A/N Sorry I haven't been updating guys. I had to stay at my sisters house awhile and my mom has been monitoring my account because she doesn't want me to write.
Eli's POV
I swallowed. Smooth, Eli. The little cynical voice in my head said. I took the book from her hand and slowly pulled myself up, ignoring the man's apology. Clare looks different. Still gorgeous, but she looked skinner. Way skinnier. I tensed myself as if I were about to get hit. I knew the pain that Clare could cause…but right now she looked so innocent. "Eli." Clare said, and her face flushed. Her sapphire eyes glittered. I stood there like an idiot. I had no idea what to say. Clare smiled, and my heart tugged me forward, trying to pull me to her. Pain filled my chest. Shit. I fumbled for my pills. After Clare and I had broken up the doctors found out I had a heart condition. I had heart palpitations. "Clare." I finally managed to say the name that my mind shied away from since high school. The name caused so much pain. She smiled wider. "How about you sit down and we can talk? It's been a while." She said this so casually. Did I ever mean anything to her? And yet I couldn't say no. I never could say no to her. I numbly pulled the chair out and sat down, my hands shaking. What was I doing? This could only end with me getting hurt. But, as my therapist had told me, I had a tendency to do self-destructing things.
Clare clutched her coffee. Was she cold? Why did I care? She had ditched me. "So. Um, how are you?" I asked, averting her eyes. I looked at the cracks in the ceiling as the raindrops pelted the roof. I shouldn't be doing this. "I'm okay." Clare said. My eyes went to hers immediately. There was something in her voice that was breaking, the same desperate lying voice that Clare had used in high school. She said it the exact same way she had used to tell me she was fine, when her eyes screamed anguish. Her blue ocean eyes looked just as sad as they had then. "Are you sure?" I whispered. I couldn't help it. Why did I still care? Why couldn't I just let her go? Her eyes changed. They were suddenly guarded. I had said the wrong thing. "Yes. I'm sure." She said, trying to make her voice cold. Clare could never pull off menacing. She looked down at the table. "So, what about you? What are you doing in New York?" Clare asked me. My voice was monotone when I answered. "Part time college for my masters in English lit. Writing. What about you?"
"Well, I think I'm done with college. I'm probably just going to get a job teaching elementary kids somewhere. But you're writing, that's great. What are you writing?" Clare spoke quickly, and her eyes gleamed. She seemed relaxed. "Uh, just a novel." I said. "Are you going to teach back in Toronto?"
Clare's eyes darkened, storm clouds covering the perfect skies. "No, no. Probably down here somewhere."
The rest of the conversation didn't matter much. We talked about boring, trivial things. Our new lives. Neither of us had gotten married, something that baffled me. 'Well,' I thought, 'it's fate.'
As Clare talked a little bit more about her life, her new apartment, how she had finally gotten a cat, and how much she missed Fiona and Adam, something blossomed in my chest. It was a permanent, solid thing. It didn't matter if I didn't want it to happen, my emotions couldn't stop it. In just a few minutes, I had fallen head over heels in love with Clare Edwards again. And there was nothing I could about it.
AN: A little short. Sorry guys, my house has been chaos. Imma try to update once every week. J for more Eclare! Should the next chapter be at Clare's house (rawr)?