Chapter 3
PROMPT: Clexaven telling Abby all three of them are together.
The air grew tense and awkward around them, silent but for the scraping of forks on plates and between teeth as Clarke, Lexa, and Raven shared a dinner with Clarke’s mother. They had planned the event a few weeks in advance, the three of them deciding that it was finally time to tell Abby about their relationship. It wasn’t just Clarke and Lexa anymore. Raven had become a crucial part of their lives and their home, not only as the friend she had always been, but as a love and a lover, someone neither Clarke nor Lexa could imagine ever being without again. The dinner, however, wasn’t exactly going according to plan.
It had been decided that Clarke would spill the beans before the meal, hoping to use the food as a nice distraction and a way to level things out and keep them calm if Abby were to disapprove of the relationship. Clarke, though, had apparently let her nerves get the better of her, because here they were, well into their entrees, and not a peep had been uttered from the blonde other than, “Mom, um, could you pass me the Parmesan?”
Raven’s nerves were buzzing under her skin, Lexa looked like she was on the verge of exploding, and everything felt too heavy and too quiet and too loud and too much. Raven felt like the truth was going to shoot out of her face like a canon if Clarke didn’t get it together and spit it out already.
As subtly as she could, Raven shifted in her seat and kicked Clarke under the table. When blue eyes shot up to meet her gaze, Raven bugged out her own eyes and tilted her head toward Abby. Clarke glared before glancing to Lexa who still looked as if she hadn’t breathed in long enough that she should, by all accounts, be dead. She was holding on, though, red-faced and stiff as a board.
Clearing her throat, Raven said, “Uh, so, Dr. G, Clarke has something she wants to tell you.”
Clarke’s face promised all manner of torture and death before she quickly plastered on a smile at her mother’s expression of, “Oh? What’s that, honey?”
“Um, well, I … you see, Lexa and I–”
“We’re dating Raven,” Lexa blurted, the words rocketing out of her lips followed by a massive intake of breath and then a relieved sigh.
Everyone at the table froze, Clarke looking like a deer caught in headlights, Raven subtly trying to shrink, and Abby blinking like someone had just snapped their fingers in front of her face.
There was a brief pause before Abby smiled and reached over to pat Lexa’s arm. “I was wondering when you were going to breathe. Feel better?”
“My apologies,” Lexa said, clearing her throat and smoothing down the front of her shirt. “That certainly did not go as planned.”
“Mom?” Clarke looked at her mother, confused. “Um, do you understand what Lexa said?”
Abby turned to her. “Of course. What is difficult to understand about ‘We’re dating Raven’?”
“She meant both of us, though,” Clarke told her. “Like, the three of us are in a relationship with each other … all three of us.”
“Yes, I gathered as much,” Abby said before reaching for the dessert menu. “Anyone want dessert?”
“You’re cool with it?” Raven asked, finally chiming in. “I mean, no ‘what is this madness?’ Just pass the damned dessert? That’s it?”
Laughing, Abby shook her head. “If you three thought you were subtle, you were sorely mistaken. I’ve known for at least three months now. Why do you think I suggested the three of you moving into a smaller space? There’s no need to pay for three bedrooms when you only use one.”
A wide smile broke over Raven’s face as she leaned over and smacked Clarke’s shoulder. “I told you she’d be down!”
Lexa rolled her eyes at that and said, “If I recall, your exact words were, ‘She’s going to flip shit and come after me with her scalpel’.”
Raven’s cheeks reddened as Abby and Clarke both burst into laughter.