A/N: Hi everyone! I'm just going to be completely honest and tell you that I'm not feeling the second half of this chapter lol. I've never written a fight scene before, and I don't think I ever want to again because that was like...difficult lol. Anyway, despite my terrible attempt at a fight scene - I hope you enjoy the fluffiness at the beginning of this chapter! UMMM THIS CHAPTER is dedicated to Vikki and her mother because I'm skyping with Vikki right now and I love her mother (shoutout to Goddess)
Enjoy! We're so close to the end of this fic, i cAN FEEL THE FEELS.
Clare's eyes fluttered open to find that she wasn't in her own home. That the walls were not a beige colour, they were grey, and the bedding she was curled up in was not light blue, but it was a black colour. The light from the window above her head shone through the room and it was beginning to make sense where she was at this point. She shifted her position slightly, feeling two arms pull her back in and hum slightly in her left ear, as if they were testing to see if she was still asleep. And then she recalled it again, where she was and whose arms were holding her. Eli Goldsworthy. She had spent the night over at Eli Goldsworthy's dorm, and just as he had said, when she woke up again there he was, holding her tightly and right beside her. Clare stretched her legs slightly from underneath the covers, her toes curling at the feeling of her body awakening again.
"Good morning, beautiful." A voice breathed into her ear, and Clare smiled softly to herself. Considering the two of them would be going on vacation together at the end of the week, she could definitely get used to this feeling. Waking up with two arms holding her in close, not daring to leave her alone. "From what it looked like, you slept quite soundly, did you not?" He questioned as Clare turned onto her back and her eyes met with his from inches away from her own face.
"Yes, I did. You should have invited me to spend the night ages ago." Clare blushed, stretching her head back against his pillows and let out a relaxed yawn. "Jenna and Alli once told me that Jake Martin's bed is a Tempurpedic, but it has absolutely nothing on yours." Clare giggled, and Eli laughed along with her. But her laughs were soon cut off with Eli's lips, which suddenly captured her in a deep passionate kiss. It was different than all the others, like how their previous kisses were always just the two of them hooking up without any meaning at all. But this was like the two of them had something to be in for. Something to go off of. Maybe it was the fact that the two of them had mentioned the word love to each other the night before, said they were going to go on vacation together, and the fact that they had now spent the night together. It was all being combined into one big love fest that their kisses now were deeper and far more intimate.
"You talk in your sleep." Eli told her, cocking his head to the side for a moment as he took in her disheveled appearance. It had yet to occur to him that she was still in her dress from the night before, and her underwear were continuing to lie untouched on the floor several feet away from the bed. "You mumbled something. Or you were singing something; I can't remember what it was."
"I wasn't asleep, silly." Clare shook her head, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath. "It took a long, long, long time. Now I'm so happy I found you." Clare sang softly, and Eli raised his eyebrows slightly at the lyrics she tried to sing out. Clare wasn't the best singer, especially in the morning moments after she had awakened, but it still put a grin on Eli's face. "It's a Beatles song." Clare told him.
"Oh, of course it is." Eli teased, causing Clare to stick her tongue out at him. "What's it called?"
"Long Long Long." She smiled, as her hand crept out from under the covers and placed a hand on Eli's bare chest. She had forgotten what it was like to see him without being completely dressed. The last time she could remember was their second day of meeting, at the public pool, which wasn't exactly as intimate as the moment was now, but he still wasn't fully clothed. Her fingers tip-toed down his chest, and she began to trace circles gently on his abdomen as her expression changed from pure happiness to almost completely on the contrary. "We're going to fail creative writing." She pouted, remembering their assignment that was due in five or so hours.
"You finished the analysis, didn't you?" Eli asked.
"Yeah, of course, but the story situation is what stumped us. Fifty thousand words? We've barely written eight thousand." Clare groaned to herself, and Eli clicked his tongue in response, shifting his weight to his side as he raised a hand and pushed some loose strands of hair out of her eyes.
