1991, april.
“Oh my god you shouldn’t have! Thank you so much Becca !” said Jess as she was opening the wrapped up box revealing a beautiful golden necklace.
Lexa saw it the day before but the price tag made her eyes bulge out of their sockets. So her mum suggested they bought a nice illustrated book on flowers. “Every 12 year olds like flowers” her mother said. Lexa actually loved the book and thought it would be a great gift for Becca. Lexa came back home with the book and wrapped it up all by herself, turning it around and making sure it was perfectly enveloped in the green coloured paper.
As Jess was helping Becca put on her shinning necklace, Becca spotted the last present on the table. She made a face at the colour of the paper that wasn’t missed by her friends as they all giggled. Lexa brushed it off and waited until Becca took the present and said “I hope you like it, I bought it with my piggy bank money!” She smiled proudly as Becca unwrapped the book from the paper. When she saw the book, she giggled nervously “Uhm… Thanks..” and processed to put the book back down on the table.
Nobody made a sound for a couple seconds before Marty, a friend of the birthday girl, screamed “ The last in the pool gets to clean the living-room!” As every boys and girls fumbled around to undress themselves into their swimming costumes to jump in the pool, Lexa quickly realised that she didn’t have any bathing suit. “Oh I’m sorry I didn’t warn you to bring any bathing suit! Don’t worry we won’t stay in the pool for long!” screamed Becca from the pool. “It’s alright. I’ll just… I’ll just stay here-” Lexa’s sentence was cut off by Jess’s cries of war.
Lexa sighed and sat on one of the chairs near the outside table where she spotted her book. Her legs dangling from the chair, the 10 year old opened the book to reveal a beautiful picture of a Mimosa. She started to read the description of several exotic flowers when she was interrupted by a soft voice “Are they Daisies?” She looked up from the book and adjusted her glasses on her nose, that were constantly falling off. What she saw was a young blonde girl, about the same age as her, with big expressive eyes. “Yes…” she whispered, the butterfly in her stomach increased as the blonde took a seat next to her. “My name is Clarke” said the blue eyed girl as she extended her hand to the brunette. “I’m Lexa”
2016, december
“She was invited to this girl’s birthday… What was her name again ?”
“Becca” Anya answered
“Oh yes! She was a spoiled little girl.” Alexandra said.
Her daughter, Anya then explained “Lexa was invited at this girl’s place, she looked up at her because she thought she was a pretty girl. So when Becca asked her, out of nowhere, if she wanted to come to her house to celebrate her birthday, she jumped on the occasion. I knew Becca from 3rd grade and I immediately thought that she wasn’t as nice as I taught. She actually talked to me because she needed something or because she didn’t want to be left alone when her friends weren’t around.
So when Lex came barging inside my room saying she was invited to Becca Loreen’s birthday, I immediately thought it wasn’t going to be a good idea.” Anya said. “I tried to talk her out of it but she wouldn’t listen and when she came back from the said birthday… well let’s just say she was very disappointed because she went with mum to the store the day prior and she bought with her own money a book on flowers and Becca didn’t even look at it more than a few second.”
The interviewer, Monty then asked “But wasn’t it the day she met Clarke?” “Oh yes, she lost a ‘friend’ but she won something way better that day.” Alexandra said smiling to herself. The public then awwed and sighted when they saw a picture of a 10 years old Lexa and a 9 years old Clarke, standing by the table, laughing together.
1994, january
The 13 years olds girls came out of the cheap pizzeria, both enveloped in their heavy coats.
“It was delicious, thank you Lexa” Clarke breathed out as they walked in the snowy night, on the illuminated paths. Lexa gathered enough courage to hold Clarke’s hand, and the contact made her warm up from the inside and her heart jolt. She hid the wide smile behind her scarf.
Clarke led her to the frozen lake where they used to go when they were younger, playing around it. Nobody was around as they sat on the bench near the lake. They talked about small things, and debated on pineapple on pizza.
After an hour they looked up at the stars and Clarke cuddled up close to Lexa to keep eachother warm. She felt Lexa kiss the side of her head and the sensation made her stomach jump up and down. She looked up at the brunette and like a mutual agreement, they leaned in slowly until their lips connected. Here, in a snowy night, were two girls in thick coats and snow in their hair, having their first ever kiss, having their stomach rolling around in their body and their eyelids being able to paint fireworks and a colorful world on their own.
1997, october
As she was walking in the cafeteria with Raven, Clarke spotted her girlfriend sitting on the table by her friend, Lincoln and her sister Anya. She felt Raven grab her hand and pull her back “Oh my god, code 3 is sitting next to your girl” she whispered. They actually made up a code name for Raven’s crushes so they could talk about them without being overheard by the said crushes or by other eves-dropper. “You realise that code 3 is actually my girlfriend’s sister, right ?” Clarke said rolling her eyes at her over dramatic friend.
