A character from earlier chapters will make an appearance! Hint, he's a driver.

Eli woke up in an uncomfortable position, in an unfamiliar place and bed, until he realized that he was in Natasha's upstairs apartment. But he wasn't on the bed, he was on the small couch with a small blanket wrapped around him. His tight jeans and heavy jacket were still on him and he had a pounding headache. He remembered that he told Natasha that he wouldn't get drunk and he didn't; the headache must've been from what happened yesterday.

"That the precious, non-shipped off Edwards daughter is dating the poor man who opens their doors for them? Scandal!"

"Poor man? You're not even defending me, Clare! They're attacking me and you say nothing! I'm out of here."

"Please Eli, I didn't mean to insult you, I'm just angry—"

"So that gives you the right to hurt me?"

Eli groaned at remembering the entire scene and sat up, putting his hands over his face. He had told Natasha everything about what happened. How wonderful Christmas was, how he and Clare ended up kissing to no end, how he took her to Adam's place, and how Clare brought him to her parents' place and pretty much had him skewered by her parents and herself. Natasha had no words and just let him vent. Eli fell asleep to his own babbling and tears.

When he got up from the couch, he saw that Natasha's bed was already made. He looked around for a note and found one attached to the door. "Thought that waking you up would be cruel. I'm downstairs."

Eli put the note in his pocket and went downstairs and saw Natasha putting seats down to the floor. He cleared his throat to catch her attention.

"Oh good morning sleepy head, you feeling better?" she asked him.

"Not even. But I should probably go home and shower and…you know, be depressed alone," Eli sighed and headed for the door.

"Wait," Natasha called after him. He stopped at the door. "She's stupid…if she thinks that using you like that was a good call but…"

"But what?" Eli asked aggravated. "I should really go."

"No, wait, just listen," Natasha said. She put down one of the chairs and walked over to him. "You ran out on her when she was telling you that she didn't mean it. Maybe she didn't. I think that you should talk to her before ultimately deciding to shut her out."

"I already decided," Eli rolled his eyes. "Can I go now or would you like to depress me even more?"

"You can go," Natasha said in defeat. She opened the door for him and allowed him out.

Eli was met with the brutally cold air whipping his face on the freezing, winter morning. Many people were on the streets and Eli maneuvered around them mindlessly. He couldn't stop thinking about Clare. Her actions yesterday all pointed to her using him; she didn't want to go home right away, wanting to stay at Adam's for longer and the words she used, how her attitude changed, and what she said to her parents about him. Eli had never been hurt like that, especially from someone he thought he had strong feelings for.

But that's a lie. He didn't think he had strong feelings for Clare. He knew he did and he couldn't deny that. But he believed that Clare finally thought the same way when she clearly didn't.

"She's probably with Jake now," Eli thought bitterly. "Probably praising herself for her good acting. Probably happy that her parents are cutting her some slack, playing the sympathy card with them. I should've seen this coming. I know about that family, deceit must run in it."

He shook his head and rid himself from that thought. He didn't want to generalize them. Truthfully they were the least he heard about. But with what Helen was doing with a married man, passing judgment was easy. Eli stopped though. It wasn't something he needed to care about.

When Eli got home, he emptied out his pockets. He tossed aside Natasha's note, took out his phone, and then realized that he had Clare's present in his jacket pocket also. The one signed by the lead singer of Dead Hand. He started at it for a second before dropping it onto his coffee table. Sure it was special and sure he'd probably wear it at some point, but right now he just didn't want anything that reminded him of Clare.

After taking a nice, hot shower and putting on the comfiest clothes he had, Eli plopped down on the couch and turned the TV on. He flipped through the channels and saw a familiar scene. It was some guy showing off large message cards to some girl at a doorway and music was playing in the background. It took Eli a minute to realize that this scene was from the movie she watched with Clare. Love Actually. Angrily, he turned to a different channel.

"Who plays Christmas movies after Christmas?" Eli mumbled. He switched to the food network and barely paid attention to it.

It seemed that he was watching the channel for an hour or so before his cell phone started ringing. He lazily picked it up and checked the caller ID before answering. "What Adam?" Eli sighed into the phone. His head fell back on the couch.

"Nat told me what happened. Ouch man, sorry."

"Yeah thanks dude. You wanna continue to twist the knife in my heart?"