"Go take a shower," Eli started, "do whatever you need to do to get ready. I told you I'll take care of it, and I promise that I will. Don't go get yourself stressed out over something you don't need to be, all right?" Eli smiled, pressing a quick peck to her cheek before just watching her. Clare got up slowly from the spot on his bed, stretching her body once more and finding herself completely calm. Maybe it was just the way Eli's dorm was. It radiated peacefulness from it's every corner. Perhaps it was because whenever Clare would come over, he would be sitting at his desk or at the kitchen counter or even on the couch writing up a storm. He was a peaceful, collected man. It really was such a shame that he would be giving up writing to be a psychologist. From the eight thousand words the two of them had written together, she could just taste the talent coming off the tip of his pencil.
"Baby can you get the shower running?" Clare yelled from the bathroom, leaning against the wall of the tiled shower. Eli rolled his eyes, standing up from the desk where he had been trying hard to get their assignment done. If it had been maybe thirty thousand words this would have been a piece of cake. But fifty thousand before one in the afternoon? For a moment he almost doubted himself.
"Are you in grade four? Righty-Tighty, lefty-loo –" but he was cut off by Clare's lips pouncing on his and closing the door behind him as she pressed him up against the wall, her eyes locking on his immediately once she had pulled away.
"I'm not an idiot; I know how to turn the water on." Clare laughed, her cheeks flushed as she bit down on her bottom lip in a devious sort of way. "I wanted an excuse to get you in here so I could kiss you…" she paused, almost as if she was contemplating the words she was thinking. "I want to take a shower with you," she began, a girlish giggle flowing from her full dark red lips. "You can't have sex with me, but I want to… to stand under the running water and feel you close to me. I'll wash your hair and you can wash mine, and we can be close to each other without being… close to each other." Eli's eyebrows raised, taking in her suggestion and liking it immediately.
"All right."
"So, come here." Clare laughed, letting her fingernails trail down Eli's chest leaving innocent scratches on his skin. Eli reached over Clare's shoulder and turned on the hot water. Both of them took a step away from each other, and began to remove their own articles of clothing. It was like they didn't have to say the words out loud, but they were both thinking the same thing: they'd undress, and meet in the water in a moment. The only thing she was slightly worried about was the fact that her hormones might take over her and she possibly could just beg Eli on the spot to take her right then and there and completely ravage her body. But she could control herself. She told herself mentally that she could do so, and with telling Eli moments before that the two of them were most certainly not going to have sex with each other right there, she knew he wouldn't cross those boundaries. He had never crossed them yet, and today wouldn't be the day.
Moments passed, and soon enough both of them were standing under the hot water pouring down the shower. Eli closed the curtain, and stared into her eyes, the shower filling up with steam. Clare's heart started to beat a little bit faster as she saw Eli's eyes set upon her. And for once, Eli's eyes weren't the same shade that Clare had always seen in the past. It wasn't a lustful grin, but yet filled with a loving passion that caused Clare to blush immensely.
"I want to say something completely cheesy, like, you're all I want forever, or you look so beautiful right now, but I don't think I can be so pathetically cheesy with you anymore." Eli laughed softly to himself, as he placed his hands on Clare's waist and brought her hips towards his. It was only slightly awkward, but both of them pushed the thoughts that were in both of their minds away and focused on the romanticism in the moment. "I think I can just be me, and sincerely romantic with you now, Clare. Being cheesy and cliché just seems like utter failure in a relationship like ours. I just want to be pure, wholesome, and myself around you. No masks or anything."
"You didn't have to tell me that, you know." Clare whispered, cheeks flushed at his words as their hips began to sway back and forth against each other. She was nervous, to say the least, not just about the fact they were naked in the shower together, almost no boundaries keeping them apart but the fact that they were now… loving, towards each other and it was almost as if they didn't have to watch their mouths around each other but in a way they still did. "We're both powerful romantic young adults, aren't we? We can control ourselves from the little slurs of teenagers these days." But Clare paused, a giggle falling out of her lips as she tried to suppress a cheesy grin. "But completely off the record, you're all I want forever."
