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After dropping Clare off back at her house, I slowly drive back home thinking about what happened earlier. During my conversation with Fitz today, I saw hints of the "old Fitz" and his whole stupid plan is confusing the hell out of me. I can't figure out where he's going with this charade of his. I honestly thought it was to get closer to Clare. Call me an overprotective boyfriend if you want, but I don't like him around my friends. But then the second Clare comes, Fitz always retreats. It doesn't make sense. Screw this. I need to focus on something more important. Yeah that big four month anniversary surprise hasn't really gone anywhere; time to call for backup. I reach a stoplight and grab my phone quickly texting Adam to meet me at The Dot. I alter Morty's course and make my way to Degrassi's favorite coffee shop.

I enter The Dot and take a seat at one of the tables by the window. About ten minutes later, Adam shows up. He makes his way over to me.

"What's up man?" He asks me taking a seat.

"A lot of shit Adam."

"That doesn't sound too good. What's going on?"

I look up at him. "Fitz, he-"

"Ugh!" Adam groans. "I hate Fitz."

I laugh. "Yeah, I got the memo a while back when you almost got us both beat up."

"But we didn't." He smiles at me.

I scoff. "Yeah no thanks to you. Thank Clare for setting off the stink bomb."

Adam rolls his eyes. "Always picking her side." I shove his shoulder. "Just playing man. But what's really happening?"

So then I tell Adam everything from beginning to end since Fitz came back. "I know he's up to something. I just can't figure it out."

Adam stares out the window in thought. A small silence falls upon our conversation. He shifts his attention back to me. "I don't know Eli. I don't get where he's going with all this if he actually is acting."

I look up at him in disbelief. "Don't tell me you're falling for it."

"I'm not. I'm just reminding you that as small as a possibility it is, Fitz could actually be legit about this whole becoming Christian thing."

"I doubt it." I shake my head. "Anyways, this isn't why I asked you to meet me. I kind of need help." I look up at him.

"With?" He asks me.

"Clare..." I trail off.

"Trouble in paradise, again?" Adam asks me in disbelief.

"No!" I laugh. "It'll be our four month anniversary on Saturday."

Adam immediately grins. "Intense. What are the big plans?" I stare off to the side. "You haven't planned anything yet?"

"That's why I need your help." I admit.

"Dude you two owe me after all the time and energy I invest in your relationship."

"Hey whatever man." We both laugh. "Honestly though. It's gotta be perfect."

"Try and stray away from what's expected."

I think for a second. "I want to end the day at the abandoned church we found."

"That's cute." I look at him annoyed. "What?" he laughs. "I'll help you decorate it."

"But I want to do more. I just can't pinpoint exactly what I want."

"Care to enlighten me on some ideas you may have?"

"I want to be able to show her how much she's helped me progress since day one."

"So do some sort of timeline."

"A timeline?" I ask very confused. How the hell is a timeline romantic?

"Yeah. Like a scavenger hunt. Lead her through your relationship and end it at the abandoned church."

I let that sink in. It's not completely horrible. "Adam, you my friend are a genius."

He grins at me. "What can I say?"

"There's one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"Do you think it'll freak Clare out if I…" I trail off again.

"If you..?" Adam asks me. I don't respond. "Eli whatever it is, if Clare hasn't been completely freaked out by you yet, I highly doubt anything else will." I send him a death glare. "Oh come on Eli. You know it's true. I'm just stating the facts man."

As much as it angers me, Adam is right. Clare's still with me even after Julia, Vegas Night, hoarding, everything. "So if I tell her I love her, she won't freak out?" Adam drops his cell phone onto the table and I swear if his eyes got any bigger, some crazy shit would happen. "Great." I mumble. Crap. If Adam's this surprised by it, I don't even want to think about Clare's response.

Adam shakes his head coming back to reality. "Sorry man." I nod my head. "So you two lovebirds are finally admitting you're in love?" He asks me putting unnecessary emphasis on "in love."

I shrug my shoulders. "I am. Clare, I'm not so sure-"

"Clare loves you man. Trust me."

"Did she tell you?" I ask suddenly getting very hopeful.

"Well, no." Commence disappointment. "But anybody can tell you two are in love. Took you long enough to figure it out." He laughs.

"So you think it's a good idea to tell her?"

Adam nods.

"I hope you're right."

"When am I ever wrong?" I scoff and roll my eyes.

