A/N: Hey guys, I'm sorry that it's taken a while, but finals are next week and I've been preparing a lot. This chapter didn't turn out quite as planned, either, but I hope you guys like it!
She had no idea where she was going, but Clare knew that she needed to keep running. Her face was flaming, and she could almost hear her heart pounding in her ears. She had to get out of here. She had to leave.
Eli Goldsworthy had kissed her.
Eli Goldsworthy had just been her very first kiss.
Dear God, Eli Goldsworthy had used his tongue on her.
Clare was so embarrassed, she thought she was going to die. What had she just done? She had broken her very first rule: Never get attached. And she should never have gotten attached to a guy she had just met, and who had just stopped trying to hate her less than twelve hours ago. How in the hell had she fallen so fast?
She normally wasn't this much of an idiot.
No, you're not, her subconscious agreed cheerfully as her lungs began to ache from running, but apparently you get all hot and bothered by a guy who takes the time to use his hands on you. She couldn't help the very, very small smile that crept to her lips when she realized that her thoughts had transitioned from figuratively to literally. Not only did he sign to her, but he certainly used his hands on other parts of her body.
No, she shouldn't be thinking like that!
But she couldn't help it. Clare bit her lip when she realized that she had been running and had found herself on a main street, but had no idea where she was in relation to her own house. It was getting darker, and nothing looked familiar, and she was momentarily struck with panic before she sighed and pulled out a beat up, out-of-date cell phone that was good for only one purpose: texting.
Hey you. I'm stuck. Can you maybe pick me up?
She had only to wait for a moment, which she wisely spent by catching her breath, before another text flew up on her screen. Yo babe! As long as U party 4 me…
Clare rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to laugh. So like him, too. You know I can't rock out anymore she texted back.
Come on. I'm sure U remember what UR doin. Gimme directions.
Clare's fingers twitched with the urge to…well, perhaps she shouldn't even think about it just yet. She texted the cross streets and then waited until a car pulled up, blaring the speakers so hard that she could feel the vibrations when she placed her hands on the car handle. With another roll of her eyes, she grinned at the man in the driver's seat. "Still the same crappy music, I see," she said over the music.
The man grinned. "Hey, don't disrespect the music," he teased.
They drove in silence for a while until he reached a stop light, and then reached over a touched her knee to get her attention. "Tell me what the problem is," he said.
Clare had to momentarily smile. They had picked up right where they had left off. Or more specifically, where she had just…left.
The light turned green just as he turned the stereo down so that he could hear her, and Clare shrugged. "I don't know, Jay. It's this guy, and he's amazing. He signs to me so that I don't have to talk a lot, and he beat up a guy at school for me. But, he told me that he had just stopped trying to hate me because it wasn't working, and then he kissed me." She peeked out from under her bangs to see Jay grinning like mad, his eyes glued to the road. "What are you smirking about?"
"My little girl's growing up," he teased, turning to speak to her before his eyes shot back to the road.
"Shut up," Clare mumbled, punching his large shoulder lightly. "Just drive."
They drove down the road, completely unaware of the black hearse that was following several cars behind them, its lights turned off.
Clare was actually glad that she was deaf when she entered the slightly dilapidated building that Jay had parked in front of, only finding a spot because he was the owner and possessed his own parking spot. The music was so loud that she could feel the glorious pounding through her rib cage, speeding up her heart rate and making a smile flit across her face.
"Clare!" someone yelled excitedly, and Jay tapped Clare on the shoulder to indicate that someone wanted her.
Clare turned, and immediately, her face broke out into a dazzling smile. "James!" She jumped into the arms of one of her old friends without another thought.
He held her tightly, and then moved back one pace so that he could ask, "What are you doing here?"
Clare laughed and couldn't help her sarcasm as she asked, "Ready to see me go already? Well fine, James, I'll just go right now." She turned mockingly, huffily, but James pulled her back before she could take a step, holding her gently around the waist. "Don't leave," he said softly, and Clare knew immediately that she was the only one in the crowded club that could even hear him. "Please don't leave. Not again."
A stab of pain shot through her heart, twisting and striking so hard that Clare could not breathe for a moment as the guilt washed over her. Everything came rushing back in such a dizzying display of memories , and Clare twisted her head to the side so that she could press her cheek into her friend's shoulder. James said nothing, but held her tightly until she stopped shaking.