"Well, if this is all off of the record, you look so beautiful right now."
And that's when the kissing had begun. Not the heated lustful kind she had suspected. The rough ones where Eli would slam her up against the shower wall and he would end up getting a boner and Clare would give in, begging him to take her right then and there. It was just a slow, romantic, enjoyable one. And every few moments he would start to do the whole reason they were taking a shower in the first place: to clean themselves. He would lean down onto the ground and pick up the shampoo and conditioner and scrub Clare's scalp with his fingers, it being more relaxing than cleaning to Clare to be honest. Clare would do the same to him, standing on her tip toes to get the top of his head, which he would have to bend his head down towards her for her to reach. A while ago, Eli had once told her that in his teenage years he had been barely five foot seven, but somehow a growth spurt had happened along the way, and thank God, he was a normal five foot eleven or so. And with Clare being a small five foot five, they made quite an adorable couple.
"Your face is all soapy." Eli whispered, wiping a few stray bubbles off of the corners of her cheeks, her eyes glistening, and the frame of her face being shaped perfectly with her wet curls. "You should look at yourself when you shower, your hair gets all wet and your face gets all red and you just look too good to be true."
"Well, you always look too good to be true, so I guess we're even here, now aren't we?"
"I guess we are."
"Have I told you that I love you today?"
"Not yet." Eli smiled.
"Well, I do."
"And I love you too."
…
The front door of their home opened up, and Clare walked in as if everything in her life had lead up to this moment. She leaned against the front door, letting out a delicate sigh. She turned around for a moment, quickly going over to the window beside the front door to see Eli sitting in his hearse with a big grin on his face. And when he noticed her, it got bigger, and deep down he never knew he could smile so big. Both of them raised a hand to wave, feeling blushes on their own cheeks as Clare closed the curtains and turned around – the moment shattered by a nosy Alli Bhandari peering past her to see Eli as he drove away, blasting what seemed to be a mix between Fall Out Boy and Panic! at the Disco, but Alli didn't say anything about that. Instead, she put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows high into the air.
"What was that about?" She questioned, earning a shrug from Clare in response as she walked away from her, giggling like an idiot. "I know you didn't come home last night." Alli interrogated, following behind Clare as the curly haired girl practically danced around the kitchen as if she was almost drunk. In her head, she was totally drunk off of Eli Goldsworthy – and she was so glad she was. "Are you going to tell me where you were?"
"Where do you think I was, Alli?" Clare shot back, laughing softly as she rolled her eyes to herself. Clare opened up the fridge, pulling out a water bottle and taking a long sip of the water. "Out sleeping with randoms? Doing all the other things you and Jenna think I'm doing? Because you can go ahead and think whatever you want, I don't mind."
"You're acting so weird." Alli scoffed, sitting down at the island counter in the middle of the room and propping her elbows up and placing her head in her palms. "You don't talk to us for what seems like weeks, you come home late – and last night you don't even come home at all, do you not expect Jenna and I to worry?"
"Did you ever worry before?"
"Definitely – but not about things like this! We worried about the fact that you were alone all the time! Next thing I know you're going to have an STI, Clare! That'll be so bad!" Alli argued. Clare walked around the island, shaking her head and almost laughing softly to herself.
"That won't happen, Alli. Don't worry." As she made her way over to the front door, grabbing her car keys off of the small key notch and twirling them in her hand. "Do you want to be late to chemistry or what?" Clare asked, and Alli sighed, knowing that she really didn't want to be. Her chemistry class didn't actually start for a while, but she always liked to get there early to try and flirt with Drew and most of the time she wasn't successful. Or at least Clare considered that she wasn't successful because she never got to catch a glimpse of the two of them hooking up like Alli would brag about all the time.
