Scene 5
Her muscles twitched in fatigue, chest rumpled up and down in despair to plunge in air, and her ribs were throbbing against her chest, but she didn’t stop her running not until the red brick building was in her peripheral. Right there on its footsteps, Lexa finally sat down, legs spread out in front on the early hours of the morning.
After catching on her breathe, Lexa jogged up the stairs to Clarke’s apartment, her hands dwindling on whether she should just enter or knock beforehand, when she heard a scream. Terrified, Lexa almost ran through the door into a shower clad Clarke, who had jumped almost jumped 5 feet high upon the brunette’s sudden arrival.
Wet. That was the one word that was cruelly trespassing Lexa’s mind to and fro. Wet and bare foot in a towel, with bubbles springing out and about the velvet skin that carried the detectable aroma of strawberries. Not that Lexa was paying too much of an attention or anything but in all fairness, it is rather hard to turn your eyeballs from a spectacular view even though your consciousness is pricking at your with a sledge hammer to turn away. But she couldn’t not stop staring. If Clarke had not coughed awkwardly to underline her stalkiness, Lexa might have continued.
With whatever dignity that was left, Lexa finally turned her back around to the half-naked blonde who was still heaving as if she had seen a ghost, but the still tinge of pinkness that coloured those rosy cheeks was caught red handed in green eye’s periphery.
“Couldn’t you knock?”
“I would have if it wasn’t of your incessant screaming. What happened?”
Lexa was just about to turn herself to face the blonde when Clarke halted her advances, “ …. Don’t turn. Just let me put on something.”
The feisty girl somehow looked small in her double sized shirt. Her blonde mane was now tamed as trinkets of water was dripping down her UCLA sweatshirt, drenching the pale grey threads. Lexa ran her hands over her eyes to stop herself to another probable ogling session, so instead she decided to tune in to the one sided conversation that Clarke had been having with Lexa.
“ … and the spider came out of nowhere and I just had to bail.” Clarke crossed her arms in front her chest, distinctly annoyed.
“A spider?” Lexa asked in an astonished voice. The idea of “it” being a spider wasn’t at all appealing to her.
“Yeah. I’m just not okay with a spider trotting through my bathroom. What if it’s poisonous?”
Lexa rolled her eyes at the assumption. Such flair for dramatics. Her condescending tone, and body language wasn’t much to Clarke’s liking who rolled a newspaper and handed it over to Lexa.
“Since you happen to be such a badass, go in and just kill it.”
Lexa mocked a feign pouty face to the smirking blonde before stepping into the bathroom. But if her hesitant steps gave any indication, it was that Alexandria Mikealson might be just a tad bit uncomfortable with spiders herself, not that she would say so in front of Clarke and bust her badass persona.
The coast seemed clear so far she had gone the first 3 steps into the bathroom. Her grip on the newspaper roll tightened as she stepped closer and closer to the small bathtub that hid behind the shower curtain. When she finally shoved aside the curtain, it was then she saw the dreadful creature, right there in the middle of the bathtub. And it wasn’t just any spider, it was a bloody mutant spider. Too big, too big, too fucking big for her to defeat alone.
But Lexa wasn’t one to back up. Not yet anyway. She padded her newspaper against the wall of the bathtub, at a whole arm’s distance from the alleged intruder, to make it scare away. For moments it didn’t bulge, but when it finally did, Lexa did a sort of an internal dance. But that didn’t last very long. She followed the eight legged crawler as it walked up to the corner of her bathtub wall, only to be greeted up another mutant spider. Oh my god. Two against one, not fair.
She ran out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. She felt white as cold. On meeting the raising eyebrows of her curious roommate, Lexa finally replied. “I think it’s safe to say that the bathtub will be out of use for a couple of days.”
“You can’t keep messing up orders like this, Clarke. Next time onwards, I’ll be cutting from your fees instead.” Elise snarled at the blonde before begrudged-ly smiling way too much to another customer in the line.
Clarke thrusted her café apron in the back storage, taking up her jacket and bag. Frustrated moisture was already entering her premises and in her utter annoyance at how her afternoon had ended, she almost collided with a customer. She didn’t bother looking up at her accident.
“I’m so sorry ….”
“Clarke?”
