Chapter 4

"What do you want Carla?" Grace asked coldly, not even looking up as she slid onto the table beside her.

"For you to tell me what I did" Carla answered innocently. The way she saw it was there was no way Eli could have told her about what she had said to him, so obviously she was upset over the little scene she had walked in on.

"Not everything is about you" her friend said, taking a bit of her salad sandwich.

"Look Grace, I'm sorry if you're jealous about me and Eli but-"

"Jealous? What the hell do I have to be jealous of?" Grace whirled around with a disbelieving expression. "You were just a one night stand Carla. It's not as if you meant anything to him".

"You know what Grace, you can deny it all you want" Carla said angrily, standing up from where she sat, "but everyone" she gestured to the rest of the cafeteria whose attention they now held "and I mean everyone" she not so subtly glanced over at Eli who was sitting in a corner with his friends, "knows that you are in love with Eli. And honestly I think it's pathetic. You're in love with a guy who you know you have no chance with"

"You know what Carla; I know that I have no chance with him okay. But at least I know that when I'm around him, his not wishing I was with someone else" Grace said calmly, her voice void of any emotion. Looking over at where Eli sat she shook her head. "Better yet, I don't have to put up with this crap okay. I've let you embarrass way too many times, but this time I'm not embarrassed, I'm ashamed. Ashamed that I actually thought you were my friend"

"Sounds like you've left a few unsatisfied ladies behind Eli. Care to explain?" Wink asked with a smirk, slapping him on the shoulder.

"Ladies? Come on man, if you're going to call Carla a lady you gotta back that up. That bitch is cold man" Coop shot back.

"Give it a rest guys" Eli sighed and shook his head, "I'm out" he pushed back his chair and stood up.

"Don't tell me you're going after her?"

"Which one?" Wink laughed, despite the fact that his joke had fallen flat on the rest of his friends.

"I need a smoke"

"I'll come with you" Coop hurried after his friend.

"Ignore him man, his an idiot" Coop puffed out, jogging to keep up with his friend.

Eli shook his head not knowing what to say, finally slowing down he turned the corner of the building and pulled out a packet of cigarettes and offered one to Coop.

"I thought you'd given up?" Coop said with a laugh as he lit his. Eli constant failed efforts to give up smoking never failed to amuse him.

"Fuck off" Eli growled, unable to keep the smile off his face.

"He actually smiles. Listen man, it's not that bad alright. The way I see it you did both yourself and Grace a favour the other night.

"And how's that?" Eli asked taking a deep drag.

"Well in the process of not sleeping with Carla you also showed Grace what a bitch her best friend is. Plus you gave Grace a night she will never forget. In the end man, it all works out fine"

"Yeah, until word gets out that I slept with her"

"I really don't think that's going to be a problem" Coop flipped his half smoked cigarette into the bin beside them. "If Grace was going to say something she could have done it during that whole scene in the cafeteria"

"Weird thing is Coop, as much as I'm scared that she will say something, part of me is also hoping that she will. This whole thing is so fucked up" he groaned hanging his head. He'd been trying to convince himself since that morning that all it had been was sex. But he knew it wasn't. There was something about Grace that got under his skin. Something about her that was different from all the other girls. Something that made him regret sleeping with her like he did.

"She's gotten to you hasn't she" Coop asked, laughing as his friend groaned again. "I knew it had to happen sooner or later"

"Couldn't it have happened later? This isn't me man" Eli jumped up out of frustration. "I don't do the whole relationship thing. I never have and… and I don't want to" Eli paused to take a drag, but Coop cut in before he could continue.

"Maybe there is a part of you that wants to"

"Good Grace you're home" Lily called out happily the moment Grace walked into the house.

Grace rolled her eyes and let her bag drop to the floor, her mother had that 'I need something' tone to her voice, and after the events of the past couple of days all she wanted was some time to herself.

"Hi honey, did you have a good day?" her mother greeted her rushing into the room.

