sorry, another fillerrr. but this one actually is necessary
PS: when you read the flashback scene, dont judge me on that cause i just wrote it down from memory, i was too lazy to go look up everything exactly as they said it so, back off ! (;

CLARE'S POV

I had spent most of the day yesterday thinking. It was an emotional day but I knew that it was necessary for me to choose the right person. I had thought long and hard about it and made my decision. Now I had to be fair to my sister and spend some time with her. She had arrived a little while ago but I didn't go say anything to her. I knew that my parents would be with her and trying to squeeze every last piece of information out of her. I left her to be alone while she unpacked in her room across from my parents'. I checked the clock on the dresser next to my bed. The blinding red lights were blinking 7:05 over and over. I squeezed my eyes shut one last time and got up from my bed. I went top the kitchen and poured a glass of iced tea. I took a sip and put it back on the counter, heading towards Darcy's room. As I approached the doorway, I saw her leaning over her suitcase that was placed on the bed. I smiled and knocked lightly on her door. Her head shot up quickly as she turned around to face me. She grinned tremendously and sprinted over to the door. I laughed as I met her in the doorway.

"CLARE!" Darcy shouted at me as she grasped me in her arms. I heard my mom and dad laugh simultaneously in the other room. I was so happy to see Darcy, I hadn't seen her in a year!

"Well, I'm glad to know that I wasn't the one doing all the missing in this family!" I replied back, jokingly.

Darcy shot me with a 'duh' look and walked back to her bed, beckoning me to sit down. I did just that as she seemed to remember something and jumped up before she could even sit down on the bed. I slowly sat down and I raised my eyebrows and she walked over to the door, shut it gently, and turned the ceiling light on. She put a finger to her lips and I giggled at her expression. She laughed silently and came back over to the bed. Darcy placed her suitcase on the floor so it was out of the way and sat down at the top of her bed, while I sat next to her towards the foot of the bed. Darcy didn't seem to want to initiate the conversation so I began with some small talk.

"So how was Kenya, Darce?" I asked her as her face visibly brightened at the mention of helping other people. She had always loved helping other people, plus going to Kenya was a great way to help her get away from her problems at home and deal with them on her own for a while.

"Oh, you know, the usual." She replied with a wink then continued.

"But, I'm super excited cause right now were helping build a school for the kids who are less fortunate than us. It's so much fun Clare!" She said enthusiastically as she jumped up slightly at the last outburst.

I chucked. "That's awesome, have you made friends with anyone?" "Or just the little kids?" I added sarcastically and smiled at her, letting her know I was kidding. Darcy seemed to know that I wasn't a very serious person when it came to talking to her. Well, unless it was about boys of course

"Ha-ha. And yes, of COURSE I made friends up there." Darcy stuck her tongue out at me and I laughed. It made me think of the times we used to spend together when we were little. We were basically inseparable and as I thought about it, I realized I had overlooked that.

"I missed you so much…" I added quietly, but Darcy seemed to hear me.

"Awe, Clare, I missed you too!" Darcy reached over to hug me and we both sniffled as if we were about to cry, but neither of us did; we just enjoyed the moment together. Darcy was the first to back away. She pulled apart and paused. I looked up at her, but soon regretted it. She had an evil glint in her eyes, a sinister smile on her face.

Oh boy, here comes the interrogation.

"So, Clare Bear…"

I gulped and leisurely nodded my head, signaling Darcy to continue.

"How HAVE you been?" She asked me as she raised her eyebrows suggestively.

I played dumb, "I already told you Darce I've been good."

Yeah, sure that was a good answer. It seemed pretty reasonably, right?

Darcy rolled her eyes at me and scooted closer. I looked at her skeptically and she just wiggled her eyebrows in response. I couldn't help but snort at that.

"Clare Edwards, you know that's not what I mean." I sighed in defeat and paused to gather my thoughts. I wasn't fast enough for Darcy, though.

"What's his name, Clare?"

Oh no! Play dumb, play dumb!

I winced slightly and looked down at my feet.

I played dumb again. "Who?"

Darcy slapped my arm and gave me a disapproving look. I groaned and gave in. I took a deep breath and then managed to get out,

"Uh…well, his name's Eli…"

Darcy squealed loudly and clapped her hands. She smiled and took a breath in as she began to calm down.

Wow, that probably wasn't the best idea. I should have made her wait for it. Or maybe have her earn it, yeah that would have been good blackmail!

"Oh! I knew I was right. Okay okay so tell me more!"

Yeah, that definitely wasn't the best idea. Well, on the bright side at least now I have another person to talk to and ask about Eli besides Alli, right?

My shoulders drooped as I finally gave in.

"Well, I really like him..." I blushed but Darcy remained silent, ushering me to go on.