The throaty voice spoke. Clarke looked up at the sound of familiar cords. Emerald eyes met blue irises in a pausing silence, her eyes passing over Clarke’s in something acute of concern and curiosity.
“Are you alright?”
If Clarke had any doubt Lexa wasn’t concerned, now she knew that she was concerned, even a bit. Clarke schooled in her emotions and immediately looked elsewhere.
“I’m …. Why don’t we step outside?”
They sat at one of the many bench near the park that overlooked the ice ring. Clarke decided that maybe she could elude the imploring stares of the brunette, who didn’t demand any explanation for Clarke’s change in temper but her eyes. Oh, the way they looked at her, they were silently demanding, and Clarke knew that she could side track everything from someone who might be staying with her till her end of time.
“Long day at work.” She bit her inner cheek at the lie, something she was sure Lexa had detected but it was the truth. Half-truth anyway. Lexa took another look at her before giving in.
“So, what brought you to TonDC anyway?”
“I wanted to, um, answer that question of yours. And your shift was almost ending so .... Anyway, I thought and thought and I realized that, you know, I decided to wait for the right one to do it with, but, you know … “
Clarke parted her lips to say something, then closed it again, confused. “No, I don’t know what you are saying?”
“I never had, um, sex before. Not conscious sex anyway.”
Clarke didn’t know what she should do, should she laugh or should she laugh some more? She wasn’t expecting this. Her parted lips were still very much parted. She could see Lexa squirming before her, flustered at her confession. But all the blonde could see was adult adorableness. Laughter that had been bubbling inside her, finally erupted.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She was quick to her amends at Lexa’s stern glare. “So, you are a virgin but not a virgin?”
“It was a drunken night. Some visual some blurry.”
“So how long had it been since?”
“It was in my final year of college. So like, 4 years?”
Clarke thumped back into her seat. Wow, it had been 9 months for her and she felt like a fucking desert.
“Just so, I have this clear. You had just one drunken stand in your entire life because you wanted to wait for “the one” before you decided do the do and that has been 4 years since. You are practically a virgin, Lexa.”
“I’m not.” Huffed Lexa. Her lips were shut in a thin line, her hands were crossed in front of her chest and she pouted.
“You are.”
“I’m not.” But each time, Lexa said, her stance was depleting.
“You so are.”
I’m not.” This time, Lexa paused. She lumped her face on her left hand, like a 5 year old child who has just lost her ice cream man, and mumbles out sorrowly, “I’m so lame.”
Maybe it was because Clarke, as much as she loved hugs, she also loved sharing them or maybe the defeated voice of Lexa’s tugged something inside Clarke which she simply couldn’t undo it, Clarke flung out her hands and enclosed Lexa in a hug.
Lexa stiffened under her warmth. Her shoulders shot ajar in their posture. She wasn’t one to be emotional but within moments she found herself relaxing in it. With measure steps, she found her own ones prompting Lexa to hug the Clarke in return.
That uneasiness had carried Clarke’s demeanour when she realized that her hug wasn’t welcome, might have disappointed Clarke a bit. But she did invade Lexa’s personal space without even her permission. What the actuall fuck was she thinking? She was about to retreat when cool fingers threaded through her curls, sending welcoming shivers down her spine.
“Well, then we are going to change that tonight.”
Clarke’s hands drizzled past the uncountable items that were scattered in on the dashboard of her rustic car in search of her key. Yes, it was a very old Chevrolet corvette convertible. It was coloured in emblazing red but even Lexa could see its fading colour and jagged edges. It couldn’t be any less than 15 winters.
Lexa eyed the car, no the apparent death trap, a few steps away, not sure what Clarke was exactly planning to do with it. And it was pretty much clear that Clarke was having trouble starting the red demon anyway.
Much to her own dismay, she sat shotgun to Clarke who was whispering reassuring words to the dormant inanimate object.
“Does it actually work or have we come to just say hello, hi to it?”
Clarke hissed her disapproval. “First, this is not a “it”. I call him Ark. And secondly, this is my baby and my baby always listens to me.”
Lexa fisted her hand into the empty air. The claustrophobic atmosphere hit her so Lexa decided to roll down her side of the window. Only the knob to pull down the said window kinda loosened from and fell apart on her hand. Oh my God.
And then there was the hanging glove compartment. No matter how much, Lexa pushed it back to its designated place, it only come hanging back briskly falling on Lexa’s lap.
