Small Town, Big Love

The next few days fly by. At lunch now, instead of fighting with Clarke, Lexa sits next to her and talks. Sometimes Octavia joins in the conversation, but it’s mainly Clarke and Lexa. Clarke enjoys talking to Lexa like this. She’s not an asshole around her. When Lexa isn’t trying, she can actually be very charming.

Friday comes and it’s time for the party. It’s Clarke’s job to get her to Lexa’s house.

“Hey Tav, you almost ready?” Clarke calls out from the bathroom. Clarke told her that they were all going to go to a bar in the next town over that doesn’t card. She needed an excuse for Octavia to get all dressed up like she usually would for a party.

“Yeah almost. So what’s going on between you and Woods?” Octavia asks as she applies her eyeliner.

“Me and Lexa? Nothing I swear.” Clarke’s cheeks heat up. Lexa and her are just friends. It’s all they can be. Clarke thinks Lexa would never commit and she refuses to be a one night stand.

“Actually I was talking about you and Laurel.” Octavia smirks and Clarke’s face pales considerably.

“Oh.” Clarke looks embarrassed.

“I guess that answers my question.” Octavia chuckles.

“Laurel is a great girl. I’ll be lying if I say I didn’t think about kissing her and maybe even more.” Octavia’s eyebrows waggle up but Clarke puts her hand up signaling she’s not finished yet. “But, with that being said, I’m pretty sure we are going to stay just friends.” Clarke answers truthfully. She’s not sure where she stands with either Woods. It’s all much too messy.

“I say go for it. Laurel is hot. So is Lexa. Just remember, you can only have one.” Octavia winks and that’s the end of the conversation. Clarke stands there motionless. Does she even want either of them? Of course she does. She just has to figure out which one.

///

They get to the party and Octavia is pleasantly surprised. Clarke immediately finds Laurel in the crowd and smiles at her. Lexa is in the corner and watches painfully as Clarke runs up to her sister and hugs her. It hits her right in the chest. Of course Clarke seeks out Laurel naturally. Laurel is so good. She’s everything. And what is Lexa? Nothing.

Lexa refuses to pity herself so she goes and grabs a stronger drink, ready to party her insecurities away.

Clarke and Laurel grab drinks and go sit on the couch. They chat and laugh for a good hour when another dark haired beautiful girl comes up to them. She doesn’t recognize her but Laurel seems to.

“Luna?” Laurel asks in an awe tone.

“Hello Laurel. Lincoln invited me. I hope that’s okay.” Luna smiles widely at Laurel but narrows her eyes at Clarke. Clarke recognizes that look. It’s the same look she finds herself giving the girls Lexa goes with. It’s jealousy.

“And who is this?” Luna sounds just a tad too sweet.

“Oh right! This is..” Laurel struggles for a second. Between seeing her ex and all the alcohol she’s consumed, the quiet book nerd is a bit overwhelmed.

“Clarke. Clarke Griffin. I’m a friend of Laurel’s.” Clarke accentuates the word ‘friend’ and suddenly Luna’s posture relaxes. Her smile becomes genuine and her eyes smile.

“Ah Clarke! Lincoln mentioned you. I heard you’ve been challenging our little Lexa quite a bit.” Luna teases and Clarke and Laurel chuckle a bit.

“Lexa needs to challenged a bit.” Clarke says before taking a sip of her drink.

The blonde observes the ex lovers and it’s certainly interesting what the pair’s interactions. What Clarke notices is that Laurel can’t take her eyes of Luna. Clarke starts thinking that Laurel isn’t as over Luna as she previously said. And from the heart eyes Luna is throwing Laurel, neither is her ex. Not romantically compatible my ass, Clarke thinks. These two girls in front of her have so much chemistry, they are basically about to combust.

“I couldn’t agree more.” Luna smiles and takes a seat next to Laurel, sitting especially close.

Clarke realizes something in that moment. She’s happy for Laurel. She’s not jealous at all. She’s genuinely excited at the prospect of Laurel being happy...with someone else. She’s not going to lie, Laurel is gorgeous. Laurel is kind and sweet and perfect. Laurel should be the perfect girl for her. But she isn’t. She isn’t because she has Lexa Woods stuck in her brain and she can’t seem to rid herself of the basketball star. She’s stuck on Lexa Woods.

