A/N- Hey guys! Sorry it took so long for me to upload, I had like a MASSIVE case of writers block, so that's my excuse. I'm sure if I like how this chapter turned out, I would love if you guys told me what you thought!

Enjoy!(:

6: 42 am-

She wishes that it was dream. She stares out the window and she watches the sun rise, and even as the light floods her bedroom, and her alarms goes off, she still wishes it was a dream. She holds onto her bruised cheek, and her eyes keep scanning down the phone that laid in front of her. Eli's number glares at her on the screen, and no matter how much she wants to call him and cry to him about what happened, but she doesn't.

Maybe if she doesn't talk about it, it will just go away.

She doesn't want to worry Eli anyway.

7:34 a m-

There he is. He sits at one of the chairs in the kitchen, and his feet are propped up on the table, and Clare can't tell if he is drunk or not. She scared. She's scared of her own father. She stands at the stop of the stairs, but she can't go down. She just can't stand the thought of being hit again. Maybe if she goes quiet, he won't notice her, and then she can go to school and forget about it. at least for a little while.

"Clare." She flinches when he says her name, and her eyes are wide and her face his white. "Come down here." He looks up at her, and his words slur together. She knew that he would be drunk. She hesitates, and she clutches tight onto her arms and she feel likes breaking down right there.

"I said come here!" He rises to his feet, and his voice is loud and she wants to cry. "You disobey me?" He takes a few staggered steps forward. "I think someone deserves a punishment."

Clare can feel a tear run down her cheek.

"Please, No."

7:37 am-

The fourth time that he slapped her across the face she had had enough. She wasn't going to let her do this anymore.

"Stop it!" She screams so loud she can't believe that it came out of her mouth. "Stop it!" She repeats, and her father blinks, dropping his raised hand to his side. "why do you do this?" She yells at him through her tears. "Why do you this to me?"

Clare lets out a breath, and she is trembling. Hot tears run down her face and her cheeks are red. "You're my Dad! Your supposed to be the one that protects me, not the one that hurts me. You supposed to be the one that gives me hugs and tells me that everything is going to be alright. Your supposed to be there for me when I'm sad! Your supposed to be my dad!"

She stops. She shocked that those words came out of her own mouth, and she can't breath. She brings her pale hands up to her wet face, and mumbles into them.

"Why did you do this to our family?"

After moments of silence, she looks up. And she wants to her dad look like he feels bad. She wants him to hug her tight and apologize, and she wants him to tell her that he would never do it again. And she wants to believe him.

He just stood there, still drunk, and still an abusive parent.

That's when she ran. She ran out of the house as fast as she could, leaving her father, and leaving her life. She didn't go to school, and she didn't go to Eli's house. She went as far away as she could, until she couldn't run anymore.

7:52 am-

"Clare, are you in there? You don't have to spend extra time getting ready, you already have me!"

Eli knocked on Clare's front door for the fourth time. He had already waited 7 minutes. He had called her. He had texted her. He tried to sound cool, but Eli knew something was wrong.

"Clare!" He calls, and his calm voice breaks into a nervous one. "Are you in there?" he's banging on the door and he probably looks like an idiot, but he doesn't care. He knew something is wrong, and it would be his fault if anything happen to her. "Clare!"

"What the hell?"

Eli blinked when he was met with Clare's drunk father. He leaned against the door for support, with a bottle held loosely in his hands. "Why the hell are you making so much noise?"

He stares hard at the taller older man in front of him, and he clenches his fist. He wants to kill him. He deserves it. "Where's Clare?"

Randall let out a low laugh. "That little bitch? I don't know, She ran off. She couldn't take her punishment."

Eli almost punched him, but he wasn't worth it.

"Clare's a great person." Eli says, and Randall looks him in the eyes. "she doesn't deserve this." He turns around then, and over his shoulder he says, "Do her a favor, and get out of her life."

Eli got in his car and drove away, without giving Clare's father another glance. He didn't know where Clare was, but he was going to find her.