Raven then took a deep breath and let go of Clarke’s hand to walk over the table where her friends were. Clarke then sighed and sat next to Lexa, lacing her fingers with hers and greeting her with a small peck on the lips. Lexa smiled at her and offered some of her fries to the blonde. “You’re so disgustingly cute I swear” Anya groaned and turned to Raven, smiling “Did you get what I asked ?” Raven nodded and gave her the Harry Potter book.
“Why don’t you come over at mine’s after so we could start on our project” Lexa asked the blonde. Clarke smiled and stole her frie from her then nodded.
1999 , July
“Take a look at my new chapter and tell me what you think” Lexa said, putting a pile of paper on the blondes desk. “Just give me a minute, I’m nearly finished…” Clarke answered poking her tongue out of her mouth as she was painting the final line on her canvas. Her girlfriend stood behind her, admiring blonde’s talent as she could recognize herself, writing on a wooden desk, her hair thrown on her left side.
“It’s so beautiful” she murmured to her as Clarke pushed herself of the bed and took a look at the pile of sheets in her hands.
“Is it still about this detective or the spatial one ?” she asked her girlfriend. “The spatial one, I finished the detective one already,” after several minutes and the blonde humming along the words, she asked “ When are you supposed to send it to this publisher ?”
“In about 1 week I think… Why ? You don’t like it right? I kne-” Her sentence was cut by arms enveloping her.
“I love it, please write the next chapter quickly, I can’t wait to know what the rest of the story is.”
2016, december
“She kept writing, she couldn’t stop, she always had new ideas and would always walk around with a bunch of paper in her bag so that if she got inspirational at any moment, she could write it down” Anya explained with a smile.
“I think it helped that she had an artistic girlfriend to support her, they were both so talented that I think one wouldn’t have worked as well if it wasn’t for the other.” Alexandra said.
“Clarke was very passionate about her paintings but she once said to me that if it wasn't for Lexa, she would of dropped out of it and became a cardiologist like her mother.”
“They were meant to be together that’s for sure,” Anya added while Monty nodded along what both women was saying. “Here is a paragraph in Lexa Wood’s Make Me Believe talking about Clarke’s artistic side. It says “I often, if not, always felt alone. I didn’t find anybody that could understand me as me. I wanted, no, needed someone to hold my hand when nobody did and cheer louder than 100 people when no one did. To think this someone would be found in this boring birthday party, where I found myself jokingly invited in, and that it would be over a flower book that my heart would be fiercely torn out of my chest and softly put back together in, I surely wouldn’t even dream about it. But it did, and I’m so grateful of that”... I think this is a beautiful illustration of what make the beauty of this relationship that they shared over the years” Monty said
2005, may
“Oh my god this is a dream come true ! Or own house babe ! It’s so big geez and- Oh my Lex look the kitchen is so cute !” Lexa was laughing at her wife’s enthusiasm about their new home. She bought it for Clarke for their 3 years wedding anniversary. When she walked in, she immediately knew it would be perfect for the both of them. The house counted a single bedroom with 1 bathroom and a little living room with an open kitchen. It wasn’t the biggest house nor the fanciest, but it was just what they needed.
Clarke had a look around and saw the colorless walls that screamed their need of colours and the cold concrete floor that desperately needed a refreshment but she taught it was the most gorgeous house ever. She smiled through the whole self-visit and then jumped in her wife’s arms,covering her face of kisses “I love it I love it I love it I LOVE it !!!”
“I taught you’ll like it”she said between kisses”I think we could buy a little desk so we could work in the living room,” Clarke laughed and nodded. She then pulled her wife’s hand and pulled her towards the bedroom with a devilish smirk. Lexa let herself being pulled and processed to show her wife how much she loved her.
2015, october
“I miss you so much” Clarke whispered into the phone, “it’s been forever since you went away”
“I know hun but it’s only a matter of days now, I’ll be back before you know it, I promise.” Lexa said, after a moment of silence, just listening to one another’s breathing, she added “I met a lot of fans today, it lasted hours, one of them gave me an old picture of us and asked if I could sign it, god I think we were 13 years old on it”
Clarke smiled back at the thought of a little Lexa with glasses so big it kept sliding off of her nose and a sweater 3 times too big for her, that she borrowed from her dad, claiming it was warm and soft.
“You kept wearing this red sweater, you were so cute” Clarke said “I loved it when you wore it, I actually have it on now” she said as she pulled the covers off of her and looked down at her wife’s sweater,
“I’ll be back to steal it back from you.” she heard, making her laugh.
Clarke slept one her wife’s side and pillow that night.
2015, december
“Alexandria Woods, the famous writer, was only 34 as she was found dead in her hotel room, in New York. More than 100 investigators and specialists are working on this case. According to them, the writer’s death was caused by a too important amount of propofol injected in her system, a drug used as a sedative by doctors. Investigators think that the writer was suffering from a headache and she allowed her murderer, to inject her the mortal injection in his patient’s system. Expe-”
Clarke turned the TV off and closed her red puffy eyes. She listened to her mother’s fumbling in the kitchen but mainly, she listened to the sound of silence that seems to grow louder and louder around her, somehow.
