A/N: I feel the need to go ahead and address this: Clare is 15 and will be going into 10th grade. Eli is 16 and will be going into 11th grade, just like the show. But they're on summer break right now. Also, before I get any hate, I know that Clare is OOC. This is an AU fic. If you don't like it then DON'T READ IT!

Two days after my little "incident", there was a knock at the door. Expecting it to be another annoying person from church, I ignored it and continued watching television.

"Helen, answer the door!" my dad yelled.

"Why don't you get it?" my mother yelled back.

"Fine, I will!" My dad got up from the kitchen table, where I can assume he was signing divorce papers, and walked over to the door. Murmuring under his breathe about my mother, he answered the door. I turned around to see who was there, and to my extreme shock, it was Eli.

"Who are you?" my father asked. Way to be polite, dad.

Eli coughed awkwardly. "Um, hi, I'm Eli," he paused. "Goldsworthy. Eli Goldsworthy. Uh, is there a Clare here?"

My father eyed him up and down. "Yes, can I ask why you want to know?"

"I was wondering if she could come out and talk to me," responded Eli.

My father's eyes wondered over to me. "Clare, do you know this boy?"

My eyes were wide open from the entire situation, but I just nodded, a little stunned. "Yeah. I do."

My dad looked back and forth between me and Eli, obviously trying to tell if we were going to actually talk, or if he was going to "corrupt" me behind the flower pot. Which would never happen. He sighed. "Fine, don't take too long."

I got up from the couch and hurried to the door, closing it gently behind me. "Eli? What the hell are you doing here? I figured I'd never see you again, I mean, it's nice to see you and stuff, but uh, yeah, I figured that the night you dropped me off that it would just be a one time thing and we'd pretend we'd never even met each other, but I mean, it's still…"

"Clare! You're talking ninety miles an hour! Chill!" Eli said.

I took a deep breathe. "Sorry, I guess it's just a little surprising to see the dude, who, basically saved my life just randomly showing up at my door."

"Yeah, sorry. I just came to see how you are," he responded softly.

My eyes shifted to look at my feet, and my fingers were tugging at the sleeves of my sweater. "Me? Oh, I'm fine. That night really, uh, changed my perspective on, uh, life." I glanced up at him, attempting a smile.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "I don't know you very well, but I can definitely tell when someone is lying."

My cheeks turned red. "Oh, uh…" my voice trailed off. I wasn't even sure how to respond to that.

He shook his. "Sorry, sorry. I should probably learn to be less blunt."

I shrugged. "It's okay."

I shifted my gaze to look directly at him, and realized he was studying me, almost staring. Feeling weird under his gaze, I timidly asked, "What exactly are you looking at?"

He smiled a little. "Nothing, you just have pretty eyes."

My cheeks flushed. "Thanks. I'll, uh, see you around?"

He smiled. "Actually, do you wanna go do something right now? We can just hang out, get to know each other a little better."

My mouth opened a little bit in shock. He was asking me to hang out? Me, of all people? I was a negative, boring, and depressed person. "Um, sure. But, I can't guarantee that they'll let me," I said, angling my thumb at the door, to imply that my parents might not like the idea.

He grinned. "Well, can't hurt to ask, right?"

I nodded, unsure of the entire situation. "Yeah, uh, be right back," I said, and walked back into my house. I found my dad and said, "Hey, um, Eli wants to know if me and him can go hang out."

It didn't take him two seconds to think before he said, "No. The kid, quite frankly, looks sketchy and plus I don't even know him."

My mom walked into the room then, and said in an irritable tone, "Oh Randall, just let her. She deserves to go out, and we can trust her. Besides, we have some things to talk about," she said, glaring at him. By "things" she obviously meant they were talking about the divorce.

My dad sighed in defeat. "Fine. Clare, we trust you, don't do anything to ruin that," he said.

I nodded. "I won't." I went upstairs and slid on a pair of flip flops, then left the house before I had to listen to them yell at each other.

"So," I said, walking down the steps with Eli, "Where are we going?"

Eli shrugged. "I was thinking the park. It's nice there."

