A/N: Hey everyone who may or may not still be reading this story. Well, it has been forever. I have a sweet excuse. I moved cross country and my computer crashed. I've only recently been able to get a new one. So I really want to finish this story this weekend. I hope that you will continue to read and support it.
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"Cry about the love we used to have
Cry that I won't ever get you back
Filling up my empty days with red wine
Wonder what you think of me?

I'm so happy for you
I could cry
Yeah, I'm so elated
Cross my heart and hope to die
I don't think about you every night
Before I close my eyes
I'm so happy for you baby,
I could cry."

-Happy, Saving Jane

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Alli peered doubtfully at Clare, "Are you sure? I could stay over."

Clare smiled appreciatively, "Thanks but I'm starting to get bored crying all over you."

"Strangely, my new favorite activity," Alli taunted.

Clare shoved Alli out the door, "Go forth, live. I'll rejoin society tomorrow. I promise."

Alli turned around and hugged her tightly one more time. "Promise you'll call if you need anything, even just help finding the remote?"
Clare nodded and with a small wave Alli slipped out to her car.

Closing the door with a sigh she looked around the house, unsure what to do next. Her fingers ran gently across the wallpaper, ghosting over patterns. She felt strangely calm. Telling Eli everything had made her feel lighter; freer. Of course turning around to lose him had felt like she'd been shoved into a dark abyss, only she hadn't lost him. She had given him away freely. Her lips turned up slightly into a gentle smile. Knowing that she had done the right thing eased the pain, but only just. After a morning sobbing on poor Alli she had straightened up, prepared to pick up the pieces of her life. Somehow she had unraveled from the calm, collected university student to a sloppy, shell of a woman. Instead of a deep bleeding gash in her side, she imagined Eli like a bruise. Sure it was marring, but it would only hurt when pressed against. If she ignored it and treated it delicately it would fade to nothing without causing her any more pain.

She slipped into the shower to wash away the lingering scent of him against her skin begrudgingly.

She was pretty sure her suitcase wasn't going to shut. Sara was frantically throwing in anything that was hers as quickly as possible. She had to get into a different hotel, at least until tomorrow night's flight. Hopping up and down against the top of her suitcase she managed to force the zipper almost completely shut. Quickly she scanned the room to check for anything missing.
It was then she spotted it. She crossed to the desk near the bed. The bright yellow book lay mocking her with its exceptionally cheerful cover. Her stomach lurched as she let her fingers brush the cover of her wedding planning book. Tears began to build behind her eyes again. She shook her head.

"No," she thought, "no more tears for that bastard." Even as she thought it she knew it wasn't true. She just wanted to keep it together until she could be safely in her mom's arms. She couldn't' let him have any more than he'd already taken.

"I hate you," Sara shouted before throwing the book hard against the wall.

It slid down the wall with little concern for Sara's outburst. She frowned and went to pick it up to put it into the trash. For a moment she allowed herself to flip through the pages, smiling at the wedding she had thought would be perfect. Her eyes skimmed a few pages before she froze. Her hands were shaking and the tears threatened to fall again. She quickly grabbed her suitcase and rushed from the room dropping her key in the room, saying goodbye to Eli for the last time.

Eli sat on the edge of his bed. He wanted to give Sara time to pack and leave the hotel. He knew she wouldn't want to see him again. He rubbed his neck gently and tapped his foot against the floor. He needed to swap his plane ticket so he could escape here as soon as possible. It amazed him that in one week he had broken his life into shambles and now he sat among the pieces.

He had tried to forget Clare but had finally told her the truth, which caused her to leave so he could get married.

He had lied to Sara but had finally told the truth, which caused the wedding to be a non-issue.

Clare was still too good for him which made his apparent single status a description unlikely to change in the near future. He wasn't in any position to come around her again. He had seen what he could accomplish in a short interaction with her, he shuddered to think the damage he could cause with more time.

He paced slightly erratically while debating the next course of action as the Earth hadn't decided just to swallow him whole like he wished. If he could just get Clare then it would be worth it, but every time he went near Clare everything went to shit. With a new found resolution he gathered up his courage and stalked out of the house.

Clare sat on her floor of her room rolling the past week in her head. The finality of Eli and her was refreshing but decidedly upsetting. After all this time and all the courage it took for her to reveal her feelings to Eli, she sat here with nothing.

"At your hands," Clare chided herself. The truth was though she loved Eli; their relationship was nothing sort of combustible at all moments. On top of that she didn't think she could live with the guilt of breaking apart a marriage, not after watching her own family dissolve. As much as it annoyed her Clare knew she just needed to put on a pretty face and be happy at the wedding. Then subsequently turn around and act like she had never met those two.

The knock at the door startled her from her reverie.

She wasn't sure what possessed her, really. She was just going to walk by and let it go. Or something. She definitely wasn't going to engage further in the Eli devastation.

She certainly wasn't going to slap the face of a near stranger after spotting bruises all along her neck.

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And yet here she stood panting as a wide eye, frightened girl shook before her brushing her finger tips against her enflamed skin. Sara didn't know what happened. Somewhere between Eli's stabbing betrayal glancing down at Clare's address in the wedding planner she had lost her mind. It hadn't meant to escalate into this odd western gun slinger show down. In fact she thought she'd back away quickly, embarrassed when Clare opened the door because she was after all behaving like a complete lunatic.

Then she saw the hickeys. They were almost purple against the pale column of her neck and the bile began to rise. There had been more than just whispered confessions and it made her livid and disgusted.

"You broke this. I hope you're happy." Sara yelled shaking before stumbling backwards and sprinting as far as she could, desperate to escape yet again.

Clare looked at the retreating figure, guilt washing all over her. Her face stung, her heart was beating all too quickly in fear and confusion, and her mind reeled at the incident. Should she go after her. Not without weaponry or Ali.

Very slowly she stepped back into her house and slipped up the stairs. Her mind no longer was the serene lake she had desperately sacrificed to make it. She was back to the tumultuous storm that was Eli. And the would they, won't they game had to dissolved into nothing more than rubble of cruelty. She knew that look in Sara's eye; she had seen the same deadened, vacant expression in her own before. Sara was broken, completely shattered.

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And it was Clare's fault.