Hey guys. Here's the last chapter for the night. I'll see you guys next week. Please feel free to review so that I know you guys are enjoying this.

Thanks. As always Read and Review.

Clare's POV

Ellie and I had just left the coffee shop, and were about to start heading to the train to go home, when I noticed a familiar face. Someone I definitely didn't expect to see here. Before I could even process my options on whether to talk to them or not, they spoke up.

"Clare?"

"Hi, Adam." I smiled kindly. I honestly didn't know how to act. I wasn't sure what the protocol, for running into an old friend, who you had a falling out with, was.

"What are you doing here?" He asked confused.

"I go to school here now." I replied, awkwardly.

"Oh." Adam nodded, before turning his attention to Ellie. "I'm Adam."

"Ellie." She replied kindly.

"Umm. Ellie, do you mind if I walk with Adam for a bit?" I spoke, turning to her.

"No. Not at all. I was going to meet Craig in an hour anyways." She smiled.

"Thanks. I'll see you at work tomorrow." I replied.

"Okay." She agreed, before turning back to Adam. "It was nice meeting you Adam."

"Yeah. You too." He said, as she walked away. He glanced at me, but didn't say anything. Obviously, no more sure about how to proceed than I was.

"So, how have you been?" I asked.

"I've been good. What about you?" He asked.

"Better than I have been in a while." I replied. He nodded, but didn't ask what I meant.

"So, since you have a coffee, do you mind if I grab one and then we can walk somewhere and catch up?" He asked.

"Sure. And this is hot chocolate." I said. I followed him inside, and waited with him while he got his coffee. We didn't talk much while we were in there. I think it was a mix of not knowing what to say, and not wanting to talk in front of people. I decided to break the silence, by speaking up, when we were walking down the street. "So I noticed that your voice is deeper, did you start on those pills you were wanting?"

"Yeah. For about six months now." He nodded.

"That's good." I said. "So, why are you here? In New York, I mean."

"I go to school here too." He replied. "At NYU."

"You do?" I asked surprised.

"Yeah. Eli and I share an off-campus apartment over there. We start there in a few weeks." He explained.

"Small world." I mumbled.

I didn't want to show how curious I was about Eli. I wanted to know everything. I missed having both of them in my life, especially Eli.

"So where do you go to school?" He asked.

"Columbia. I start in a few weeks also." I replied.

"It is a small world." He agreed. "Is Jake here too?"

"No. He is still in Boston. I wanted to do this on my own." I explained.

"So, Ellie mentioned that you work somewhere?" He prompted.

"Yeah. I just started working at the Core. It's a paid internship as a newspaper editor's assistant. It's not a big job but it's a start." I said. "Do you have a job?"

"Yeah. Eli and I are mechanics at a garage across the city. It's not ideal, but it pays the bills." He stated.

"Do you even know anything about cars?" I asked playfully.

"I didn't at first. Eli did. His car was always breaking down when he was a teenager, and when we applied for the job, he helped me out. Taught me what he knew. We learned the rest. It's not that hard to learn. We just needed jobs to supplement our apartment in Toronto and we didn't have our GEDs yet so we needed a job that didn't require them." He explained.

"I missed a lot, haven't I?" I asked sadly. I hadn't known they had done so much in the past year.

"You have." He nodded.

"I'm sorry Adam." I said bluntly. "I was cruel. I never even said goodbye to you. And I wasn't fair in the way I told Eli."

"Clare." He sighed. "To be honest, you were a bitch. You decided to run from your problems rather than deal with them, and you decided to tell us in the worst possible way. You didn't even come back for Alli's funeral or the memorial for all of the kids who died over the years by Asher's hand. Worst of all, you didn't even come back for the trial." He sighed again, sitting down in a bench. We had ended up in a park near my dorm. I sat next to him before I spoke.

"I couldn't face it Adam." I began. "I couldn't do it. It was too much for me. I had my family avoiding me, pretending I didn't exist. I had to move in with Jake. I had to deal with my breakdowns and my issues. I had to adjust to a new country, new town. I couldn't go to the funeral. I called Alli's parents, and I met with them privately beforehand. I told them everything they wanted to know. And they understood why I couldn't go to the funeral. I even gave them a letter to read at the funeral from me. I wanted everyone to know who she was. Before she was taken. Not who she was during. And as for the trial, I was in a bad place when the trial was going on. I isolated myself Adam. I wanted to disappear. To die. I even contemplated it a couple times. There was no way I could even think about going to the trial. My therapist said it wasn't good for me." I didn't realize until after that I was crying.