"So are you going to tell me where you were last night?" Alli muttered, slouching in the passenger seat of Clare's car. She reached her hand forward to turn on the radio, but her hand was only batted away by Clare's almost reminding Alli of the previous Clare she had used to know. The non 'slutty' one and the girl that would lock herself in her bedroom and blast the Beatles until 11:30 PM when Clare decided it was way past her bedtime. Before Eli, Alli knew Clare the best. They never really had intimate conversations about family matters or about their friendship and how it was practically hanging by a thread back then, but they both knew each other better than Jenna, or anyone else knew Clare. Heck, Alli even knew Clare better than Clare's parents knew her. Alli had known Clare since grade nine, when Clare's older sister left her at the front steps of the school, looking awkward as ever in a Catholic school uniform. And in a matter of moments, it was as if the two of them had clicked – and became best friends. It wasn't long after that until Clare had entered her Beatles phase and had ended up falling for KC and soon after that losing him to a skanky Jenna Middleton. Alli could recall the time when she hated Jenna… but could never really remember when they had forgiven her for what had happened, and allowed her back into their lives.
"Sorry, I didn't know it was a crime to stay over at my boyfriend's dorm on a Sunday night. What are you, my mother?" Clare rolled her eyes, and Alli's mouth fell agape.
"Wait, you two are a…thing, now?"
"Yeah, what's your point? Don't like it?" Clare's tone was a bitter mess, spitting out rude answers as if her life depended on it. It was really only a matter of time before Clare began to swear for once in her life. Oh, except that one other time in the car Clare had called her a bitch.
"No, it's fine…" Alli whispered, almost as if she was defeated in a conversation like this. "You two can do whatever you'd like with each other. It's not my business. I just didn't know."
"That's because you never asked."
"Okay, I get it. I'm a terrible friend; can you quit making me feel like shit?"
Clare laughed, shaking her head a bit, and it was surprising how quickly it had taken them to drive to the campus, because before either of them knew it Clare was already pulling into a parking space. "Sorry for making you feel like absolute excrement, Alli Bhandari. It's not like you made me feel like that for over a year now or anything. Guess you'll have to learn to deal for a little while!" Clare commented, pulling her keys quickly out of the ignition and in a few swift movements was out of the car and walking down the parking lot.
"Clare, wait, come back." Alli tried to reason, holding her hand out towards her as she tried to carry her books in her other arm. "Can't we talk about this before classes? I'll skip talking to Drew today; we need to talk about our friendship. I mean, neither of us are really treating each other very well –"
"Oh, wow, now I'm intruding on your lovely little discourse with Andrew Torres. I think I'd rather eat dirt, Alli." Clare spat, not even turning around to say the words to her face. Alli attempted to run, her heels click-clacking on the concrete of the parking lot. But to no avail, Alli couldn't catch up with Clare who was practically storming off, though she had almost an hour and a half until her creative writing class would start.
Speaking of her creative writing class, Clare was still a mess, wondering if Eli would be able to finish their assignment in time. Would Mrs. Dawes snap her cap if she found out that they hadn't exactly finished it up yet? What about her and Eli's grade? Would they completely flunk the class? Clare was now so set on the two of them being able to move to New York after they finished their second semester, but what if they ended up failing this class, that wouldn't exactly look so well on a journalism application to the New York Times. But all of these pointless thoughts about her project, and writing, were thrown into the air when her attention was brought to someone yelling a little ways off.
A crowd had gathered around a fountain in the middle of the plaza. Many people Clare knew well, or at least slightly well. She had a few classes with them, or perhaps she was even friends with them on FaceRange. But either way, Clare knew who a lot of them were. And when Clare approached the crowd, it was as if her heart had stopped. It actually would have been better if her heart had stopped at this point, so she wouldn't have to endure what was about to come. There was someone standing on the edge of the fountain, yelling at the top of his lungs telling everyone to come listen to the news he had to share.
"Oh God." Clare whispered, breath being stolen from her lungs. "No, no, no, no."
