk in order to have sex with me? Seriously, he may be a different guy but he's not like that. Besides, he has that perfect girlfriend of his. Trust me, what happened last night was completely due to severe and utterly stupid intoxication and will never ever happen again." Clare laid down on the couch again and faced her body to be able to see Alli's face.

"I missed him, Alli. I missed him and I thought that seeing him last night could be my second chance but…that's just down the drain now, now isn't it?" Clare said sadly. She yawned loudly too and hugged the pillow close to her.

"Look Clare, I am so sorry that this happened. Eli is an ass. Honestly, I don't think that someone could be intoxicated enough to forget that they had a girlfriend and then take away the virginity of one of their old friends. I think you should sleep for now. Obviously you're tired and I'll pick up some food for dinner, okay? Just…sleep now and then we'll talk again afterwards. Just remember Clare, you are absolutely beautiful and no one can compare to you. Not even, Valerie." Alli handed Clare one of their spare blankets on the couch and gave her best friend a tight hug. "But honestly," Alli knelt down in front of Clare. "How was it?"

"Alli," Clare groaned, hiding her face.

"Come on Clare! We cannot talk about sex and not discuss if it was good or not!" Alli laughed. "Now come on. Was it good or can you not remember?"

Clare sighed and came out from under the blanket. "From what I can remember, it felt really good."

Alli laughed when she noticed Clare's face turning a bright shade of red. "And one more thing…did he wear a condom?"

"Alli! We may have been drunk but there was still some sort of mind function going on. Yes, he wore protection," Clare answered and turned her head to sleep on the couch comfortably.

Alli got up and was about to walk back to her room but she heard a knock on the door. She ran to it and slightly opened it to see who it was and wanted to slam it closed once she saw who was there.

"How the hell did you know where we lived?" Alli whispered harshly at Eli. "Don't you have a girlfriend to lie to?"

"Alli, please," Eli sighed. "I need to talk to Clare."

"You've done enough for a while Eli, she's tired and she's sleeping now. Come back in a week or something, she doesn't want to deal with you right now," Alli replied sternly. "Seriously Eli, just leave her alone. You can't expect a girl to just want to talk to you after you take away her virginity after a drunk night and then reveal that you have a girlfriend."

"Okay, okay, I get it," Eli said, putting his hands up in defeat. "I'll come back in a few days. But can you tell her that I'm sorry?"

"Won't be the same coming from me, you're going to have to tell her yourself when she wants to talk to you," Alli said, crossing her arms. "Now, I think you should go."

Eli turned away from Alli and Clare's front door and started down the hallway. He looked back to see Alli closing the door and then he sighed, getting into the elevator.


Threw a curveball at you, didn't I? Eli has a girlfriend named Valerie who Clare calls gorgeous and beautiful. We'll find out more about her eventually.

Please review! I'd like to know what you're thinking so far. I'm going to be pre-writing chapters in order to update this story while I'm busy with school once it starts up again so expect updates regularly! I'll only update if I get reviews though. ;)

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Until next time!