She tightened the cover around her body and hid her face in the red sweater under the covers, trying to get a hold of Lexa’s smell. She wanted to cry so badly but she couldn’t, she didn’t have any tears left, so she remembered the last conversation she had with Lexa, the last time she saw her beautiful smile, the last time they made love, the last time they hugged, the first time they met, their first kiss.
“There you go honey,” Abby said, putting her special soup on the coffee table in front of Clarke. She sat beside her daughter and pulled her close. She felt Clarke burrow her face in her neck and shaking. Abby herself couldn’t believe it when she first heard the news about her daughter-in-law. She cried silently with Clarke, trying to be the mother she never really managed to be. She looked around the lifeless living room. The paintings have been thrown away, the photos that were once around the house were turned around.
As she hugged Clarke closer to her, she could tell her daughter lost several pounds. She didn’t eat nor drank anymore, she wouldn’t go anywhere near their bedroom. Clarke sniffed and mumbled “We were talking about trying for a child a week ago, she said she would be there by new years eve, she promised m-” her rambling was cut off by a knot getting bigger in her throat, as she cried harder, angry tears came running down red cheeks. Abby just kept rubbing her back.
Clarke fell asleep crying in her mother’s arms that night.
2016, july
“Cage Wallace, for the murder of Alexandria Jasmin Woods, the court decided that you should be sentenced to 63 years of prison, for aggravated murder…” Everything else the judge said was vanished from Clarke’s hearing as she sighed of contentment. Finally, after 7 months of fighting with the justice and praying the murderer of her wife would be caught, she could rest in peace. She turned around and jumped in Alexandra’s arms, both of them crying in joy.
Abby came in the hug and then it became one big family crying-hug. Everybody was waiting for this moment. The case was followed all around the world because of the couple’s fame.
Clarke went out of the big building with her family and was immediately greeted with loud applause and cheers. There were some many fans that the police had to come and create a safe-path for the Woods family.
Clarke slept in peace in her cold living room that night.
2016, december
“Abby, welcome to this show” Monty smiled, at the woman. Abby smiled at Monty and the guests. They both, Alexandra and her daughter hugged the woman before they sat down.
Alexandra moved on to sit on the right side of the couch so Abby would sit in between her daughter and herself. The public clapped all the way through Abby’s appearance to when she sat down on the couch.
“So, Abby, how have you been since you published your biography as a doctor and a mother ?” Monty asked as a picture of the said book appeared on the wall behind the group.
Abby smiled and said with a hoarse voice “I’ve been alright, my book has been sold all over the country and abroad so I wanted to thank you guys” she addressed to the cheering and clapping public.
Monty laughed and opened a copy of the biography “In the book you talk about your life as a doctor, and how it influenced your personal life,” “Yes, I wanted to write a book to help other doctors, not necessarily cardiologist like me but every job that could get mixed up with one’s personal life, and help people make the difference between the family life and your career” Abby explained.
Monty nodded and then asked “You also talk about your daughter and how her, passing away, influenced you…” Abby nodded and took a deep breathe. “I actually not only wanted to help workers but also people who suffer from a loss of a member of their family.”
The public clapped at that as well as the other guests. “In your book you wrote ‘I wasn’t home for most of the time, and when I realised that my daughter was turning 18 and was going to move in an apartment with her girlfriend, that’s when I knew that I missed most of my daughter’s life.’ Could you develop this ?”
“As I said I was away often for work and Clarke was home alone most of the time, so when I knew she had a girlfriend that she trusted, I, of course was very apprehensive but then I softened up to Lexa when I once found out that she saved me food from one of their romantic dinners” she laughed along with the public “Lexa was a nice girl and I see exactly what my daughter saw in her. But then, when my daughter was moving out of my house, I felt alone you know? It’s very weird to not have anything out of place or paint smothered of the walls”
“At the end of the book, you wrote about the most horrible phone call you ever had ? What was that about ?” Monty asked
After a few second, Abby got a held of herself and took a deep breath,”I… I was cooking myself something when I hear my phone ringing, so I went over to answer it and it was Clarke calling, I thought I was odd because it was quite late and I didn’t expect her to call so I asked what was going on and she just said she needed to talk, so that’s what we did for about an hour We talked about everything and anything and I knew something was wrong somehow but I just let it go” Abby sighed and looked up and carried on
“We talked about Lexa, and how much she missed her, and how the case was lasting and how we were relieved that we found the killer…” Abby kept her tears at bay and looked at Alexandra and offered a tight lipped smile at her and her daughter. “After a few seconds of silence I heard Clarke sniffing and saying ‘I love you mum’ with a shaky voice… and that’s when I knew… that, that was going to be the last time I ever talk to my daughter and… that she and Lexa were going to meet again.”
She felt her hand being hold by both women and either side of her. “I then understood that she was waiting for Lexa’s case to be solved and the killer to be locked up so that she could… sleep in Lexa’s arms again.”
Clarke fell asleep forever that night.