Thank you to my two wonderful reviewers: Yeye-Lubz2-Dream and eclarefanaticxoxo! I'm glad you two are reading this! I wasn't expecting this story to be that popular because I know a lot of people aren't that ecstatic but Eli/OC stories, and honestly, I'm not really either. But I have written about 10 stories about Eclare and I just wanted to do something different. Trust me, I am a 100% Eclare fan, they are my favorite fictional couple ever and I have never been this obsessive over a couple before. But I have always toyed with the idea with Eli falling in love with someone else other then Clare or Julia, and I was considering writing a Eli/Imogen story, but there isn't that much information on Imogen and I knew as soon as I started making up what I thought Imogen would be like, a promo or some kind of information would be released making my Imogen character and the real Imogen character seem like two different people. So I played it safe and made up Penny, who in a few ways is a lot like me! :P

When I got home, I ran upstairs and into the sanction of my room. I didn't know where my parents were, or if they were even home, and I honestly didn't care. If they were home, they knew better then to bother me right now so I didn't have to worry about confrontation or what I'd say to them.

After I closed my door, I collapsed on my bed. The image of Clare's shocked face in the gym just moments before, kept flashing through my brain and I felt my chest start to heave with a sharp pain I was all too familiar with in the last few months. Part of me wondered if that was the last time I'd see her until school started again. School was the only place I'd see her in the past two months. I didn't want this to be the last memory I had of her for the entire summer. I closed my eyes tightly, as I tried to block out the images and her voice. Somehow, it worked. And an image of Penny singing on stage last night replaced it.

My eyes shot open, shocked. I shook my head rapidly and rubbed my eyes roughly, pulling out a bunch of eyelashes in the process. I decided to distract myself by getting dressed and stood up and put on a pair of dark wash jeans and a simple black t-shirt. Then I heard my phone vibrate, but didn't know where in my room it was. Let's admit it, I'm not exactly a socialite so it's not like I use my phone too often. And ever since Clare and I broke up, I've barely been using it at all except to occasionally talk to Adam. So, it gets buried in my room under junk accidentally, a lot. Then I remembered, Penny had my number and said she was gonna text me. I started moving things around and looking under piles of junk but after fifteen minutes of searching, I still couldn't find my phone. I was about to give up when it buzzed again, and I had a good sense of what part of the room it was in now. And sure enough, it was on top of my desk, under a few comic books.

Two Text Messages, Unknown Number my phone read. I opened them, instantly disappointed.

They were spam from some ringtone company wanting me to buy a ringtone. I dropped my phone back on my desk without care and went back and laid down on my bed.

I don't know why I was so excited to hear from Penny again. It wasn't like I even knew her all that well, I mean, we met today and only were together for like 45 minutes. But when all the Alli/Clare awkwardness happened, she seemed so… understanding. When I was with Clare, she didn't understand how I felt. She was the listening type, but it wasn't like she completely understood. I just got a vibe from Penny… like she'd been in a similar situation as mine or something.

I laid on my bed for a good half an hour, lost in my thoughts. Then I realized: this was going to be my summer; sitting in my room, doing nothing. I sighed and stood up. I really didn't want to spend 3 months in this room, suffocating under the masses of junk, rotting away. This is exactly how I spent last summer, the first summer after Julia's passing. I would spend days on end in this room, only leaving occasionally to get food or use the bathroom. I was expecting this summer to be so much better, to have the warm days spent having fun with Clare and sometimes Adam; falling more and more in love with Clare.

My eyes stung with tears when those words entered my mind. The terrible realization hit me like a slap in the face, again; Clare and I would not exist together, ever again. And I had no one to blame but myself.

As I stood by my bed, my fists clenched, I had the urge to punch something. Now that Clare was just about out of my life completely, I basically had only a few people in my life; Adam and my parents. And since I was upset with 2/3 of those people, I just about have no one. I sunk back down on to my bed, overcome with loneliness like a pathetic loser.

Part of me wished I could go up to Clare, right now, and explain everything and make everything okay. But the other part of me, the sensible part, knew that she was probably moved on to some degree and wanted nothing to do with me. This was an example of love just not being enough.

I let a few tears slip out, but I had never been much of a crier so I quickly wiped them away and wouldn't let anymore out. This was one of those days where I felt like my world was crashing down, which in a way, it had and still was.

XXX

Sometime during my own personal pity-fest, I must have drifted up to sleep. I woke up to the sound of my phone buzzing again and I groggily go out of bed to go get my phone.

1 Message, Unknown Number

I felt my spirits rise as I opened the message and the first five words were: "Hi Eli, this is Penny." I had lost hope last night that she'd text, and just assumed that she thought I was pathetic and had her own fun by pretending she wanted to talk to me again. I smiled a bit to myself as I read the rest of the text.

"Sorry I didn't text sooner, there was an emergency band practice. Anyways, we got this last minute gig at the Ecohart Room downtown opening for some other local band and you should totally come! I can get you free tickets most likely and you looked like you could use a bit of cheering up yesterday. (: Anyways, text me back if you're interested."

I immediately typed out my response: "Sounds great! What time?"

My stomach then grumbled angrily, reminding me that I hadn't really eaten anything decent since before the dance, two days ago. I changed into some clean clothes and headed downstairs, in too good of a mood now to really care about avoiding my parents and too hungry to concern myself with anything other then food. As I leaped off the last stair and walked into the kitchen I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard a voice that I knew was very out of place here. All thoughts of food were gone as I followed where the voice was coming from, in the living room.

I didn't even try to hide my confusion or annoyance as I saw Alli sitting on our couch, my mom across from her.