12:20 pm-

Clare has no idea where is. She sits in the corner booth had some restaurant with bad lighting where people sat on a small stage and read poetry. She stares down at her cup of hot chocolate that she bought with the two crumpled dollars that she had found in her back pocket. She was still crying, and she didn't care that everyone looked at her.

She feels her phone vibrate in her pocket and she knows it's Eli, she's sure of it. He's already called so many times. She pulls it out of her pocket, and the picture she took of him that one day at lunch his glowing on the screen. The phone hesitates in her shaky hand and she almost doesn't answer it.

"Hello?"

"Clare? Are you okay? What happened? Where are you?" She can hear the worry that's in his voice and it surprises her. She has never heard him talk like that, and it just makes her want to cry more. She doesn't reply at first, but Clare knows that Eli can hear her crying. "Clare!"

"Eli." She finally says, and her voice cracks.

"Clare." He sounds relived. "where are you?"

"He hits me." She says, and she doesn't even know if she can understand what she said through all her tears. She wipes her face with her trembling hand, and she shuts her eyes tight. "My own dad hits me, Eli!"

Eli doesn't say anything for a few moments, and she just sits there and cries. She wishes she was stronger. She wishes that she could stop crying and stand up tall and act like everything was okay even thought it wasn't. She wishes that she could be like Eli.

"I'm coming to get you." She finally hears him talk, and anger lingers in his voice. "Where are you?"

"I'm don't know, some little restaurant. I think it's called Rachel's diner or something." She mumbles, and her mouth gaps open for a minute before talking again. "I'm sorry Eli."

"Don't. I'm coming to find you, don't go anywhere, okay?"

"No." Clare says, and she doesn't know what came over her. She is confused, and hurt and she can't even think anymore. "I can't go back there. I can't stand the hitting, and all the yelling, and I can't stand to see my mom cry. I can't go back. I'm sorry Eli."

"Clare!"

She forces herself to hang up the phone then, and they way Eli said her name lingers in her head for several moments. She has no idea what she's doing, and she knows that she shouldn't, but she puts her phone away, wipes her face, and walks out of the restaurant anyway.

1:34 pm-

"Damn it Clare, answer the phone!" Eli shuts his phone tight, taking one last glance around Rachel's Diner. He had finally found the restaurant Clare said she was at, and she was no where to be found. Once more he dialed, and again she didn't answer.

He left immediately then, out into mucky sky, where rain was just starting to fall. He glances to both sides of her, and he almost expects her to be standing there, perfectly fine, and he can curse himself later for being so worried for no good reason, like he always does.

She wasn't there, and Eli knew it was different this time. He could feel it deep in his stomach, and he wasn't going to rest until he found her.

2:04 pm-

Clare was so stupid. What was she thinking, hanging up on Eli and running off in some place she had never been before? Now it was raining, her curls had fallen, her eyeliner had smudged, she was freezing cold, and she was completely lost.

She crumples against one of the walls in the alleyways between shops. She pulls her phone out of her pocket for the seventh time, praying that this would be the time she would have service. But of course, it wasn't. She lets out a deep sigh. She should of answered the phone when Eli had called before.

"Eli." She mumbles to herself, and she shuts her eyes tight, just hoping that it will all just go away. "I need you." She drops her head into her knees. She's done. Maybe if she sits here long enough, everything will just go away.

"Hey."

Clare is frozen in her place, and her eyes are wide. She knows that voice, she would know that voice anywhere. It the voice that makes her smile and laugh and it's the only voice that seems to make her feel better lately. It's Eli.

She looks up then, and she mumbles his name under his breath. He looks at her with wide eyes and an open mouth before he leans down, and they look at each other in the eyes.

"I don't know what I was thinking!" Clare blurts out, and Eli just sits there, and listens. "I just couldn't take it anymore! I couldn't stay in that house and let it ruin my life. I just had to get away." She tries to say more, but her words start turning into mush. He's just looking at her with those eyes of his, and she wants to start crying again. "Eli…"

He leans forward, gently placing his lips against her quivering ones, and then he rests his forehead against hers. "Don't do that every again." He finally whispers to her, and she can hear the pain in his voice. "I can't loose you, Clare."