///

Clarke goes into the other room, leaving Laurel and Luna alone to reconnect. Octavia pulls her on the floor where they are playing the middle school game of ‘Spin the Bottle.’ Clarke is about to protest but then she sees Lexa sitting next to some beautiful dark skinned goddess and she lets her jealousy get the better of her. Clarke and Lexa lock eyes for quite some time until the girl beside Lexa whispers in the basketball player’s ear. Lexa regretfully looks away.

“That’s Costia Davis.” Octavia whispers in Clarke’s ear.

“What?” Clarke is confused. Who’s Costia Davis? Suddenly, it hits her. Octavia realized she was staring at Lexa and this Costia person. She was probably even throwing daggers at the poor girl with her eyes.

“Costia Davis. She’s two years older than us. Her and Lexa slept together for all of Lexa’s sophomore year.” Octavia is careful to make sure that nobody can hear them. Clarke is fuming though. She’s irrationally jealous and it’s driving her up a wall.

“Wait, but I thought Lexa didn’t stay with anyone for too long?! A year is a really long fucking time.” Clarke whisper angrily.

“They weren’t exclusive. I think towards the end, Costia wanted to be. I know Lexa thought about it for a hot second too. But she just decided to end things altogether instead. Lexa doesn’t like being faced with emotions.”

“So Lexa had feelings for this girl?!” Clarke whispers yells and Octavia chuckles. Clarke realizes how jealous she sounds in that moment and her cheeks heat up red.

“And you said you didn’t like Lexa. Ha! That fury in your eyes says something else.”

“I don’t!” Clarke says really loud and the whole group stares at them. Lexa looks her softly like a confused puppy and it only agitates Clarke more. Lexa has to stop looking all cute and affectionate at her.

“Alright it’s time for some good old fashioned ‘Spin the Bottle.’ But let’s turn it up a notch. We aren’t in middle school after all. Kisses have to last at least ten seconds and include some tongue, won’t ya?” Finn finishes saying the rules and winks at Clarke. Lexa’s tightens her grip on her cup. She hates the way Finn Collins looks at Clarke. It drives her up a wall.

“Hey, you okay?” Costia asks her and Lexa grits her teeth.

“I’m fine.” Costia nods, knowing Lexa is hiding something but it’s not her place anymore to know what’s bothering her. Maybe it was never her place to know at all.

Lexa was shocked to see Costia at the party. They slept together for a long time last year. It was a casual hookup situation. They weren’t exclusive. Actually, Costia was the first one of the two of them to sleep with someone else when they started their arrangement. After that, Lexa cursed herself for being so vulnerable and slept with someone too. It was petty and childish, but Lexa never learned how to be mature when coping with her emotions.

So that started a cycle. Her and Costia’s ‘relationship’ (and I use the word relationship loosely) wasn’t healthy. By the end, Costia asked her for more commitment. But Costia was going to college soon and they were already so deep in this non-exclusive thing. Plus, Lexa Woods wasn’t a one woman kind of girl. She established that early on. Costia wasn’t suppose to be either. That’s why Lexa ended things. Lines were getting blurred. Emotions are much too messy so the basketball player ended it before it got even messier.

Finn spins the bottle first and it lands on some blonde girl. As long as it’s not a particular blonde girl, Lexa doesn’t care who Finn Collins kisses. A few more spins later, the bottle lands on Lexa. Lexa looks to see who spun and it’s Lincoln.

“Oh god no. He’s like my brother. I’m not listening to your bullshit rules Finn.”

Lexa looks over to the Lincoln, who looks equally uncomfortable. Then, she looks at Octavia and Clarke. They’re hysterical laughing. At least somebody finds this interesting. Lexa crawls over to Lincoln and kisses his cheek and sits back down.

“That wasn’t ten seconds.” Octavia whines out, enjoying messing with her boyfriend and best friend a little too much.

“I don’t listen to anyone’s rules if I don’t want to.” Lexa grumbles out and spins the bottle. Of course, it lands on Clarke. Clarke and Lexa audibly gulp. The group hoots and hollers.

Lexa crawls over to Clarke, only this time it’s much sexier. Clarke stares at Lexa’s face, but her eyes drift to Lexa’s breasts on display from the angle she’s crawling. Lexa follows her gaze and instead of smirking at her, she blushes and bites her lip. Lexa Woods apparently has some modesty. All it took was Clarke Griffin to bring it out of her.

“You know I can kiss your cheek if you’re not comfortable.” Lexa insecurely mumbles. She wants to kiss Clarke more than she can breathe. Truthfully, she thinks she might cry for the first time in forever if Clarke rejects her. She doesn’t know when or why these intense feelings for the blonde came. But they’re here nevertheless and it’s scaring the shit out of her.