I show up to school the next morning in the same stupid uniform and make my way to my locker. After getting home from The Dot, I started making plans for Saturday and if I must admit, what I came up with is pretty amazing. Clare's a sucker for romantic stuff; I mean come on vampire fiction? She's gonna love what I have planned. I smirk to myself.

"Someone looks happy this morning." I look up and see Clare standing next to me.

"Only because a very important day is coming up soon."

She immediately blushes. "Eli, you don't have to do any-"

"As a matter of fact I do Clare. I'm pretty sure it's written somewhere in the boyfriend handbook."

We both laugh as the bell rings and we depart to our individual classes. I pretty much zone out my teachers as usual. I'm too wrapped up in Saturday's plans. Let's just say I have a lot of work to do if I'm going to make this work. Eventually, the bell signaling the beginning of lunch rings and I start walking to my locker. As always, Clare's standing there putting some books away.

"How has your day been going Blue Eyes?" I ask her.

"Boring. But we have English next period!" She responds way too excitedly.

"I'll never understand why you like that class so much."

"What? It's fun."

I laugh. "Fun? You need to get out more often Clare." I smirk at her.

"Shut up!" she laughs as she playfully hits my shoulder.

"Ouch!" I exclaim as I feign a shoulder injury.

"Don't you two always look cute?" Both Clare and I look towards where the voice came from and find Fitz standing there. Seriously? Jerk has the worse timing.

"What do you want?" I ask him sternly. Wouldn't you think he'd get the idea that we don't want him around us by now?

"I was just coming to ask Clare when the next Christian Club meeting was." He responds matter-of-factly.

"It's on-" Clare responds, but I cut her off.

"When are you gonna give this up?"

"When are you going to stop accusing me of acting?"

"When you stop acting." I respond. I see Clare glaring at me out of the corner of my eye.

"You know what Eli? You're just jealous because I actually have something in common with Clare and you don't. When can you ever talk to Clare about religion when everyone knows you don't believe in anything?"

"Fitz that's enough." Clare jumps in.

He shifts his gaze to Clare while it takes all my self-restraint not to punch Fitz right here right now. "You're right. I'm sorry Clare that was wrong of me." He shakes his head. "I apologize." He says as he slowly walks away. Yeah, right. There is no way in hell Fitz is legitimately apologizing right now. What the hell is he up to?

Clare clears her throat next to me breaking me out of my trance. I look down at her curious. "What?" I ask her.

"That could all have easily been avoided if you just let me answer his question."

I shake my head. "You don't get it Clare."

"You're right Eli. I don't get it." She says starting to walk away. What the hell? Last time I checked, Fitz verbally attacked me. I grab her arm and spin her around to face me.

"Did you not just hear his outburst towards me?" I ask her.

She nods. "I heard it. And that's exactly why I hate when you talk to him Eli." She stares up at the ceiling in frustration. "Sometimes, I honestly feel like I care too much and you don't care enough." She mumbles.

"Of course I care Clare. My method of caring is different from yours. See my way of caring is making sure Fitz doesn't want to talk to us. When he's far away from you, then I'm okay; I'm not worried. Because like you said, I worry because I care." I smirk down at her.

She sighs in defeat. "You are very convincing Goldsworthy."

"Thanks." I smirk at her. I glance around and quickly give her a gentle kiss.

She looks up at me eyes widening. "Relax Clare. I checked. No administration in sight."

She visibly calms down and laughs. "One of these days we'll get caught Eli."

I smirk. "Don't worry about it. If that day every comes, which it won't, I'll handle it."

She playfully shakes her head at me as we make our way to the cafeteria.

The rest of the day goes by smoothly. No stupid Fitz encounters. At the end of the day, Clare and I are walking down the front steps and I wait with her. She's supposed to spend the next couple of hours with Alli.

"You can go Eli. Alli should be here any minute now."

"No chance Edwards. You're not getting rid of me that easily." I smirk at her just as Fitz and Own walk past us. My body goes rigid.

"Let it go Eli."

I look down at her and smile, reassuring her that I'm not jeopardizing our relationship, again.

"And drive home quickly. It supposed to rain today and I don't want you stuck in the streets when it's pouring. You told me yourself Morty's been acting up lately." She looks up at me with worry in her eyes.

"Yes, mom." I sarcastically respond.

She laughs. "I'll call you later when I get home tonight."