She nods, and he helps her to her feet. He holds her tight, and Eli almost wants to cry at the sight of her. Her red eyes, and wet face, and the dark bruise that was plastered across her cheek. She's shaking in her arms, and the only thing Eli wants to do is make it better. He wants to hold her and never let her go.

"I don't want to go home." She finally says as they get in Eli's car. "I can't"

He's holding her hand tight, and he tries to muster up a smile, for her sake.

"You don't have to."

3:00 pm-

Eli's house was not at all what Clare had expected. There was paintings on the walls, and pictures on the fridge and a little bowl of fake fruit sitting on the kitchen table. He leads her in the house and he sits her down at the brown wooden table in the living room. He hands her what first appears to be a blanket, but laughs for the first time today when she discovers what it really was.

"A snuggie?"

Eli smirks, shrugging. "My mom has this weird obsession with ordering stuff off TV."

"That's cute." she mumbles and she slips on the red snuggie over her wet clothes. She likes it here, Clare decides. It's nice and homey and she smiles at the report card that was pinned up on the fridge with a Mickey mouse magnet. It reminds her of how it used to be.

Eli sits across from her then, and he hands her a glass of soda. When she reaches for it, there fingertips touch, brush against each other, and she bites her bottom lip. She didn't even have to look up to know that a large smirk was painted on Eli's face.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He finally says, after taking a long gulp.

"I don't know." She looks down at the table, and she can feel him watching her. "I just…" Clare can't find the right words, and let out a deep breath. "I just couldn't take it anymore." She glances up then, and he's just watching her with those bright green eyes, listening. "I don't want to go back."

"Isn't your dad moving out tomorrow?"

Clare lets out a sly nod before talking. "That's not going to fix anything. My sisters gone, and my mom so heartbroken she doesn't even notice me anymore. I'm all alone."

"Are you an idiot?"

"what?" Clare blinks at him, and Eli gets to his feet, walking over to Clare.

"I'm standing right here Clare, do you not see me?" He stands in front of her, his hands in his pockets and his eyebrow raised. She doesn't know what to say. "Your not alone Clare."

She can feel the smile form on her face, and she nods. Eli smiles at her then, leaning down to kiss her on the forehead.

Eli Goldsworthy. He was the one that was standing in front of her now. he was the one who had made her laugh when she felt like crying, he was the one who she could talk to no matter what, he was the one that made her blush and bite her lip, he was the one that cared. He was the one who was just driving out in the rain for hours to find her, when no one else was.

She was in love with Eli Goldsworthy.

4:15 pm-

Clare was terrible at rock band. She stands in front of the TV that sat in Eli's living room, and she was almost shocked at how terrible she had done. 47 percent?

"Your worse than I thought." He laughs, and she turns to him. She sits on the couch, twirling his drum stick in his hands. "I mean, who would of totally failed if I hadn't saved you. You need saving a lot, don't you, princess?"

Clare takes a look back at the screen, confused. How did Eli get 97 percent? She didn't know she was that bad.

"No, I don't!" She protested, shoving her guitar into Eli. "Maybe I'm better at the drums!"

Eli lets out a loud laugh as she takes the drum sticks from Eli, and positions herself at the drums. Clare is determined, and Eli thinks it's cute.

"Put on another song!"

7:20 pm-

3 hours of rock band. 3 hours of Guitar, drums and vocals. And Clare sucked at everyone of them. Her highest score was a 67. He had laughed at her every time her failing score came up on the screen, and that had only made her more determined.

Thank god that pizza came when it did. They sat on the living room floor, and Eli had put on the new Dead hand CD he had gotten. Clare had complained about how it was just noise, and Eli had told her she wouldn't know what good music was if it bit her in the butt. They talked and laughed, and Clare found it remarkable that they never stopped thinking of things to talk about.

11:56 pm-

He had given her an over sized t-shirt to wear to bed, and she looks really good in it. She lays on the couch, cuddling the hand-knitted sweater that Eli's mother had made. He sits on the ground next to her, holding her hand tight.

"Hey Eli." She mumbles and Eli knows that she's half asleep.

"Yeah, Clare?"

She lets out a loud yawn, shutting her eyes.

"I love you."