“You can kiss me on the lips.” Clarke croaks out, her body on fire with anticipation. Lexa’s eyes widen as if she never thought Clarke would consent to such a thing. Lexa nods and leans in.

Clarke’s first thought are kissing Lexa Woods is that her lips are soft like pillows. The second is that Lexa really knows how to use her tongue and expertly her teeth. Clarke sucks on Lexa’s bottom lip and Lexa feels her body pulsate in pleasure and arousal. Lexa Woods lets out a whimper. A whimper! Lexa Woods is literally reduced to whimpering around Clarke Griffin. She’s never whimpered before. Lexa doesn’t even seem to care though because in this moment, she’s kissing her love. Wait no. Not her love. Her crush? No, that’s not the right word either.

Lexa starts to feel overheated and not in a good way. Clarke moans slightly in her mouth and it’s enough to send Lexa’s brain into overdrive. The basketball player pulls away and stares into blue. It’s all too much for her though. She’s feeling things she’s never felt before, things she wanted to hide from her whole life.

“Lexa didn’t seem to mind listening to my rules then.” Finn mumbles out and Octavia lightly flicks his head. This is not the time to be a smartass.

“I-I have to go.” Lexa jumps up and speed walks into the other room leaving a confused Clarke in her wake.

///

Costia follows after Lexa while everyone else just stares at Clarke. Clarke swallows down her mixed emotions and puts a fake smile on. There was a hell of a lot of emotions in that kiss and she’s not really sure what it all meant. The game ends after that, nobody understanding what the hell just happened. Everyone goes their separate ways. Before Octavia can question her on what just happened, Clarke hurries into the other room. The blonde goes to grab another drink and runs into Echo.

“Hey there, it’s our new star player.” Echo jokes and Clarke laughs.

“I’m not even on the team yet.” Clarke shakes her head and pours herself a strong drink.

“Soon though. Speaking of which, I believe I was promised celebratory shots?” Echo asks with a cute smile on her face.

“I’m ready whenever you are.” Clarke fires back, an equally cute smile on her own face.

“Oh I’m definitely ready right now.” There’s a glint of something in Echo’s eyes and it sends shivers down Clarke’s spine. Clarke isn’t really sure about anything anymore. These last few weeks have been one roller coaster ride after another. She just doesn’t understand anything and anyone anymore...especially Lexa Woods.

Clarke takes three shots with Echo and they end up laughing and having a nice little talk. Clarke excuses herself and goes to look for Lexa, finally having the liquid courage to speak to her. She needs to know if she’s just imagining things or if there’s actually something between them worth exploring.

Clarke touches her lips and closes her eyes, remembering the sensation of Lexa’s plump lips on her own. It doesn’t feel real to her. Lexa Woods kissed her. Clarke knows it was just a dare, but still. They kissed and it was amazing.

Clarke turns the corner and sees that Costia girl dancing with Lexa. Her heart drops. Costia’s head is resting on Lexa’s shoulder as she grinds on the basketball player. Clarke can feel the tears welling in her eyes and she doesn’t even know why. It’s not like that kiss really meant anything. But Clarke was so sure that Lexa felt something for her besides lust.

Lexa closes her eyes and tightens her grip on Costia’s waist. She’s aroused that’s for sure. Her boner is so blatantly obvious at this point. She’s mostly wound up thanks to that one kiss with Clarke. Clarke. One kiss with the blonde and she’s in deeper than she ever has been. Lexa needed air after that kiss because she was feeling things she never let herself feel before. And then Costia came up to her and started whispering in her ear about all the fun they’ve had in the past. Lexa’s drunk and Clarke is too good for her. Clarke isn’t even into her anyways. She’s probably into her sister. She even sketched her. That kiss was just a dare for Clarke and that’s why she had to run away. Because if she stayed Clarke might have seen that their kiss meant so much more to her than a dare.

Costia is an easy distraction. When Lexa closes her eyes, she can imagine Clarke is with her and not Costia. Costia kisses her neck and she moans lightly. She wishes it's Clarke’s lips trailing down her neck. Suddenly, she feels dirty like she did something wrong. She doesn’t want Costia. She wants Clarke. Finally, she gets it. She wants Clarke to be hers, but that doesn’t make any sense. Lexa Woods has never wanted anyone to be hers.

“Do you want to go upstairs?”

“More than ever.”