II
Present Day
“And cut!” The director calls for a twenty minute break to give the crew some time to change sets. The actors make their way off the set and into their respective trailers.
Anya and Octavia wave goodbye to each other and wish each other good luck as they follow their friends off set.
Octavia falls into step with her best friend, she looks at her and she sees the tears threatening to spill but don’t. At least not yet. They make it to the blonde’s trailer and the second the door is closed and securely locked, she breaks. Clarke is sobbing, her vision goes blurry, and all she can feel are strong arms wrapped around her middle pulling her onto the sofa. She closes her eyes and tries so hard to pretend that the arms holding her aren’t Octavia’s but instead of the woman she loves.
“I know Clarke…I know,” Octavia tries her best to soothe her trembling best friend continues to sob.
“I messed up O…I messed up so bad. On screen she’s so…She’s Lexa and I can’t…I know it’s not real…” Octavia feels her heart break for the girl. No one could have foreseen what happened and yet she felt somewhat responsible for not protecting her best friend.
“I’m sorry Clarke, I really am,” Octavia whispers but Clarke only cries harder so Octavia does what she’s had to do for the past two weeks and rocks her best friend until she recovers.
“I love her…I love her so much,” Clarke whispers.
Four Months Earlier
“Good morning Clarke,” Lexa greets her co-star as she takes a seat in the chair opposite her. “I’m sorry for running late, LA traffic…Definitely not New York that’s for sure."
The blonde laughs, “No need to apologize, I just sat down a few minutes ago. I was waiting for you to order."
The brunette graciously nods and turns to the waitress who has now joined their table.
“Coffee, black please.”
The blonde laughs again, “I should’ve known.” Lexa blushes at the girl’s laugh. “I’ll have an iced vanilla latte, please and a cheese danish.”
The waitress nods and leaves and Lexa almost wishes she’d come back after realizing how awkward it suddenly had become.
“So…” Lexa beings.
“So how are you liking being back in California?” Clarke asks.
“I…Uh…Lots of memories here,” Lexa says and Clarke can sense of apprehension in her answer. “New York is definitely my home now,” Lexa ends it there.
“Right…makes sense,” Clarke answers and thankfully before anymore awkward conversation can continue their drinks arrive and both girls let out a sigh of relief.
“Why did you want to meet with me Clarke?” Lexa asks finally breaking the silence.
“Straight to the point aren’t you Commander?” The nickname catches the other girl off guard and she blushes. Clarke swears it’s the cutest thing she’s ever seen.
“So you’ve seen the show…” Lexa murmurs and she looks a bit grumpy.
“Lexa, the whole world has seen your show, you were absolutely adorable!” Clarke says with a grin on her face.
“And now?” The brunette is surprised at her own response and from the looks of it, the blonde is too. The blonde leans in slightly, resting her elbow on the table as her hand holds her head up.
“Well now…” Her eyes bore into Lexa’s before looking down at her lips and instinctively licking her own, “Now I’d say I don’t have any complaints."
Clarke’s response catches Lexa off guard again and this time Lexa isn’t able to hide the creeping blush on her cheeks and leave it to the lovely paparazzi of LA to show up at that specific moment.
“Fuck,” Lexa whispers as she does her best to maintain her composure. She fishes in her purse for her blacked out aviators meanwhile Clarke is still staring at the girl with adoring eyes. It isn’t until a camera flash and a stranger yells out her name does she snap out of it. She turns her attention to the cameras, giving them a wave and her signature Clarke Griffin grin and then they slowly disappeared.
“You don’t like being in the public eye, do you?” Clarke asks taking a sip of her coffee.
“What gave that away,” Lexa grumbled.
“You’re cute when you pout,” Clarke laughs and as if on cue, Lexa blushes again. “You don’t take compliments well do you Lexa?”
“What makes you say that?” The brunette says, fidgeting in her seat.
“Oh…Just a wild guess,” Clarke says licking her lips.
What the hell are you doing Griffin? Get it together!
The blonde’s internal struggle didn’t match her exterior but Lexa didn’t know that. Lexa on the other hand was fighting all urges to reciprocate the clear interest from the other girl but the better side of her knew better.
“So back to my previous question…”
“Right…Well I wanted to thank you again for letting my friends and I crash at your place that night."
That night. Lexa’s heart pounded.
“There’s no need for thanks Clarke, it was the right thing to do."
Clarke nods, “Right…Well regardless, thank you. And secondly, I figured since you and I are to play best friends turned lovers…I figured we should probably get to know each other outside of our IMDB pages, don’t you think?"
Clarke has a point, Lexa can’t deny that but there’s a part of her that doesn’t see why this is necessary.
“I suppose,” the other girl finally manages to reply.
“You suppose?” Clarke’s face wrinkles. “I’m sorry but do you not have friends?”
The second Clarke said it, she regretted it. She never meant to say it the way she did and now she has no idea how to respond.
“I have friends."
You’d think Lexa would be offended, hurt even, but this is the kind of dialogue she can deal with. This is the kind of dialogue she’s known most of her life being shuffled from foster home to foster home.