Ugh, why does she do this? I'm totally gunna get her back for this.

"He um… he's in my English class, well, actually he's my partner and we have to grade each other's work so I actually spend a lot of time with him." I hesitated, letting Darcy take it all in before I began again.

Well, here goes nothing.

"I actually met him when he ran over my glasses with his hear–"

Maybe a good idea to tell her he drives a hearse…

I held my hand up and hastily added,

"He drives a hearse." Darcy looked extremely surprised but nodded her head and sighed 'oh' anyways. Darcy was never a very judgmental person, especially when it came to me.

"He ran over my glasses and got out of his car to check and see what happened. That was the first time I ever saw him…and talked to him. He told me I had pretty eyes…" I blushed. "It was quite a brief conversation but Alli could tell there was something about him and I together. I denied it at first, but…"

Darcy aw'd and I glared at her. She just smiled even wider.

"Please, continue." I stuck my tongue out at her but continued nonetheless.

"So he ends up being in my English class because I'm in 11th grade…oh I forgot he's a junior."

Darcy turned to look at me, open mouthed. I giggled.

Uh-huh, yeah Darce you heard me right.

"He's my partner in English and Mrs. Dawes made us English partners and that's basically how we became friends." I blushed again thinking about the first time Eli and I skipped class.

"So, I guess when you two get married one person to thank would be Mrs. Dawes for setting you two up."

Darcy stated, more than asked. I just had to laugh at that one and Darcy snickered along with me. We sat on her bed, laughing harder than we ever had before. My stomach began to ache but I still couldn't stop smiling. Eventually our parents came in to see what we were doing. They both chuckled when they saw us.

"I see you two are having a nice time bonding…" my mom said. But, neither Darcy nor I could even respond so they both shook their heads and left the room, leaving us alone again. We both calmed down after a couple of minutes.

"Darce,"

"Yeah?"

Should I tell her? Yeah, why not, what's the harm?

"Okay, don't tell mom and dad, but one time I skipped class with him cause–"

"Clare! You skipped?"

I quickly reached over and clamped my hand over her mouth. I rolled my eyes and used my other hand to put a finger to my lips, signaling Darcy to be quiet. I took my hand away from her mouth and she pinched her thumb and index finger and swiped them across her lips.

"Yes, BUT it was for a good cause. I had to finish my English essay! Eli was helping me write it, I had writers block."

"Uh-huh…"

It IS the truth…

I began to lose my train of thought and started to recall the day Eli and I skipped.

"I wrote about gun control! I say it's good!" I shot back at him.

"Wow, controversial." He smirked and then started again, "Write about something that pisses you off."

Oh how could he not know this one's coming? "You mean, BESIDES my English partner?"

"Ouch!" Eli feigned mock hurt as he thought of another way to get it out of me.

"If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be." He said it as more of a statement rather than a question.

"My parents."

"So, write about that." He answered, not sarcastically for once.

I honestly thought about it for a second. Then decided against it.

"No! It's personal."

"You care too much about what other people think."

"I do not!"

"Prove it. Scream," He grinned and then added, "At the TOP of your lungs."

I hesitated at first and then attempted.

"Ahhhhhh?" I began to question myself at the end.

Eli snorted. "THAT'S the best you can do?" He smirked at me, with competition clearly showing in his eyes.

I looked at him with narrowed eyes. I stood up, brushed off my dress, and took in a huge breath.

"AHHHHHHH!" I shouted as loud as I possibly could. I looked over at Eli's face as he showed shock, surprise, and humor all within those couple seconds. I stopped and sat down as I glanced over at him after I was through startling everyone around me.

"Your turn." I replied simply, smiling at him.

"Yeah, not my style." He said and smirked although, he seemed to know what was coming as he backed away from me slowly.

"What? No you HAVE to!" I retorted, standing up and advancing towards him.

"Nope not my style." He said with a smile on his face.

"I had to, you have to!" I yelled at him once again. It wasn't truly yelling though, it was more of me trying to convince the master of persuasion.

He repeated it again.

"Not my style." As he smirked at me.

"You have to! I had t…" I trailed off as I realized just how close we were. Eli had his hands wrapped around my wrist and had managed to back him up against a pole. We were a couple of inches away from each other's faces. Eli looked as if he was asking me for permission, but I chickened out and stepped away. Eli let go of my wrists, holding his hands up in an 'I'm innocent' gesture. I swiftly ran back over to the bench and Eli stayed where he was, content with what I'm sure was the first part of his plan.

"Hello! Clare Edwards, anybody home?" Darcy was waving her hand in front of my face.

"Huh, what?"

Darcy snickered. "I see you really do like him a lot now don't you?"

This plan totally didn't work out as well as I was hoping it to.

