Here's the next chapter! Thanks to all for reviewing!

"Imogen, when will I get to meet Eli?" My mother asked me over breakfast Monday morning. "If I didn't know you better, I'd think you made him up." My mother laughed as I chuckled along uncomfortably. I hadn't made him up but I was lying to her; she didn't know me. She only knew lies.

My mom gave me a ride to school and my heart fluttered when I saw a shaggy black head disappear through the front doors of Degrassi. I'd been waiting eagerly to see him since Saturday. I scrambled out of the car and ran up the steps, into the school. I rushed up behind Eli.

"Hey, Elijah." He jumped and whipped around.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack." He said clutching his chest which I gazed at.

"I wouldn't want to do that. How was your Sunday?"

"Okay, how was yours?"

"Great! I went to a Dead Hand concert!" I had seen Eli wearing a Dead Hand shirt before and looked them up. I thought the music was bad, but if Eli likes them, I'll pretend to like them.

"I.. didn't know they were having a concert." He said, apprehensively.

"It seems like you're out of the loop, Eli Goldsworty." He shook his head.

"Yeah." The first bell rang. "I've got to get to my locker, see you in English class." He gave me a half-smirk and I waved at him.

"We're working on a new project today." Ms. Dawes told our class. "You will be working with your partners from the first semester." I glanced over at Eli, who looked frantic. Perfect, he would be working with Clare again. What if they made up and got back together?

"Ms., why aren't we working with our new partners?" I asked Ms. Dawes. I couldn't let Clare trap Eli in another relationship.

"I don't think the new partners are working out as well as the old ones. Your papers have been particularly bad since the partner switch and I wanted to see if you all would do better if you had your old partners back." She said, looking around at the rest of the class. "I'm going to go to the copy room to get your project guideline sheets." And she left the room.

Eli got up from his seat and began walking in my direction.

"Imogen, I can't talk to Clare. What do I do?" Eli asked me, panic etched across his face.

"Do you want to skip?" I remembered Eli telling Clare to skip when she wasn't ready to turn in her paper for English.

"Come with me." He said as he took my arm and we walked over to the exit. I looked around the room and laughed at the offended look Clare was wearing as she watched us leave.

"Where do you wanna go, The Dot?" Eli asked as we made our way through the parking lot and got into the hearse.

"Hm... I need a change of scenery. What about the bookstore on Knockturn Alley? I want to pick up the new Gothic Tales magazine." Actually, I just wanted for Eli to think I was interested in the same things as him and for us to sit on our special bench outside the store.

"You like Gothic Tales? What's your favorite story?" Eli looked excited that he could talk about Gothic Tales with me.

"There's this one that I read… I don't know the name of the author, but it's called Stalker Angel. It's great, you should read it sometime!"

"Are you serious? I wrote Stalker Angel!" Eli beamed at me.

"No way, are you lying to me Elijah?" I laughed at the irony.

We both got our copies of Gothic Tales and sat on our special bench, reading them.

I couldn't stand just sitting there, pretending to read Gothic Tales. I wanted to talk to Eli.

"So, Eli, do you have any ideas for the play?" Eli looked up from his magazine.

"How'd you know I still didn't have any ideas for the play?"

"I can tell by the look on your face whenever Fiona warns you about the deadline." I covered up.

"Oh, well no. I spent all of Sunday trying to brainstorm. But I've got nothing. My head is just… empty."

"Well lucky for you, Mr. Goldsworthy, my mind is always bursting with ideas." I put on a focused face. "Picture this: Kitty, a boring, judgmental prude, manipulates a sweet, caring, sarcastic boy named Ellis throughout their relationship. Ellis is oblivious to what Clare – I mean Kitty is doing and is somehow in love with her. He tries to make her happy, but she develops a scheme to turn the tables and tell him that he was the manipulator in the relationship. And SNAP -He jumped back. "- she breaks his heart." Another way to get Eli turned against Clare; to get him further, and further away from Clare.

"Imogen, I don't know what your 'news source' is, but that's not the truth. I can't do that to Clare. I can't lie like that." It wasn't a lie. I knew. I was my own news source.

"But… in The Dot the other day… you agreed with me."

"I know, but after I did some thinking, I realized that I was the wrong one; I was suffocating her, just like she said I was. I shouldn't have put her through all of that. I crashed my car to make her feel guilty for breaking up with me." How could he not realize that Clare was in the wrong? He only tried to make her happy and she treated him like he was nothing; like his love meant nothing.

"Eli, you can suffocate me any time you want to, I won't mind. I'd want you to be around me."

"I'm sorry Imogen, I like you, I really do but not like that. I still love Clare, and I think I always will. That's why I couldn't talk to her today. She's over me and I still love her."

I tried to keep back the tears that I knew were coming.

"I have to go, Elijah." And I left, before I could get a response from him. I didn't want to go back to school; I couldn't go in the emotional state I was in. I went home and thought about what had just happened. Clare won again. She always won. Why couldn't Eli realize that I wouldn't complain about every single thing he does like Clare always did? I let the tears fall freely. I put myself out there, just to be rejected by the guy that I would probably never get over. I wasn't going to give up on Eli though, I would never give up on him.

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