Small Town, Big Love

Sunday comes and Lexa goes to her basketball practice. It’s nice to just play the sport and not have to think about anything. The practice is over much too soon. Lexa showers in the locker room and goes to leave the school when she walks by the soccer field and sees none other than Clarke Griffin. Lexa smiles as she watches some girl kick the soccer ball to Clarke. Clarke flies down the field, weaving in and out of enemy players, and fiercely shoots the ball past the goalie. Lexa chuckles at the look of pure shock and excitement on her face. She decides she’ll stay awhile and watch the practice. She needs to take the first step.

Clarke is drained from the practice. She’s been here for hours, not that she’s complaining. She got the text about about who got on the team and this is the new kids ‘hell practice.’ They ran miles and miles at Ontari’s behest and Echo’s annoyance. Clarke was worried that things would be awkward between her and Echo, but they’re not. Echo hasn’t even mentioned their hookup. It seems as if they’re on the same page to leave the hookup at the party.

Practice ends and for the first time since it started, Clarke looks away from the field and up towards the bleachers. That’s when she sees Lexa softly smiling at her. Clarke gulps. Was Lexa watching her? Did she stay to see her? Clarke gets giddy at thought. The blonde goes to grabs her stuff and she sees Lexa walking down to the field. Right when Lexa’s feet hit the grass, some girl scurries over to her flirting and flouncing. Clarke’s heart drops. Of course Lexa was just waiting for some girl. Clarke inwardly curses herself for thinking Lexa stayed to see her.

She didn’t even want to kiss you at the party. She ran away and started making out with Costia. She doesn’t want you! Clarke reminds herself and shakes her head.

Lexa tries to get rid of Becca. Her and Becca had a brief thing last summer. It wasn’t serious and Becca knew that. Becca doesn’t seem to be looking for anything but a good fuck right now too.

“Lexa Woods, long time no see.” Becca seductively says as her eyes rake the basketball player’s body, stopping briefly at her shorts.

“Yeah and it’s going to stay that way Becca. Now if you’ll excuse me.” Lexa tries to move past her but this girl just won’t give up. When she finally gets rid of the girl, Clarke is talking to one of her fellow teammates. Echo, she thinks. Echo is pretty popular. She’s a senior. She dated this girl Destiny for years before she went to college last year. Apparently, Destiny cheated on her with Costia. That’s the girl Costia slept with when Lexa and Costia first started their thing. In Costia’s defense, she thought Echo and Destiny were broken up. But they weren’t of course and Destiny was just a cheater. Lexa always felt bad for Echo. Correction : She used to to feel bad for Echo. But now Echo is flirting with her Clarke.

“So listen Clarke, I know what happened between us was just a casual drunken hookup, but I wouldn’t mind a repeat.” Echo winks and walks off the field before Clarke can get a word in edgewise. Clarke just stands there for a second, shocked. She grabs her stuff and turns around to see Lexa staring at her and she looks angry.

Lexa gulps and shakes her head. So Echo is the one Clarke hooked up with on Friday. She’s the one who gave her that massive hickey. And now they play on the soccer team together. They are going to spend hours together every week, every day after school at their practices and games. It makes Lexa sick to her stomach.

The soccer girls always have these parties at Echo’s house whenever they win..and they usually win. Echo is going to have so many more opportunities to hit on Clarke and Lexa won’t be there. Basketball players aren’t invited to those parties unless they go as someone’s date. Lexa doubts Clarke will ask her to go as her date. And even if Echo doesn’t hit on Clarke, somebody surely will. Those parties have lots of soccer players, boys and girls, from the local college there too. And Clarke is gorgeous and kind and funny. She’s irresistable. Lexa really needs to step up her game if she wants any chance with her.

Lexa wants to run away. She wants to self destruct. She just found out that Echo is Clarke’s mystery hook up. But then she remembers that Laurel said Clarke regrets it and she was doing it for the wrong reasons. So maybe Lexa still has a chance? But she won’t have a chance if she runs away again, so Lexa stays put. Clarke turns around quickly and Lexa doesn’t have a chance to school her jealousy so obviously on her face.

“Hey Lex.” Clarke says with surprise and confusion. “I thought you were here for Becca?”

“No, I’m here for you.” Lexa says nervously and then widens her eyes, realizing what she just said. “I - I mean not for you..but like I saw you playing and you were doing really well and I just couldn’t look away. And I thought maybe you’d want to get some lunch afterwards?..with me?” Lexa rambles and her cheeks turn pink with embarrassment.

Clarke chuckles and bites her lip. Lexa is secretly such a lovable little dork. Clarke loves that she gets to see this side of Lexa. Lexa is so sweet to her. She’s so different around here than she is with everyone else. She doesn’t understand the basketball player though. One second, they have deep conversation. The next, they kiss (albeit, it was a dare but still). The next, Lexa runs off and presumably sleeps with Costia. Clarke is a little ball of confusion. If only she knew what everyone else knew. Sigh.

“Yeah. I’d really love that.” Clarke smiles warmly and it melts Lexa’s walls around her heart a little further. “Let me shower quick and I’ll meet you in the parking lot in a few?” Clarke says and Lexa nods furiously, trying desperately not to think about Clarke naked and wet in the shower.

Clarke meets Lexa outside and they hop in Laurel’s car. She really needs her bike fixed. Clarke says she’s craving Mexican so Lexa decides to take her to this great little taco truck two towns down. It’s a bit of a drive but she swears it’s the best tacos she will ever have.

“I mean I did live in Los Angeles, Lex. They have some banging tacos.” Clarke teases and Lexa just huffs.

“Have some faith in me here, Clarke.” Lexa jokes and Clarke bites her lip.