I smiled a little. "Okay. Um, are we taking the hearse?"

Eli looked at me in mock hurt. "He has a name, you know. I think we already went over this."

I rolled my eyes. "Right, sorry. I meant to say, are we taking Morty?"

He grinned. "Yes, we are. Come on." We walked down the sidewalk to Morty and he opened the door for me. I smirked at him.

"What a gentleman," I teased.

"Shut up," he mocked, going around to his side of the car and starting the ignition.

Soon enough we arrived at the park, and I closed my eyes and smiled a little. The air was really warm and "happy". It was nice.

"Come on," said Eli, walking around to the more shaded area of the park, and sitting down on the grass. I followed behind and sat beside him, keeping my distance because I didn't want to seem clingy or weird.

Eli smiled and said, "Why do you always look so damn on edge?"

I looked at him weirdly. "I didn't know that I did."

"You do. You look like you're afraid of… life. Like you're afraid of being yourself."

I shrugged. "I guess life just got to me."

He looked at me, with real concern on his face. "That's never good to hear."

"Whatever, though. I deal with it," I said, twisting a piece of grass around my finger.

"Can I ask you something?" Eli said, completely changing the subject.

"Um, yeah, sure," I said, surprised by the random question.

"Why are you wearing long sleeves in the summer?" he asked softly.

I turned my face completely away from him. Of course, the one question people always end up asking. Dropping the grass from my fingers, I'd timidly faced him and said, "I, I'm, really, uh, cold natured. I pretty much always wear long sleeves."

"Clare…" he trailed off.

"What?" I said. I knew he knew, but I wasn't going to give in and say it.

"Honestly tell me why you're wearing long sleeves."

Tears my filled my eyes. I hated this. I hated talking about it. I said in a choked voice, "I think you can figure out why."

He nodded. "Hey, Clare. Don't cry. I'm not going to judge you."

I shook my head, crying more. "Why not? Just go right damn ahead. Everyone else judges me. They call me a freak, they call me emo, they call me weird. Just go right ahead."

"I'm not going to judge you, ever, Clare. I promise. I think you're a really good person, even if I don't know you very well, and I'd like to be someone you can trust."

I nodded. "Thank you, Eli."

"No problem."

I wiped my eyes, and took a deep breathe, trying to regain my composure. "So your last name is Goldsworthy, huh? What are you, Jewish?" I asked.

Eli laughed. "No, actually, I'm an atheist. And before you ask, no I don't worship the devil or have a basement where I keep my human sacrifices."

I giggled. "I didn't think that."

"Oh, sorry. People just are quick to assume that sometimes. So, I can assume your Christian?" he asked, nodding towards the silver cross around my neck.

I twisted the chain around my finger and shrugged. "I guess."

He raised an eyebrow. "You guess?"

"I question whether there's even a God sometimes."

He grinned in mock wickedness. "Well, can I persuade you to join the Dark side?" he said in a pretend scary voice.

I laughed a little, and said half-joking, "I'm starting to wonder if I'd be better off not believing in anything."

"Well, anytime you're ready to ditch your faith, I can initiate you into atheism," he said.

"Wait, there's an initiation?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. That sounded kind of weird.

He laughed. "I'm kidding, Clare!"

I smacked his arm. "You suck."

"Ouch!" he said, feigning hurt as he laid back on the grass. I laid down beside him and we just stared at the sky for a few minutes.

Finally I sighed and said happily, "Eli, hmm, is that short for Elijah?"

"Yep," he answered.

"Well, Elijah Goldsworthy, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship."

A/N: Sorry, this was a little bit of a filler chapter. I don't want this story to get boring but at the same time I don't want to rush into anything. I want them to get to know each other. Next chapter I'm thinking that instead of Eli discovering some of Clare's secrets, Clare will discover some of Eli's secrets. And then I'm hoping after that to get some romance started. Stay with me, okay? Don't get bored and leave!

Also, I'd like to say that I'm going to write whether I get reviews or not, just because I fucking love writing, but it IS really, really nice to get reviews, even if it's just something simple like "I like it!" It makes me feel like my hard work is worth it. Okay, see you guys later!