"Sure." I nod my head. Like she's been doing a lot lately, Clare grabs the collar of my polo. I smirk down at her and pull her towards me. She lifts herself up on her toes and brings her lips to mine. Have I mentioned how much I love this girl?

"I see you're still playing kissy-kissy with Eli." Clare pulls away from me and her eyes widen in excitement. She looks towards the end of the steps.

"Alli!" She exclaims as she runs toward her best friend. I've never really talked much to Alli. She seems the epitome of the high school girl driven by popularity and what not. But Clare has told me a lot about how Alli helped her find herself freshman year and how much Alli helped Clare after the second most stupid guy on earth (Fitz being the first of course) cheated on her. As much as Alli has done for Clare, I think Clare has done a lot more for Alli. But maybe I'm just biased. I'm not saying I don't like Alli. Actually the first words I ever heard out of her mouth were "I get it Clare, you're in love with Eli." I laugh to myself. I doubt Clare knows I heard Alli say that. Hopefully that's true now.

I focus my attention back to the two girls. Alli laughs at something Clare says and then looks at me. She immediately smiles and walks up to me. Clare just stares at us a little confused.

"Hi Eli."

"Alli." I nod my head.

"Look, I know you and I don't exactly run in the same circles or whatever, but I just wanted to thank you for how much you've helped Clare with her family problems. I've had a lot of my own the past couple of weeks and I haven't been that great of a friend to her; especially since I don't even go to Degrassi anymore. But she told me about all that you did." She pauses. I think of something to say, but Alli continues talking. "Clare's the kindest person I know. She's never intentionally hurt someone. But she's been through a lot. She's like the poster child for the whole 'bad things happen to good people' saying." She laughs under her breath. "But," she looks up at me, "you're the first thing that's been good for her and good to her. I just wanted to say thank you. Clare has always tried to give everyone else the happy ending, it's about time she had her own."

As crazy as it may sound, that may have been the best compliment I have every received. I clear my throat a little caught off guard. "I really appreciate that Alli. Thanks."

She looks at me and I reciprocate her smile. She lightly touches my arm before turning around and skipping back to Clare. Clare smiles and waves at me before they both go off to have their "girl time."

I make my way towards Morty not even registering Fitz standing nearby. On the drive to my house, I realize that what Alli said was the exact boost I needed. No more doubting. On Saturday, I'll, according to Adam finally, tell Clare I love her. I pause registering what I'm actually going to do. Shit man. Now I just have to make it through the week.

I walk into my house and head up to my room. Grabbing a random comic, I hop onto my newly clean bed. I flip through the comic, but barely register what I'm reading. Thoughts about Saturday keep popping back into my head. After about an hour and a half, I hear the rain that Clare warned me about falling outside. It's a crazy downpour out there.

I decide to take a quick nap before I start on my homework when I hear my cell phone vibrating on my desk. I snatch it, glance at the caller ID, and flip it open. "Hello and thanks for calling Hotel Eli. How may I help you?" I smirk.

Clare laughs on the other end. "Hi Eli. I just got home."

"Cool. How was your day with Alli?" I ask her.

"It was great!" Clare exclaims. "I've really missed hanging out with her." She pauses. "What did you two talk about earlier?"

"Oh just the usual about how amazing I am."

"Could you be more smug?" She asks me for the millionth time. "Don't even answer that. I know. Absolutely."

I laugh. "Don't mock me Edwards."

"So you went straight home after school right?"

I sigh knowing what she's implying. "Yes, Clare. I didn't even glance at Fitz."

"Good." I can just see her smiling on the other end. "Um, Eli?"

"Yeah?"

"There's something I want to tell y-" She's cut off by the sound of her doorbell ringing. "Hold on just a second. I have to get the door."

"What could possibly be more important than talking to me?" I say as smug as always.

"If you give me second to open the door, I'll let you know." She laughs. There is a pause as I assume she's confronting whoever is there.

The next words she utters make everything around me physically freeze. "Fitz!" she exclaims. What?

"Clare?" I ask. No response.

"Clare?" I ask again a little louder. Still no response. Screw this shit. I swear the God if Fitz goes anywhere near her…I shake my head trying to regain control. I grab my jacket and Morty's keys and sprint out the door ignoring the confused expression I imagine is currently on my parents' faces.

So sorry for leaving you at a cliffhanger. But I'll update as soon as I can. Thanks SO much for reading. I appreciate reviews. They make me happy =]