“I do.” She mumbles and suddenly it feels like they aren’t talking about taste in Mexican food anymore. Lexa’s heart is beating fast. Maybe she should bring up her feelings? No, not yet. She should say something though, to show she’s genuinely interested.

“I’m sorry about Friday.” Lexa mumbles, gripping the steering wheel tighter. Maybe she shouldn’t have done this while driving considering she always gets so flustered when she talks about her feelings, especially when those feelings involve Clarke.

“Why? You have no reason to apologize to me.” Clarke doesn’t know where Lexa is going with this. Lexa is allowed to do whatever she wants with whoever she wants. Did it hurt her to see her run off and grind with Costia? Of course it did. But that’s not Lexa’s fault. If anything, Clarke thinks it’s her fault for falling for Lexa.

“Eh I sorta do. We..um we kissed. I don’t know if you remember that.” Lexa rambles adorably when she’s nervous. Clarke chuckles a little.

“Yes. I remember. How could I forget kissing you?” Clarke sweetly blurts out and her face turns red. Lexa tenses up at the flirty yet sincerely heartwarming words. She looks over at Clarke to scan her face and they lock eyes. The connection is deep and it hits both of them in the chest. Lexa forgets for a moment that she’s driving.

“Lexa, stop sign!” Clarke shouts out and Lexa stops just in time. A car whizzes by a second later and they both breathe out a sigh of relief that Lexa was able to stop in time or else there surely would have been an accident.

“I’m sorry about that.” Lexa embarrassingly says and Clarke just laughs.

“Now that you’re allowed to be sorry about.” Clarke teases and Lexa softly smiles. Her heart is going a thousand miles a minute and it’s not because of the near death experience. It’s because of Clarke Griffin.

///

They get to the taco truck and order. Clarke gets beef tacos with the crunchy shell and Lexa gets chicken tacos with the soft shell. They sit down and munch on their food. Clarke lets out a sinful moan when the overload of flavors hit her tongue. Lexa can’t help how her dick twitches a little in excitement. Lexa clears her throat and tries to think of anything other than a moaning Clarke Griffin.

“So Lex, can I ask you something?” Clarke says, her eyes watching Lexa’s face.

“Of course. You can ask me anything you want.” Lexa smiles, encouraging Clarke to continue.

“Why did you apologize earlier? Our conversation got cut off by your horrible driving.” Clarke teases and Lexa pouts.

“I’m not a horrible driver.” Lexa mumbles. “You try driving when you have Clarke Griffin sitting next to you. It’s pretty damn difficult to stay focused.” Lexa rambles and her eyes widen yet again when she realizes what she said. Clarke’s eyes widen too.

“Why would it be difficult?” Clarke shakily says, desperate to know the answer.

“You make me nervous...b-but in a good way.” Lexa focuses on her tacos. Her palms are all sweaty. She’s not used to being this honest but she’s trying. She’s trying because that’s the only way her and Clarke stand a chance. “And um I apologized because I ran off when we kissed and that...it wasn’t fair to you.” Lexa mumbles and looks up into Clarke’s eyes.

Clarke was softly smiling when she heard that she makes Lexa nervous. The basketball player is showing a side of her that Clarke thinks not many get to see. But then she mentioned the kiss and how she ran away and Clarke remembered Costia. Her eyes turn a little sad and Lexa takes notice of it. She takes notice of everything Clarke does.

“It’s okay Lexa. You wanted Costia. I understand. You two have history. It makes sense.” Clarke tries not to sound sad and she succeeds but she can’t control her eyes. Her eyes show everything and Lexa can see it.

“Me and Costia used to have something, yes. But it was just um..” Lexa pauses, suddenly feeling shy about her sex life. She’s never shy about that, but with Clarke she is for some reason. “...just sex.” Lexa finishes the sentence and Clarke nods.

“Yeah exactly. You and her probably had lots of fun Friday night. Don’t worry about me, I was fine.” Clarke doesn’t know why she said that. She was fine? Really? She most certainly wasn’t fine. She was irrationally jealous and angry and she hooked up with Echo because of it. But she doesn’t want Lexa to think she’s pining after her. Lexa hooks up with people and that’s the end of it. Clarke can’t fall for her. It’ll break her.

Lexa grits her teeth. Does Clarke really think she slept with Costia? Well, of course. Lexa totally would have slept with Costia if it wasn’t for that kiss with Clarke. Clarke is everything. If only Clarke could see that.

“I didn’t sleep with Costia.” Lexa says quietly and Clarke’s head shoots up.

“But..wait really? I saw you two dancing and kissing.” Clarke says confused but hopeful.

“Yeah that happened.” Lexa nervously chuckles. “I just...I didn’t want to. I don’t want to do that anymore.” Lexa firmly says and Clarke looks at her confused.

“You don’t want to have sex anymore?” Clarke asks softly but a little incredulously.

“N-no!” Lexa stutters out. “I mean I like sex. Sex is really nice.” Lexa’s cheeks are red. She is so not doing this right. “But like..I want to have sex because I want to, because I’m - I don’t know - um turned on? Not because I’m trying to fill some kind of void.” Lexa says the last part quietly and insecurely. Clarke is silent for what feels like forever to Lexa but is really only a few seconds. Lexa is about to retreat into herself when she feels Clarke’s warm hand on top of hers. Lexa looks up into Clarke’s eyes and all she sees is affection and understanding.

“I know how hard that was for you to say. Thank you for trusting me.” Clarke smiles bright and squeezes her hand. “I’m proud of you Lex.” Lexa is proud of herself too.

It’s a start. It’s not that big of a leap, but it’s definitely a small step towards Lexa winning not only Clarke’s love but her trust too.