Oh, how could she forget her seat? It felt like she was sitting on a godforsaken spring that was ready to bounce her atop onto the beasty’s roof any time soon. Lexa was this close to tearing the car out to its every machinery.
Finally, after a zillion prayer and begging, the beast roared into life before giving Lexa any further thought on how to kill it before it actually kills her.
They edged past the mob that was drunkenly immobilized swaying to the beats of the music. “The Grounders” club might look docile, uninhabited from the outside albeit the raging pandemonium but the scenario under the dim lights of the bar was entirely different.
“So, Lexa, this is your battlefield. Start preying on your prey.” Gesturing Lexa to the magnamous heads currently swapping the dance floor. Lexa herself snickered at Clarke’s choice of words, Clarke’s thought also not so different. Though she blamed that tone to language to regular prankster of their group, Raven Reyes.
Crowds wouldn’t be Lexa’s scene but tonight was different.
As told, Lexa ran a calculated and hardened gaze around the greasy bodies.
“No, no not that hard. It looks like you are trying too hard. Just look around casually.” Clarke corrected. “So anyone hit your radar? How’s that guy over there?”
“Women.” Lexa delicately coughed out. “I’m into women.”
Clarke might have even guessed her preference on women for she might have caught her staring at her time and again, not that she would ever rub it in the face of the already agitated brunette. Clarke giggled.
“Lexa? Flirt with me.”
“What?”
“Like a practice. I can’t have you running around like a headless chicken now can I?”
Clarke took up an empty seat, toying with the remnants of her drink.
“So, you seem pretty lonely here. Can I get you a drink?”
Clarke sneered. “That’s like the shittiest line in the history of pick up lines. Geez, try again.”
“Can I get you another?”
“This is the 21st century, Lexa. I can get my own, thank you.”
Failure are the pillars of success, Lexa wasn’t yet to give up. Lexa adjusted her bowler hat on her hand before doing the unthinkable. She ducked to the other side of the bar, a cocky grin already in place.
“How about I make you another?”
Clarke raised her eyebrows before smirking out two words. “Surprise me.”
All Clarke caught for the swift and astute movements of Lexa who whisked through the shelves picking onto the ingredients, before draining them all into the mixer and placing the dark red resultant in front of her.
“A Manhattan, for you.”
Clarke sipped the dark chocolatey syrup and her taste buds hummed in approval. The chilled and diluted dryness of the cocktail felt strong in her throat but had this sweet undercurrent, which was so satisfying.
“That’s really good. How will I pay you back?”
“Just your name will do.”
“Clarke.”
“Hmm, unusual name” Lexa paused before closing in the distance, giving a lop sided smile to the blonde “ for an unusually beautiful girl.”
The dopey smile that Lexa presented her wasn’t sexy in any way. It was just dopey, and genuine and maybe that’s why it appeared sexy to Clarke. She found herself chuckling at the thought itself. She could almost feel the side effects of alcohol muttering up her bones and the sudden haze of Lexa wasn’t helping either.
Moments passed and much to Clarke’s shock or rather amusement, Lexa was still transfixed to her. She didn’t move or even bat her eyelids to check out the many people who were in turn, turning their heads over to watch Lexa. No, Lexa wasn’t moving, she was seating under the fluorescent lights of the bar and was mesmerizing the subtle beauty that was now seating next to her. She admiring the small mole that was sitting atop Clarke’s left of her lips, the pink blouse of her that was clinging to her curves in all the right places. She had tried desperately to look away uncountable times but some force or another pushed her towards Clarke. She was broken from her trance when she felt warm hands grip on her thigh drawing her attention.
“There’s a pretty red head checking you out, Lexa.”
A release, that was what Lexa needed. She jerked her head up immediately.
“Where?”
“Your 10 o clock. No, Lexa your other 10 o clock.”
She goofily searched amidst the crowd until she finally laid eyes on a pretty red head who was coyly smiling at her and rather stupidly, Lexa threw her an encouraging grin.
“You should go get her.” Clarke was already standing up and pushing Lexa towards the girl.
But Lexa hesitated. “But will you be …. “
“Yes, Mikealson. I’ll be alright and I’ll be around.”
The new song started playing, the beats of the music much faster than the last. Bodies started swapping against each other and in this rage, blue eyes lost sight of green.