"If you can call finding out what a bitch Carla is a good day then yeah I guess I did" Grace said sarcastically, "what do you want mom?"

Lily stared after her usually happy daughter as she stalked into the kitchen. She knew something was wrong, but she'd have to deal with it later. Much later.

"Grace, listen we need to talk, Zoë, Eli and Jessie too"

"Uh huh" Grace muttered opening the fridge.

"Grace?"

"What? Oh" Grace realized her mother was still talking to her.

"Do you know where Eli is?"

"No idea" she slammed the almost empty bottle of juice down on the table "and I really don't care"

"So the reason I needed to talk to you guys is because the magazine has decided to send me to Australia for the holidays. They are planning on selling the magazine down there and want me to go and promote it" Lily explained excitedly; however her excitement was lost on her children which sat in front of her.

Grace sat huddled up in one of the arm chairs, picking at a few loose threads in the material. Eli, who had finally come home an hour after Grace, was lying on his back on the couch staring intently up at the roof.

"Uh did something happen today that I missed?" Lily asked the excitement draining from her face.

"What?" Grace looked up, her cheeks flushed.

"No uh, nothing. Everything's fine" Eli answered at exactly the same time.

"Good, because your fathers coming with me and I'm leaving you guys in charge"

"What about Jessie and Zoë?" Grace said sitting up straighter. 3 months. How the hell was she supposed to live in the same house as Eli for 3 whole months without her parents being there? This could not be happening.

Similar questions were running through Eli's own mind. It was one thing for the two of them to be living in the same house with their parents, but alone? With no one around to stop… stop it! Eli scolded himself. You promised yourself you would not think of her that way.

"Zoë will be staying with her father. He's really been wanting her to spend some more time with them now that he and Tiffany are married so I think this would be the perfect opportunity.

"And Jessie?" Eli asked, dragging his mind off thoughts of Grace.

"Your father still needs to speak to her, but she'll probably spend some time both here and with your mother. Now that your mother has recovered from the accident she's pretty busy with work and everything, so we figured that while your mum would love to see more of her, she'd probably want some time to herself. As for you guys, I'm sure you are both old enough to look after yourselves"

When mum announced that she and Rick were going to Australia and that she would be leaving me and Eli alone, together, in the same house I kind of freaked. I mean, I had only just slept with the guy and he was acting like it had never happened. He had gone back to pretending that I didn't exist and I was supposed to live with him alone for 3 months. The idea didn't exactly excite me.

The first couple of weeks after they left were awkward to say the least. I actually found myself being lonely, which isn't something that I was used to. With the amount of family that usually shared our house I had often found myself praying that they would all just go away, and now they had. Plus since school was over, and Carla and I were no longer friends, there wasn't much to do.

Jessie came by for a couple of nights both weeks and it's weird but during the time we actually grew to be quite close. We'd stay up late into the night, just talking about stuff that I could never talk to Carla about. I never mentioned Eli and it's a good thing that I didn't. In a way I miss those couple of weeks. So much has changed between Jessie and I now.

But anyway back to Eli. Something changed after those two weeks, and things were beginning to look up.

Authors Note: Thank you to everyone who has been reading this story, it's great to hear such positive feedback and its what keeps me writing.

Tara825c – I re uploaded the fourth chapter so hopefully you can read it now, I don't think anyone else has had any problems with it though.

thabita – I cant make any promises. I began writing this story with the intent on writing something completely different to my other Once&Again fanfic – Now and Then and I think that so far I have succeeded. I find that a lot of stories tend to gloss over Grace and Eli's relationship and make them out to be really happy, which is fine, but I really wanted to explore that other side to Eli a bit more. So regardless on how the story develops I hope you enjoy it and keep reading.

Lanny - Their lives are definatley about to become pretty complicated as I'm sure you can tell from this chapter. Like I said I won't make any promises but hopefully you like what I come up with.