"Dad! I can explain," said Clare as she held Eli's arm.
"No Clare, let me," interrupted Eli. "Mr. Edwards, me and Clare didn't do anything. We were just kissing. That's all."
"You had your shirt off and I'm sure it was more than just kissing! This behavior is sinful and I'm not going to put up with it any longer!" shouted Mr. Edwards with his hand touching his forehead in aggravation.
"I should go," said Eli as he took Clare's hand off of his arm gently, got off the bed and grabbed his crutch, towards Mr. Edwards. "But Mr. Edwards, I love your daughter and I respect her too much to take advantage of her. Please believe me."
Mr. Edwards didn't even look at Eli. Eli looked down in shame and walked out of the room and then out of the house. Mr. Edwards had his arms crossed as he looked at Clare in unrecognition of his own daughter.
"Dad, it wasn't Eli's fault. I came on to him. Eli knows that I don't plan on having sex until marriage. We were just fooling around. That's it. If Eli were any other guy, I wouldn't have done what you caught me doing. That's what I love about Eli so much. Even though he doesn't have beliefs of his own, he knows how important my beliefs are and how I'm willing to stick with them," explained Clare.
"This boy changed you. This boy affected your mind. I don't want this boy over here again. Is that clear?" said Mr. Edwards, very sternly.
"Yes, sir," said Clare.
Mr. Edwards left the room.
Clare walked into The Dot and saw Adam sitting at a table by himself listening to his ipod, drinking a cappaccino. Clare went up and sat in the empty seat across from him.
"Hey, Adam! How was New York? It's been awhile since we talked. I missed you," said Clare, happily.
"I've been back in town for about two weeks already. You could have picked up the phone too. You could have come over to talk. I can't do all of the work here. You have to make an effort in our friendship too. I've tried calling your cell but your phone was either on silent or you didn't pick up," said Adam, frustrated.
"I'm sorry Adam," apologized Clare. "It's just that I've been hanging out with Eli a lot lately. We wanted to spend as much time as we could since he'll be going away in the fall and it's worse enough that we spent most of our vacation in the hospital. I mean, you heard about the accident me and Eli were in, right?"
"Yeah. I heard about that. I'm glad you guys are ok," said Adam.
"Yeah. We're lucky. Today's Thursday. Don't you and Eli have your guys night tonight?" asked Clare.
"Eli can't make it. He called and said that he just wanted to relax on his own tonight. He seemed very down," said Adam, curiously.
"I know why. In my bedroom, me and Eli…" said Clare, nervously.
"Holy…you and Eli actually..." guessed Adam with his eyes wide open in shock.
"No, no, no. We didn't…do that," interrupted Clare. "But we did do some other stuff and we had an audience-my dad. He pretty much scared Eli out of the house."
"Wow. Well, like I said, there's never a dull moment between you love-birds," Adam said.
"I guess you can say that. Our relationship is never boring," said Clare.
Adam picked up a book that was laying on his lap and held it up for Clare to see.
"Have you ever read this before? It was on the summer reading for where we choose what short story to read," asked Adam.
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge? No, I've never read it before but I heard it's supposed to be a classic. What's it about?" asked Clare, curiously.
"Well, a man was wrongly accused of a crime so he's about to be hanged off a bridge by the authorities. When that happens, the rope breaks and it's like he gets super-human powers where he is able to get the noose off his neck and he swam so fast across the bridge. In his mind, he kept thinking about being with his wife and children so he went on a long journey to go back home to them. Then he's finally there but he feels a sting in his neck and then suddenly realizes that he never made it to his family. He imagined all of it. He was really a few seconds away from death and then he was finally hanged. The character wasn't thinking about death but only desires," Adam explained.
"Wow. That's quite a story, Adam. I always loved stories like that when there's a twist. Mine is nothing interesting. I chose EPICAC. It's just about a super computer who was made to create love letters for his master to give to the woman he loves but the computer starts to fall in love with the woman his master's in love with. The computer realises that he can't be with the woman he loves so he winds up killing himself. It's depressing I know but robots have always interested me. What can I say? I like my sci-fi fantasies," said Clare.
"Clare, I don't care what book you discuss with me as long as it's not about sparkly vampires," said Adam, jokingly.
"Ha-ha. Very funny," said Clare, sarcastically. "Hey, you didn't answer my question before. How was New York?"
"Things were very good. I missed Fiona a lot and I like the time we spend together. The thing is that she lives in New York now and I'm here. She expects that when I graduate next summer that I join her in NYU but I want to go to a college here in town. My whole life is here. I don't know what going to happen between us," confessed Adam, worryingly.
"Adam, when it comes to relationships. You need to be confident. As long as you two love each other, you'll both find a way to make it work where you can both be with each other. I mean, look at me and Eli. We've gone through many emotional roller coasters and we still managed to make it through. If we can get through our problems, you can get through yours too."
"Yeah. I guess you're right," said Adam, in a half smile.
"Well, I gotta go. It was nice talking to you, Adam. I promise the next time you call me, I'll pick up," promised Clare.
"Sure. Thanks," said Adam with a reassuring smile.
Clare made her way out but then she stopped and turned around to Adam as something crossed her mind.
"Hey Adam? Have you told Eli about that story? It's dark and twisted-right up his alley," asked Clare, laughing.
"It's funny you mention that. Eli recommended the book to me," answered Adam.
"Hmm…I figured. Well, bye!" said Clare as she walked out of The Dot.
Adam watched as Clare walked away and sighed to himself.
I hope no one was bored with this chapter. I really wanted to add the friendship bond between Adam and Clare. It will be important to the story. Each chapter will get more and more interesting so read and review. The more reviews, the more I'll know who's reading. Thank you!
