Chapter 5

"I can't stand it Coop, Lily and Rick have been gone for 2 weeks. Two whole weeks and we have barely said a word to each other except for 'what would you like on your pizza' or 'is Chinese alright with you?'"

"Eli, come on, you had sex with her, then disappeared the next morning, what do you expect"

Eli shook his head, "I don't know what I expected, I didn't think that far ahead, but it sure as hell wasn't this. She won't even look at me"

"Maybe she's embarrassed? Or scared. That whole scene with Carla couldn't have been easy on her"

"I know. I should never have slept with her Coop. She deserves more than that for her first time"

"Eli, I hate to break it to you but I'm guessing she didn't mind losing it to you. Fuck, there's a long list of girls behind her"

"Shit Coop, don't say that"

"Why not, it's the truth. Listen man, you gotta stop going round in circles. You need to talk to her man"

"Every time I try to talk to her I keep thinking of the way she looked that night"

"Eli, I honestly have run out of things to tell you. Just talk to her okay"

"Grace, can I ask you a question?" Jessie asked nervously playing with a strand of her blonde hair.

"Sure"

"What does it mean when a guy kisses you but then the next day he acts as if you don't even exist?"

Grace shook her head, god if only she knew, how the hell am I supposed to answer that when I have the exact same question. Apart from the kissing bit, but still.

"This boy, is he a friend of yours?"

"Well he was, or at least I thought he was, but things are really weird now, its been three days and he won't even look at me"

"If he was your friend then my guess is that his scared. Boys aren't always great at talking about how they feel"

"But how do I know if it meant something?" Just because it meant nothing to Eli it doesn't mean that it meant nothing to me, why doesn't he realize that?

"The only thing you can do is talk to him Jess, I know it won't be easy but then you will know for sure" God, listen to me, maybe I should take some of my own advice.

Grace flicked on her stereo and then sprawled across her bed.

"Everybody's talkin'
But they don't say a thing
They look at me with sad eyes
But I don't want their sympathy
It's cool you didn't want me
Sometimes you can't go back
But why'd you have to go and make a mess like that?
Well I just have to say
Before I let go..."

Laughing at the irony of the song that was playing she flicked it off again.

AT THE SAME TIME

Unknown to Grace Eli had followed her upstairs, he knew he had to talk to her but he couldn't quite make himself speak her name. Now he was standing outside her door, urging himself to knock, without a clue in regards to what he was going to say.

Just do it you idiot, what happened to Mr. Cool. She's just a girl that's it.

GRACES BEDROOM

Just go downstairs and talk to him, Grace tried to convince herself. Standing up she took two steps towards the door and then stopped. I can't do-

A knock at the door broke into her thoughts.

"Grace" Eli said, sounding a little bit surprised, or maybe he was just nervous, "uh hi" yep definitely nervous, Grace thought to herself trying to not to smile.

"Well yeah, it is my door, were you expecting someone else?" Grace asked dryly.

"Uh no um, I just ah" Eli stumbled over his words, forcing himself to stop he finally dragged his eyes of the floor to meet hers. She was smiling, no, not smiling, laughing, at him. "Oh, sorry" he shook his head, smiling himself 'it's just that I got myself so worked up to come here and talk to you that I kinda forgot what I was meant to be doing"

"You want to come in?" Grace asked gesturing inside her room.

Eli looked at her unmade bed and swallowed, "ah no, that's probably not a great idea" an image of Grace tangled up in the sheets of his ow unmade bed flashed into his mind.

"Ok" Grace nodded, "so um, you wanted to say something?"

"Yeah ah" Eli shoved his hands in his pockets making a split decision to just say whatever came to his mind. "Look this is stupid, us not talking to each other, not even looking at each other"

"Whose fault is that" Grace asked struggling to keep the smile on her face.

"Okay yeah I know I've been a jerk but I wasn't sure how to act. I mean the next morning I felt so bad okay. It was your first time and it should have been with someone who loved you. You were drunk and I took advantage of that"

"Look Eli, I don't regret sleeping with you so you shouldn't feel guilty. You told me from the start that it was just sex and I still choose to sleep with you. And don't say I wasn't thinking straight, because I knew exactly what I was doing"

"But"

"No buts Eli. I'm glad my first time was with you. I wanted it to be with you, and I understand that it doesn't mean anything, so no I'm not expecting anything except for you to be my friend. It hurt so much waking up the next morning to find that you had gone Eli. That you couldn't even stick around long enough for me to wake with you beside me"

"I never meant to hurt you"

"I know" Grace nodded, smiling once again, Eli loved her smile and as hard as he tried not to he felt himself being drawn to it.

"And I promise I won't let it happen again" Eli said taking a step towards her.

"Uh huh"

"Unless you ah want it to happen again" Eli asked, his eyes glued to hers.

"Umm" Grace was unable to answer, her heart beating furiously she thought back to that night and how good it had felt when he held her in his arms. She knew she should take a step back and close her door but knowing you should do something and actually doing it were two totally separate things.

Reaching out Eli stroked the softness of her cheek with his hand.

Taking a deep breath Grace make a decision, closing the gap between them she brought her lips to his, kissing him hard on the lips. Eli didn't hesitate to kiss her back and he accepted her warmly as she parted his lips with her tongue.

Wrapping her arms around his neck Grace moved backwards, pulling Eli into her room, she pulled back for him long enough to take a breath and close her bedroom door.

"What are we doing?' Eli asked his conscience kicking in.

"Nothing that I haven't wanted to do for the past two weeks" Grace assured him, moaning softly as he trailed kisses up her collarbone.

"Uh huh" he whispered moving his lips back to her mouth, "me too" and with that he pushed her back onto her bed.

"Grace wait" Eli forced the words out of his mouth as she pulled her shirt up and over her head.

"For what?" she smiled, god she looked so hot, Eli shook his head.

"Uh, this can't happen" he closed his eyes as Grace leaned down over him to kiss him. Maybe if he didn't have to see how beautiful her body was then he could say no.

"Why not" she whispered softly, and he felt her lips on his neck. "Come one Eli, its doesn't have to mean anything" she laughed, her hands slipping underneath his shirt she tried to pull it off but couldn't as he was laying down.

"Your right" Eli nodded sitting up and pulling off his shirt. He laughed as Grace pushed him back down on the bed roughly.

"I want you, and that's all that matters right now" Grace whispered.

I hadn't been lying when I said that something had changed between Eli and I, after that sex became a big part of my life, with Eli anyway. But soon it wasn't just sex, Eli introduced me into a world that I knew existed, but thatI had never been a part of. I never wanted to be a part of it, until I realised that it was also Eli's world. And by that stage I was pretty much prepared to do anything if i thought it would bring him one step closer to saying those three little words that I thought would mean so much.

Lyrics from Kelly Clarkson's song 'Low'

Authors Note: Finally and update, hope you guys like it, regardless I'd love to hear from you. The sooner and more you review the more you will get in return.