"Come one, come all, listen to a little lie spread by a pathetic virgin named Cl –" The voice stopped, a sly grin coming onto his face, as he gestured a hand out towards Clare standing in the crowd. "There she is everyone. Clare Edwards!" So maybe Dallas really wasn't lying, or maybe this was all a nightmare. Maybe she was still asleep in Eli's dorm, and maybe all she had to do was pinch herself and she'd be awake and everything would be okay again. But no matter how hard her nails pierced her skin momentarily, she didn't wake up. She was stuck in this, and Dallas was going to do what he had promised. Let the truth out – tell everyone the lie she had been keeping. "Who wants to hear about Clare Edwards' little lie?" Dallas asked the crowd, and several people shrugged and others cheered for him to go on. What, was she hated around here or something?
"Dallas, stop it!" Clare tried to yell, but the boy shook his head.
"I told you I'd do this. You could have gotten out of it, you know." Dallas barked, raising a hand into the air. "Clare Edwards isn't the little slut you all think she is!" Dallas began, and it was actually quite stunning how many people had gathered, how many people were actually listening and paying attention to him. Everyone loved an Ice Hound. Especially if they were Mike Dallas. "In fact, all the people Clare said she's slept with? All lies. Eli Goldsworthy – Adam Torres – Campbell Saunders, all lies! Clare Edwards is just a stupid, pathetic, lying virgin. She wanted all of your attention – I bet you all feel stupid now for giving it to her." There were a few voices in the crowd, muttering words that Clare was too busy thinking to herself to listen to. Were they making fun of her? Was her not having sex with the people she said she did actually hot gossip?
"So, in conclusion," Dallas continued, "Clare Edwards is a virgin – and she lied to all of you. To her best friends, her classmates, her enemies. Everyone was lied to by her. Why should we trust someone so pathetic, so horrible to lie to us about something to get attention? Why should you ever trust her again, anyway? Once a liar, always a fucking liar. In my opinion –"
"Nobody fucking wants to hear your opinion, Dallas." A voice growled from behind Clare, and as soon as she turned around, a gasp slipped from her lips. She hadn't even noticed that he had shown up. "I'm going to fucking kill you, you know."
"Eli, Eli stop." Clare placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, only to have it shrugged off seconds later. "It's not a big deal. Just ignore it. I don't care, I don't care!"
"Well, I care, and I'm not letting this bastard get away with, being a bastard." Eli spat, stepping closer to the fountain, making Dallas almost take a step backwards and fall into the fountain, but thankfully he caught his footing before he completely slipped up and looked like a total idiot. "I heard you're afraid of me, Dallas." Eli began, standing directly before the fountain, staring up at a glaring Dallas. "Probably smart, I could kill you if I wanted to. And it's not exactly your lucky day because I kind of want you dead."
"Only kind of, Goldsworthy? Eh, I'm not feeling it." Dallas tried to argue back sarcastically, but there was hesitation in his voice, and Eli laughed softly to himself. "Sticking up for Clare, that's pretty typical of you."
"Watch it, Dallas." Eli grumbled.
"Watch what, emo boy? Watch what I say about your little lying bitch? Oh, wait, she told me she wasn't yours exactly."
"I said watch it!"
"Now everyone knows your little sex kitten isn't exactly quite a sex kitten. Too bad, you know. I'm sure she'd be a feisty one in bed." Dallas laughed, and Eli shook his head, fists clenched in his hands. It was prominent that Dallas was causing Eli's blood to boil. Making fun of him was one thing, calling him emo boy, threatening to kick his ass – all of that was normal. But there was no way in hell Eli was going to let him talk shit about Clare. No, not his Clare. Not after he had finally gotten her.
"Fuck you." Eli yelled, taking another step forward, and Dallas seemed to have forgotten about the space between him and the edge of the fountain, and in a scared matter – he took another step back. He wobbled in the air for a moment, trying to save himself from falling into the fountain, but it was pointless, because in a matter of seconds he had fallen backwards into the fountain, and the crowd that had gathered was laughing like hyenas about the situation. "And now that you're down, I'm going to fucking kick your ass."