"You're being dramatic," Adam said to him. "Sure you liked her but—"

"Adam, she used me to get back at her parents. Do you know what she called me? She called me a poor man, practically paraded me in front of her parents as the guy they'd never approve of. She continuously slapped me in the face in the two minutes I was there." Eli took a deep breath before continuing. "I had her with my family, Adam. She kissed me, she held my hand, she made my family love her, and for what? Nothing. All she wanted was to piss off her parents."

Adam was silent for a second. "But…you should at least talk to her—"

"There's nothing to talk about. I've known her for a few days only, it doesn't matter. She'll forget about it, I'll forget about her, it was only a…"

"Christmas fling?" Adam said wearily.

"I guess," Eli shrugged. "Exactly. That's what it was. It's like that summer romance thing except it was during the holidays. Meant nothing."

"Yeah, I'm sure that you really believe that. I have to go. I'll come by tomorrow and we can talk more about it if you want. Or we can just play video games until our hands fall off."

Eli laughed. "Sounds good. Bye."

After spending most of his day on the couch, he looked through his fridge and found it empty. So grudgingly, he got ready to go to the grocery store. After putting on tons of layers, he left his apartment and walked to the nearest store, which was the one in full view of Clare's building. He started at the building for a moment, rolled his eyes, and walked into the grocery store and grabbed a cart.

Mindlessly, he wandered down aisles and grabbed whatever food he felt like eating. By the time he made it back to the registers, he had an almost cart full of things he couldn't even remember placing in the cart. Eli's mind was definitely not with him. He was thinking of Clare, what she was doing, what she was thinking. He was remembering that perfect three days and as much as he wanted to forget, she was plaguing his mind. And they were all good thoughts.

Maybe because it was the best time of his life.

After getting rid of almost half of his cart, he pulled up to the register and started putting his food on the moving conveyor. While the cashier rung up his stuff, Eli wasn't even paying attention when someone called his name. Finally, he looked up, to the next person at his line, and quickly wished that the cashier would scan his things faster.

"Could you…I don't know, speed things up a bit?" Eli asked the cashier as politely as possible. "I have to get out of here."

"Eli, come on."

Eli kept his gaze away and watched the cashier move a little quicker. Finally, Eli scanned his credit card, entered his pin, and signed his signature. He practically ripped the receipt out of the cashier's hand and grabbed all of his bags with his hands and ran out of the grocery store as someone called his name.

He was walking home as the name calling continued and finally, he had had enough. Eli turned around violently and screamed, "What?"

Luckily the street was pretty deserted at that point, so he only earned a few stares. But Clare's eyes glimmered in the street light and Eli couldn't tell if it was just the light or if they were tears.

"Eli, just please, talk to me," she pleaded desperately. "Please."

Eli shook his head and looked down to his feet. He let out a deep sigh and looked up again. He was at a loss for words. He didn't know what to say to her; maybe he didn't want to say anything. But he felt no urge to speak or to comfort the girl who definitely looked like she wanted to cry.

"I've been going crazy since you left yesterday," she said with a shaky voice. "I know I said a lot of awful things but you have to believe me, I didn't mean to hurt you. I was angry at my parents. And I thought about it, and it did look like I was using you but I swear, I wasn't. I miss you so much Eli. You changed everything and I just met you. I…"

Clare paused and Eli noticed that she seemed to be struggling to say something. She shut her mouth and pressed her lips together. Her eyes fluttered a bit, as if trying to fight back her tears. "I just want you to forgive me Eli. I was completely out of line and I understand that. And I understand if you…don't want to be with me but I can't just walk around knowing that you hate me."

Suddenly, the bags in Eli's hands were heavier than before. The weight was too heavy and he had two choices: Drop his bags and talk to Clare or run back home and avoid her. Eli stared at Clare, trying to make his decision. And finally, he did.

He turned around and walked away. But as he walked away, he decided that if she came after him and called his name again, he'd turn around. He didn't hear her call his name anymore. So he left.

"I can't believe Katie's going back to school already, long distance is gonna suck."

"Adam, calm down. Her campus is like, twenty minutes away. I think you'll live."

They were at the bar, and for a weeknight it was pretty dead. Eli was cleaning a bunch of glasses while Adam sat at the front bar, head in his hands, sulking about the fact that his girlfriend was leaving him so soon.

"Who knew a trip of the grocery store could change my life," Adam fathomed, staring off into space. Eli looked up, remembering the night that he ran away from Clare. But Adam's ranting brought him back to reality. "She's perfect. Did I tell you what we did on New Years?"

"Ten times Adam," Eli rolled his eyes. "What a romantic guy."