I felt a blush creeping over my face. I looked down and Darcy smiled as she got up to finish unpacking.

"I'm not done with you yet, Clare."

I pretended to sigh as if I was annoyed and Darcy rolled her eyes.

"So, tell me more about Eli. I want to get to know him better."

So I went on telling Darcy about the time we skipped class, as I had just re-witnessed in my mind. I told her about Fitz ad Eli, the Vegas night dance, and about why I hadn't talked to Eli since then. I also told her about Alli, along with Drew and Adam. I then told Darcy about Jamie and how he was up here, staying next door. I told her about how we were friends when we were little and how we started hanging out up here. Darcy and I had always been close and I had no problem telling her about all of this, she knew that I missed having her around. She was also a great audience. She 'ooh-ed' and 'ah-ed' at the right time and that just made everything that much more entertaining to tell. But, throughout the duration of our conversation I had managed to leave out that Eli was up here, in the house next door. I ALSO seemed to forget to tell her how Jamie was Eli's cousin. I mentally smacked myself for not getting it in while I could have before and not as obviously.

"Darce."

"Yup."

"I think that I forgot to mention this but, Eli's up here."

Darcy whipped her head around and gave me a look as if I were mentally insane. "WHAT? What do you mean 'he's up here'?"

Just rip off the band aid!

I remembered Adam saying that to me once and laughed, recalling the memory.

"He's uh, actually he's right next door." I admitted while scratching the back of my neck.

Darcy looked puzzled so she asked about it.

"You remember Jamie I was telling you about before?"

"Mhm…" Darcy still sounded very confused.

"Well, Jamie's his cousin and Eli came up to visit Jamie but ended up seeing me up here too. We haven't really talked too much though." I admitted bashfully.

"Yum, if there's two, do I get dibs on his cousin?" Darcy smiled widely.

I laughed. "Darcy, you don't need him, you have Peter."

Darcy seemed to not have remembered about Peter since she left. She blushed and smiled.

"Hah, yeah I guess you're right…"

Darcy and Peter had gone through many tough times together. After Darcy was raped, she decided it was time to get away from here for a while and sort out her problems on her own. She thought that going to Kenya would be a great experience for her, as well as figuring out how to fix what was going wrong in her life. While Darcy was gone, Peter had been with Mia, but no matter how hard he tried to convince himself, Peter still loved Darcy and he always would. Whenever I would go to The Dot in the morning and Peter would serve me, he would always have that look of concern and I knew it was about Darcy. I felt badly for him, he wanted to know how she was and what she was doing but he was too nervous to ask about it. So, Peter sat back at The Dot, waiting for Darcy to come back.

"I know!" I smiled triumphantly at her.

I should tell Darcy about Peter later, she should probably know about it, she doesn't come to visit very often…

"Wait, so if your love is next door, what are you hanging around here for? Go!"

I laughed as Darcy began to push me out the door. Darcy was always so blunt and caring about everyone else around her. Plus, I'd be seeing her every day all week around here so I figured if there was anything I left out that I could tell her later. As she made me leave, I obliged and went outside.

I took a water bottle and let my parents know I was gunna go sit outside. They simply nodded in agreement and I left without another word. I walked quietly down the stairs outside and shuffled over to the fence that was on the end of the property. It was close to the street, but not so that I would get hit if I fell off. I sat on the fence for a while watching the cars drive past me. It was actually soothing, listening to the whoosh sound as I thought about nothing in particular. The wooden log that attached the fence posts together rolled and I almost fell off a couple of times. I laughed when I did because of my lack of coordination. I glanced over at Jamie's house numerous times, wondering what the boys inside were doing. I thought I heard them inside shouting and assumed they were playing video games, what else do boys do these days? I soon sat there deeply consumed in my own thoughts for a while. As I sat there, I was startled suddenly by my phone vibrating. I reached to get my phone out of my pocket and eventually got it out. I twisted and flipped it around a couple of times so it was facing the right direction and I flipped it open. However, before I could even look at the inside screen, a pair of hands were positioned over my eyes and I saw nothing but black.

TO BE CONTINUED…

girl problems, you think you have some? hit the beach, you wont have none. big dreams there, you know, platinum checks never deposit, just cash em.

kudos to those who know my sammy :DD

PLUS, comments on eli's behavior on friday? i do understand where hes coming from about the whole using him to made her parents agree on something for once and that it actually hurt him insead of clare. BUT he needs to understand clare's going through hard times right now and he needs to just shrug it off and be there for her, she needs someone now. especially since her and alli are friends still but like she doesnt see her at school and whatever. plus i'm sure clare's parents would understand that eli's really not that bad as clare made him appear. JUST MY THOUGHTS ! [but comment on them if you choose]

byebye, see you soon!