With a sniff, Clare pulled away to give James a watery smile. "Enough," she said loudly, having to practically shout over the pounding beat. "Jay brought me here to find our gang."
James blinked, momentarily thrown off balance. He had not been expecting that. Anything but that. "Uh, yeah," then, "Yeah! Of course they're here." He watched her carefully and asked, "You want me to go get them?"
Clare glanced over towards Jay, who had begun to chat and mingle, showing off his dance moves like always. "I'm not so sure how good it'll sound, but I promised Jay, so yeah."
She hadn't even finished nodding before James was kissing her forehead and bounding off into the crowd. She had missed that.
Clare grinned and began making her way through the crowds of people out on the dance floor. Jay saw her moving through the crowd towards the side of the stage and moved away from the leggy brunette he had been dancing with so that he could catch up with her. He lifted Clare over the boards that closed off backstage and then climbed over after her. "We saved it for you," he told her, taking a long black case off the shelf and grinned. "Knock yourself out, Clare Bear."
And then, before Clare could say anything to him, the other two guys of her past were there, hugging her tightly and chatting over each other before James made them slow down and take turns. Clare was momentarily embarrassed, but no one seemed to notice. If it was possible, they just picked up right where they left off.
"Guys," she said softly, but then the lights on the stage were going off spastically, just the way Jay liked them, and she heard the vibration of someone booming on the mic, and she knew it must be Jay.
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Jay boomed, and Clare had to laugh when she saw him playing disc jockey. "Give it up for the reunion of Chemical Reactions!"
Brandon, James, and Charlie led the way out onto the stage, and Clare could feel the boom of the crowd in her chest as they cheered for the band that had been a regular attraction…before the accident. With shaking fingers, she pulled up on the latches on the case and pulled out the instrument within. Could she do this again?
But then the strobes were flashing again, and Clare saw Brandon start up on the drums, and she knew that she had no choice. With semi-confident steps, she strode onto that stage and felt the rush of adrenaline flow through her veins as she saw the writhing dance floor beneath her. Her right hand came down hard, striking the first chord of the song she had played so many times before, but never when she had been unable to hear the music.
Toes tapping to keep the beat.
Sweat rolling down her temples in two-measure increments.
Fingers moving across the strings of her guitar.
Sliding over by the woofers to feel the beat more clearly as James belted out the lyrics she herself had written so long ago. Back when…she was still here.
Lights touching her face like stars shining from heaven. Like one last chance to make it right.
The music seemed to speak to her now much more than it had before. Now that she could not actually hear the music, she resorted to feeling the bass through the woofers, reading James' lips as he sang to the gyrating crowds.
It was so freeing to be back here. Why had she waited so long?
Clare's fingers slid down along the frets, caressing them like long-lost friends as she began to regain the rhythm of the music, bobbing her head to the beat of the bass and the movements of Jay's body as he managed the sound control. She grinned at Brandon and then glanced out at the crowd as her brief guitar solo came up. As her fingers moved over the strings, Clare abstractly thought how awesome it was that she could still remember the one gift that had been hers when she had still had the ability to hear.
After all, it was her that had had all the talent. Never Clare.
It was during the amazing strobe show that Jay was amassing that Clare caught a glimpse of a familiar face before the crowd went dark again. Clare focused on the spot until the next round of lights, and it was then that she saw him leaning against the bar, watching her with an interested, amused look on his face.
Her heart sped up, bouncing around in her ribcage as fast as the strobes.
Eli Goldsworthy.
Oh God, he must have followed her from his house, and now he knew about her hideout, something her own parents didn't even know. Shoot. That meant that she would have to face him, and by the smirk on his face, he knew it too.
They band played three more of their old songs, and the crowd booed when Clare motioned that she needed to call quits. After two years of a "vacation," her fingers and wrists weren't quite what they used to be. "We'll be back," she promised Jay as he hugged her and waved.
She hugged her old bandmates and placed her guitar back in the case before making her way back towards the bar. She was within ten feet of Eli when someone else suddenly blocked her path.
"Well, well, well," the person said. "Haven't seen you in a while, Darcy."
Clare stiffened, glancing up into the face of the boy that had ruined her life. If she never saw him again in her life, it would have been too soon, but now that he was gripping her arms in a death grip, with four of his guys subtly flanking them so as not to cause attention, she felt fear lace through her.
This was the man that had killed her sister.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! And yes, there will be a kiss next chapter. Thanks so much for sticking with me! :D Please review!