"Yeah, well," Adam playfully brushed the imaginary dirt of his shoulders. "Oh hey, have you talked to—"

"No Adam, stop asking," Eli said angrily, almost breaking the glass that was in his hand.

"Fine," Adam sighed in defeat. "Katie and I were talking about it earlier. She asked about you two and I didn't know what to say so I thought I'd ask again but I get it, you don't wanna be a man and face the facts that you're completely throwing away a perfect opportunity to actually be happy for once in your life. I get it. The girl's perfect for you and you've been pining for her for months and once you finally got the chance to be with her, you completely throw it away. I get it."

Eli shot Adam a death glare. "You wouldn't understand Adam. You don't understand. She hurt me with every word she said and—"

"Yeah, she hurt you and she may have used you but come on Eli! She made one tiny mistake and you're going to judge her for that one thing? I thought that maybe your feelings for her would eventually trump your need for grudges but I guess not. Call me when you're ready to stop being an asshole and actually call the girl instead of running away," Adam slammed his hands down on the bar and pushed himself off of it and walked out in a huff. Eli threw his towel to the ground and stood against a doorway, putting his hands over his face.

"He has a point."

Eli took his hands off his face and saw a familiar face sitting at the bar. Eli couldn't remember his name right away but remembered him as the guy who was hitting on him during his first week at the bar.

"…Michael, yeah, that's right. You're name is Michael. Hi, nice to see you again," Eli said quickly. "Sorry, I…I've been having an off day. Well, off-week pretty much."

"I understand," Michael nodded. "But what he said about that girl, I think he's right."

"You don't—"

"Yeah, I don't know anything about the situation but your friend made it sound like you're in love with the girl but won't even hear her out."

Eli wanted to tell Michael to go away but truthfully, he thought that talking to someone completely unaware of the situation would give him a completely unbiased opinion.

"I may be in love with her, I don't know," Eli sighed. "But I spent Christmas with her, brought her home to my family and they all love her. But when we got back, it was like she was just using me to spite her parents. She said some nasty things about me and where I worked before. What she said, it really did affect me. Just because she's privileged doesn't mean she should be able to say whatever she wants to."

Michael agreed. "Okay, that makes sense. But did she seem…I don't know, unapologetic? If she was then I see why you're acting this way."

"Well…no, she apologized and—"

"So she didn't mean it?"

"I don't—"

"Has she tried to apologize multiple times? Asked for forgiveness?"

"Yes but—"

"No buts my friend, if you like the girl then you give her the benefit of the doubt," Michael said seriously. "You don't torture her like this and you're certainly not helping yourself. If you like her, you forgive her. It sounds like this is the beginning of your…relationship or whatever with this girl and you're going to throw it all away just because of what sounds to me, a misunderstanding? Hey, maybe she did use you but I bet she didn't do it intentionally. And she's been apologizing. So now, you're the jerk in the situation because you can't accept an apology. So what do you want to be? A boyfriend to a girl who knows when she's done something wrong or a guy, who can't admit that they have done something wrong by prolonging an argument?"

Michael stood up from the bar, leaving Eli to think about what he just said. Eli heard the rattling of the door opening and looked up when Michael said his name. "Eli, just forgive Clare. I don't want to be driving a sad, crying girl back to University."

Eli's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as Michael smiled at him and left the bar. He knows Clare? But…how?

"Oh so you're a student?" Eli asked. "Did you want a drink or something?"

"Oh no, actually I was just checking to see if Andy was here," Michael told him.

"Doesn't start his shift until later on tonight. Maybe you could drop by later and see him," Eli suggested.

"Maybe," Michael shrugged. "Anyways I'm not a student. I'm a student's driver."

"You're a student'sdriver? Man, that family must be loaded."

"Yeah pretty much," laughed Michael. "But I've been working for them for years now and they're pretty decent. Thankfully I'm the teenager girl's driver. I pity the man who drivers around the Mr. and Mrs. of the family. The girl I drive around is practically a saint."

"But you're her driver at school?"

"Well I was originally just the driver for the family at first but then when she started college her parents thought it would be best if I drove solely her. I live near the campus anyways so it's not really a stretch.

Eli's head shot up at the memory. Michael was Clare's driver. Clare must've confessed everything to Michael. Did Clare send Michael to try to patch things up with Eli? If so…it totally worked.

Eli went to grab his jacket but saw that the snow was getting heavy outside and knew that it would be a stupid decision to walk all the way to Clare's in the bad weather. So he'd go tomorrow, hoping that he wouldn't be too late.