Dallas splashed around in the water, gasping for air as he tried to get to his feet again. "You pissed off I told everyone the truth about your little lying girlfriend? She just couldn't get enough attention from you, so she had to go lie about her little non-existent sex life." Dallas had managed to stand to his feet at this point, his Ice Hounds letterman jacket sopping wet. "I've seen you two hooking up around school, but she won't let you take her virginity. Poor you, right?"
Everything happened so fast, Eli had slugged off his leather jacket, handed it to Clare, and jumped into the fountain after Dallas. There was kicking, splashing, punching, yelling – and a large crowd chanting the word 'fight' as if they were a group of high schoolers from a low budget 80's movie. It was disgusting to Clare how everyone around was picking a side, cheering on who they wanted to see win this little battle, and completely encouraging it. And instead of telling her brand new boyfriend and complete enemy to stop, to knock it off, all she could do was stand there open mouthed like a codfish and not sure how to handle any of this. At this point, if Eli could see her – she'd expect he'd say something stupid like: You okay, fish-face?
"You asshole, you think you can come in here and raise Hell!? Who do you think you are?!" Eli barked, throwing punch after punch at the guy he had toppled in the fountain. Dallas was crying out in pain, and Eli was letting it all out on him. "What kind of jerk fucking treats girls like this?" The crowd flooded closer to the fountain, watching as the two boys struggled to fight each other, and water splashed out of the side of the fountain. Clare covered her mouth, just begging that a security guard might show up and break up the fight. Punches were being thrown fast, and the crowd's chants grew louder.
"Eli, stop!" Clare cried, her voice desperately trying to be loud, but in reality it came out like a mouse squeaking. "It's not worth it, just get off of him!"
There was more splashing and yelling and kicking, and from the looks of it, it was as if Eli Goldsworthy wasn't really the one doing all of the punching anymore. From what it looked like… Dallas was in charge, beating the living daylights out of him, holding Eli's head underneath the water, and letting him back up for air for split seconds before sending him under again.
"Stop, stop please!" Clare blared, stepping up to the edge of the fountain, water covering her within moments. "Dallas, get off of him before I call the police!" She shuffled through her bag, pulling out her cell phone, but when she glanced up again – the fighting had ceased, and Dallas stood peering down at Eli as the darker haired boy struggled to breathe.
"You may have won your battle, Goldsworthy, but you didn't win the war." Dallas laughed, waving his arms around to try and stop his arms from dripping. He hopped down from the fountain, and Clare did the exact opposite. She kicked off her ballet flats, and left them in a pile with her handbag, Eli's jacket, and her cell phone. She scrambled into the fountain, kneeling down at his side, the edges of her dress getting wet as she kneeled beside him.
"Eli, Eli are you okay?" She cried, and he nodded, coughing ridiculously as Clare ran a hand through his soppy hair. The wet feeling between her fingers could only remind her of their shower that morning. How had such romance turned into this? "Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." Clare apologized over and over, and Eli stopped choking and shook his head. "Don't go after him, please. Please it's not important."
"I have to, Clare." Eli said; his voice was scratchy as he struggled to stand to his feet. "He's not going to treat you like this. I told you last night, I can't let anything bad happen to you. I have to take care of you." Clare followed as he slowly tried to get out of the fountain, water oozing from every bit of him. Her hands held onto his arm, trying to hold him back, and when he turned to look at her, his expression showed utter sympathy, and his lip was dripping splotches of blood.
"You're bleeding."
"Yeah, I know." Eli told her, gently sliding his arm out of hers.
"Don't. I mean it." Clare took his arm again, only to have him wrench his way out of it. Instead of her gently trying to persuade him at this point, she had to go ahead and change her tone to seriousness to get her point across. There was no way she was going to let him go after Dallas and get himself killed. "Eli, I'm serious!"
