Her eyes remained fixed on her dining room table as Jack paced around the room. She rubbed her hands together, wishing she could just get into the shower. "Am I supposed to start talking?" Jack suddenly asked, "Because I don't think I'm the one who needs to do any explaining here."

"What do you want me to say?" Audrey asked him, bringing her eyes up to meet his.

"What are you, a child?" Jack shouted, and Audrey glanced towards the door, where she assumed everyone was listening. Jack realized this too and quieted his voice. "You blocked my number, you went off to your Mom's with him." He whisper shouted, "Your ex-boyfriend."

Audrey's teeth gritted together. "Don't call me a child." She said firmly. "You broke up with me, and Eli isn't your concern."

"He isn't my concern?" Jack blurted, "You lied for a reason, Audrey!" His eyes were blazing blue again in his anger. Dazzling in their own right.

Audrey shoved her chair back and stood up. "I lied because you wouldn't understand it!" She yelled, and pushed her palm onto her forehead. Jack shook his head, "Wouldn't understand what?"

Feeling her chest constricting, Audrey took in a calculated breath. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Eli. I was emotional, and scared." She stood up a little straighter, "But, we're done now. I think you should leave."

"I said we should take a break, and you took it as a chance to cheat on me?"

"I didn't cheat!" Audrey was officially exasperated by this conversation. "To every woman on the planet, taking a break sounds like breaking up."

"You've been talking too much to Lori." Jack rolled his eyes, picking up his coat. Audrey watched as he put his coat on. "She's not wrong." She said softly, "You know you didn't treat me right, Jack." Audrey felt like she was constantly trying to make people understand things. Things that were so obvious to her.

Jack scoffed, "And he did?" He zipped up his coat, "You're right. I paid way too much attention to you. You're more into guys that don't speak to you for three years at a time, right?"

Audrey crossed her arms defensively. "You don't know what you're talking about." She hissed, trying to remain composed.

"Don't I?" Jack inquired, a rhetorical question, as he opened the door and walked out. He brushed past everyone in the living room, slipped on his boots, and left without another word.

Audrey, feeling ashamed and exposed, walked briskly up the stairs and into her bedroom, ignoring the doting calls of her Mother. She took a seat on her bed and felt tears roll down her cheeks. There went the longest relationship she'd ever had, and the last thing he'd told her was that she was wrong about Eli.

After about ten minutes, there was a tentative knock at the door. Audrey wiped under her eyes. "What is it, Eli?" He slowly opened the door and slipped inside. Audrey wondered why her Mom hadn't tried to come up, or at least stopped Eli.

Silently, he sat on the bed next to her. "I don't know what to think anymore." Audrey said, sighing. "Maybe I am being childish," She rubbed the ends of her cardigan between her fingers as she thought, "It's not like I'm very experienced."

"I love you." Eli suddenly said, unable to contain it anymore. Unable to listen to her doubt herself anymore. She was the sun, bright and fiery- but she also kept him alive. And who could say that about any ordinary star? "It was always you, Audrey."

Audrey still didn't look at him, fireworks bursting in her heart, as she tried not to get overwhelmed by the sweetness of his words. He always had a way with words, when he chose to use them. "We knew each other for two weeks, Eli." She said carefully.

"I know you know what I'm taking about." He replied steadily. He was tired of this. He'd been hearing it for too long. Dr. Lee and Mrs. M had the best intentions, but he couldn't keep listening to the phrase 'two weeks' any longer, as if it were damning evidence against his own feelings.

"No. You don't." Audrey was sloppily trying to build her defensive walls up again. Three years, she'd had them up. So scared of being hurt again, of being left again. How quickly Eli had torn them down, it was disturbing.

Eli stood, and Audrey finally looked up at him. She watched, confused, as he pulled out a piece of paper from his back pocket. He handed it to her. "Yes, I do."

Audrey stared at the piece of paper, ripped from his journal, worn and torn at the edges. And her writing, right there. Telling him she would always love him. She could remember writing it. So quickly, not wanting him to catch her. And yet it was so easy to write, so honest and true.

What had changed? What had changed except the harshness of the world in his absence? The fact that she'd let everyone tell her the rules of love. The time frame it takes to truly feel it. The world could be so black and white.

She knew back then that love had no rules or guidelines. And as she held on to the words she'd once written, she knew it again. Eli waited patiently, unsure of what Audrey was going to say. She was a wildcard, but he knew she loved him like he loved her. And that was all that mattered.

Audrey slowly put the paper on the bed next to her, stood up, and crashed her lips on to his. Hands pressed on his shoulders to pull herself up on her tiptoes so she could reach. It was fierce and rushed and over promptly.

"Okay then." Audrey said to herself when she pulled away, and started to walk around Eli. She decided it best to get downstairs before her Mom got suspicious. She felt slightly embarrassed by her actions, especially since it seemed neither of them were ever very good at starting relationships like normal people.

Eli, meanwhile, was stunned by the speed at which the whole scene happened. In the past, his brain would need at least a few minutes to process this. But his brain was a lot less jumbled these days.

Before she reached the door, he softly took a hold of her wrist. Audrey turned, but didn't have a chance to say another word. Eli took a step forward and ran his hands over her cheeks, then under her jaw, pulling her face up to meet his. Looking into the bewildering ebony of his eyes, she was transfixed, utterly frozen.

He kissed her in the way that she knew only he could. The way that felt completely comfortable and yet tantalizingly new and exciting. The way that let her know that she was right when she thought back to that day they spent in the book store. On that day, she couldn't think of a single other boy she'd want to kiss but Eli.

And now in her old bedroom, the smell of chlorine and lavender and nutmeg surrounding them; Audrey couldn't think of a single other man she would want to kiss but Eli.