"Clare. I understand you had things you had to go through. I should know better than just about anyone, about the things you went through in there. However, you shouldn't have shut us out. Eli and I. We thought we were in this together. Eli, especially, it took him weeks to realize that you weren't going to call him. Months to realize that you weren't coming back to Toronto. It wasn't fair to leave him like that. You're right Clare. You had issues you needed to deal with, but so did he. And you didn't help. You left him. When he needed you most. You left him. He went through a lot of crap after you left. He called you. He wanted to just hear your voice. Just once. He called you so many times hoping and praying you'd answer, and I'd even called you a couple times when it was really bad for him. Clare. You may have wanted to kill yourself, but Eli tried. Twice." He stated.

"What?" I asked, shocked. "But he was okay. He was okay when I left him." I couldn't believe he would do something like that.

"He was. But that was because he was good at hiding everything. He was good at hiding things that hurt him. Eventually it all just exploded to the surface." He explained.

"Is he okay?" I asked worried.

"Now." He stated. "I think you need to see him. I think you should hear everything from him. And I think you should give him the answers he deserves."

"I don't know. I hurt him. I don't think he wants to see me." I sighed.

"Clare. This isn't necessarily about you. He needs answers so he can move on. One way or another." I didn't ask him what he meant by that. "And I think that if you want any semblance of normalcy around here, you better talk with him. Because if he finds out that you are here, and that you know that he's here, and you didn't say anything, he won't be civil." Adam explained.

I could see that Adam had grown up. More so than he did because of that place. He seemed even more grown up now. Maybe it was the hormones he was on, maybe it was the fact that they have lived on their own in the real world for a year. Who knows? All I knew was that he seemed like a different person now. One, who wasn't the broken person from that place. He had found his place in the world.

"I know. I'll talk to him. Is his number still the same?" I asked.

"This shouldn't be done over the phone." Adam retorted.

"I know. I just—" I sighed, trying to find the right words. "I think the phone is best at first. I'll meet him somewhere. I promise. But I think I should at least return his phone call."

Adam nodded, before speaking again. "Okay. I'm sorry to overwhelm you with everything. This was not how I planned running into you again."

"Me neither." I exhaled, wiping my face. "So. Where are your parents?" I asked wanting to change the subject. "Did they come to New York too? Because I remember that they really wanted you to spend a lot of time with them."

"No. They are back in Vancouver. They lived nearby when Eli and I lived in Toronto, but they kept their house in Vancouver. So when Eli and I decided to move here, they moved back there. After a lot of arguing and begging on my part for them not to follow us down here." He smiled.

"Well they did lose you for three years. That's a long time for a parent. Especially if they think that they will never see you again. And then all of a sudden you are back in their lives. It's a big adjustment. And I'm not surprised they wanted to keep you close afterwards. I wish my parents did that after. Instead they didn't even bother to acknowledge that I exist. They send mail and phone calls to Jake, letting him know that they miss him and that he is welcome for the holidays. Nothing for me, and no mention of me in any of his." I sighed.

"I'm sorry they haven't stopped being idiots. What about your sister did she come back around?" He asked hopeful.

"She has her own issues to work through and I only just remind her of her issues. It's not worth getting into but she is back living in Kenya now. I haven't spoken to her in months, but then again that was the same beforehand too. She didn't contact us then either." I said.

"At least you have Jake." He reassured.

"Yeah. But he's in Boston. I've made a few friends but they don't know about my past. And I would like to keep it that way." I sighed.

"Well. I'm here for you. I'd like to be friends again." He replied.

"I'd like to, too." I said smiling.

"So. I have to go. I have some homework to finish before class tomorrow." He stated, standing up.

"Okay." I replied, standing up as well.

"Your number is still the same right?" He asked. I nodded, before he continued. "Okay. I'll call you and we can meet up again."

"Great." I smiled.

"Have a good night, Clare." He said, before turning and walking in the opposite direction that we came from.

"You too." I called back, before heading back the way we came.