"I'm doing this to defend your honour, now let me go right now."
"Stop it. Just stop it. I'm not going to stand here and watch you make a fool out of yourself fighting Mike Dallas." Clare shook her head, and Eli shrugged his shoulders in return, turning to look at her as he walked backwards through the crowd after Dallas.
"Then leave. I'll take care of this."
"Eli!"
But he was gone. He had disappeared into the crowd of people and went after Dallas, and the group of students followed to watch whatever was about to go down between the two of them. Clare sighed, sitting down on the edge of the fountain, placing her head in her hands. Could anything get worse at this point? Footsteps approached her, and when she lifted her head from her lap, her heart fell into her stomach. Maybe she had thought too soon.
"Alli…" Clare whispered, her eyes looking up at the girl that just had a blank stare on her face. Alli shook her head, her long dark hair shifting its positions. "Look, let me explain."
"I can't believe you'd lie. You know, Jenna, I can understand. Even me, I can understand. But you, of all people. Lying about this." Alli whispered, her face was etched with disappointment, and she looked at the ground.
"Alli, I'm sorry."
"Whatever, Clare, it's fine. It doesn't even matter."
"Alli, it does matter." Clare stood up to her feet, and trying to put her hands on Alli's shoulders, but the girl only backed away.
"No, you know, maybe I deserved this." Alli shrugged, backing away from Clare. "We treated you like dirt and so you felt the need to lie about yourself. The stuff you did. But now you're just… being a bitch, and now that the truth is out – and I'm blown away that you would do this." And then she was gone too. And Clare was left standing in front of a fountain that was half full at this point due to all the splashing during the fight. She looked almost as if she had just returned from prom, holding her shoes in her hands and a devastated look on her face. What was she supposed to do now? Life was crashing down around her. And the only good thing she had to look forward to in her life now was the winter holiday that she would be spending with Eli. That was, if he didn't get himself so beat up that he'd be in the hospital.
But now she couldn't even go to her classes and forget about the mess that had just unfolded. Not without the assignment, or a partner to accompany her with. So instead of going to her class, she picked up Eli's leather jacket, and pulled it around her shoulder, snuggling in it for warmth. It still smelled like him. Like dark chocolate mixed with cologne and cigarettes, which didn't make much sense because never in her life had she seen Eli smoke a cigarette. It was a musky scent that couldn't be mistaken for anyone else. A signature Goldsworthy. She grasped her car keys from her bag and made her way back to her car. With everything in her life seeming to be so terrible at the moment, the sight of her beaten up car wasn't actually that bad. In fact… it was a nice reminder of something good she had in her life. All the happy memories she had in that car, lip locked with Eli Goldsworthy.
Sitting down in the front seat, a wave of emotions rushed over her, and tears began to stream down her cheeks as she tried to contain herself. Why exactly was she sobbing again? It was all over, her lies were all over. She had nothing more to worry about, life would be easier, wouldn't it? Eli was defending her, and Dallas was going to get punished for being an ass. There really wasn't much that she should have had to cry about, was there? But even though she couldn't find a single thing to contribute to the tears, she continued to sob into the steering wheel anyway. Mike Dallas had humiliated her, yet brought out the truth that she wouldn't have had to hide behind anymore. Things were going to be fine, or things should have been fine soon enough. The only thing that haunted Clare was the look on Alli's face when she found out Clare had been lying all along.
Friends just don't lie to each other, that's that. Whether your friend treats you like utter shit or not – lying is just too far.
Clare reached into her bag, shuffling through to find her cell phone that she had jammed back inside the bag on her way back from the parking lot. Her fingers quickly shuffled through her contacts until she came across a number she knew she could trust. Someone she could always rely on in a time of need. And as the number dialed, and the phone began to ring, a gross sob fell from her lips.
"Mom?" She muttered into the phone. "Can I come home, please?"