Chapter 9

(Present Day)

"So that's it then?" Ali frowned. "You broke it off that night?"

"Well," Claire said, "Not exactly."

(1 and half months earlier)

"What took you so long? I was starting to get worried." Craig stood up from the picnic table and pulled Claire into a hug. The night was warm and the moon was almost full, illuminating the playground around them. Claire felt herself choke up at the thought of what she was about to do and the thought of never hugging him again, reading his playful text messages or kissing those lips again.

"Hey what wrong?" He looked down at her, notice the stiffness in her body. "Did something happen?"

"No. Yes. Kind of." Claire looked at her shoes and searched for the words to tell this sweet, sweet boy goodbye.

"Come here, it's okay." He led her to the picnic table and helped her sit down before sitting down close to her and wrapping his arms around her. "Tell me what happened, Babe."

"It's just," she looked up at him and felt the tears rolling down her cheeks. "I found Darcy's phone and I know I shouldn't have but I looked and you were blowing her off to be with me and we can't keep doing this to her." She babbled, the tears flowing freely now.

"Claire," he whispered, wiping the tears away with his thumb. "I know. I feel really bad about all of this too. The lying, the cheating, I told myself that I would never be that guy again..."

"I hate lying to her. Even if she is a total bitch, she's my sister." Claire sniffed.

"I know, I hate the lying too. But how exactly am I supposed to say that I don't want to be with her because I'm falling for her sister?"

"You're falling for me?" Claire looked up at him and smiled gently.

"Yes, and I know it's only been a short period of time but, I think that we really have something here. And I don't want to give that up, Claire." He smiled down at her and pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"So where do we go from here?" she asked, hoping that he would have the answers she was so desperately searching for.

"Well, actually, Joey's taking Angela to some used car salesman convention in Maine this weekend and I sort of asked Sav and he said that he would cover for you and you could say that you were spending the weekend with Ali…" he looked at her with a sort of hopeful puppy look.

"Are you asking me to sleep over your house? " She was grinning now, both thrilled and completely shocked that this moment was even happening in her life.

"Yeah, I mean we don't have to do anything or whatever. We could just order pizza and watch movies. "

"But what about D- I mean where are you supposed to be that weekend?"

"I'm at the car show with Joey and Ang, if anyone asks. So what do you think?"

"I think that if we get caught, I will be murdered by a lot of different people. But it would be worth it, to be with you." She crawled into his lap and looked into his eyes.

"You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that."

He smiled down at her and kissed her gently. She tangled her fingers into their usual spot in the hair on the nape of his neck and kissed him harder. I want this, and I deserve to be selfish just this once, she thought, it's my turn to get the guy this time…