“Lexa I - I didn’t mean -"
“You did mean it and it’s fine. I have friends, most of whom are out of the public eye because quite frankly I’m a very private person. I know it sounds weird considering my life’s profession is to be someone I’m not and appear in the media, but I assure you there’s a right way and a wrong way to this business."
Clarke sits there flabbergasted at what Lexa’s just said and she can’t seem to gather enough words to string into sentences so Lexa does it for her.
“You’re cute when you’re speechless."
Lexa: 1. Clarke: 2. Almost even.
“Something the matter Clarke?” Lexa asks smirking into her coffee mug. Clarke not wanting to let the other girl know that she’s gotten to her simply waves her hand, flashes her a smile yet sultry smile that’s weakened her fair share of boys and girls, and replies with, “It takes a lot more than that to shake me up Lexa Woods and if you want to find out, let’s just say I’m not opposed to letting you."
Lexs gulps. Lexa: 0. Clarke: 100. The brunette then raises her mug in salute and Clarke follows suit.
“Well Clarke Griffin, what is it you want to know?"
Present Day
“You fumbled your line."
Lexa looks into the mirror to find Anya looking back at her.
“Everyone fumbles their lines at some point."
Anya sighs, “Lexa…If you need to take a break, take a -"
The brunette holds her hand up, silencing the other girl. “I’m fine. It was a mistake, it doesn’t mean anything."
“I never said it meant anything more…"
The actor scoffs, “You’re implying Anya, I can sense it in your fucking voice.” The swearing catches Anya’s attention.
“I don’t need to remind you who you’re doing this film for do I? You have a few more weeks of filming Lexa, you can do this. Maybe you just need to talk to Cla-"
Lexa turns to face her friend and for the first time in a very long time, Lexa looks small to her. She looks like the fourteen-year-old girl that was brought to her home a little over ten years ago.
“Lexa,” Anya almost whispers. “You don’t need to do this with me,” she says gesturing to the space around them. “It’s me, your sister. You have seen me at my worst and I, yours. You can talk to me, you don’t need to put up this…facade, not now, not ever, not with me."
Anya watches the other girl closely, the way her hands instinctively form into a fist and open and the way her eyes seem to fixate on one object in her trailer. She’s coming undone and while others would interpret her behavior as aggressive or evasive, Anya knows what this is. Lexa is coming undone.
“I love her Anya…I love her so much and I’m afraid she’ll never know."
Four Months Earlier
“Clarke, if you’re going to take selfies the entire time we run lines I’m going to have to insist on taking photos of you, taking photos of yourself and posting them on social media."
The brunette tosses her script across the room and lays down on the couch. The girls have been running lines for the past hour or so in which the blonde has taken a surprising amount of photos.
“You’re on social media?” the blonde asks stopping mid-selfie.
“Is that so hard to believe?” Lexa drawls while braiding her hair.
“I mean…Yes?” Clarke laughs. “I had no idea you were even on social media, what’s your user handle? I’ll follow you right now!"
Lexa rolls her eyes and obliges Clarke, “@LexaWoods, it’s the same for Twitter and Instagram.”
“How original…” The blonde murmurs and Lexa scoffs.
“Sorry we can’t all be PrincessPeach,” Lexa teases and Clarke raises her brow. “My, my, has Lexa Woods been stalking me on social media?"
Lexa’s cheeks flush and her gaze immediately goes anywhere but to her co-star’s
“Wait…But you don’t follow me on any social media…Wait…LEXA WHY AREN’T YOU FOLLOWING ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA?!"
The blonde was growing frustrated and Lexa wanting to see how many shades of blue Clarke’s face can get, decides to keep it up.
“I’m very particular in who I follow,” Lexa smirks.
Clarke growing frustrated decides to take matters into her own hands (literally) as she furiously begins typing on her phone.
“Clarke…What are you doing?” Lexa’s voice is sharp but the other girl ignores her. “I mean it Clarke, what are you doing?” Lexa moves over to the other couch in hopes of seeing what her co-star is up to but Clarke leans forward blocking all views from the brunette. Ever the relentless one, Lexa continues to reach for Clarke’s phone, ultimately landing her in the blonde’s lap right as she chucks her phone to the other couch.
“Sucker,” Clarke says sticking her tongue out and that’s when she realizes how close they are. She looks at Lexa’s lips and back to her green eyes, which in this light appear to have flecks of gold. She’s beautiful. Lexa finds herself leaning in, she doesn’t understand the gravitational pull Clarke has over her but she can’t seem to care. Clarke’s leaning in too, that part is obvious, they’re mere centimeters from each other and then a chiming sound goes off and both girls snap their faces forward.
“That’ll be the take out…” Lexa whispers her voice suddenly a bit raspy. “I’ll go…I’ll go get that.” She disentangles herself from the other girl, instantly missing the contact, and goes to greet Lincoln at the door.
“Thanks Linc and here,” Lexa wrestles around the brown paper bag for a box of potstickers and hands it over to her childhood friend and brother. “Got your fave,” she says smiling and Lincoln accepts it with a nod.
Lexa makes her way into the kitchen and goes to grab two plates and that’s when she notices her phone on the counter, blowing up with notifications from…everyone. Then she sees it, the tweet of all ungodly tweets.
@PrincessPeach: My lovely co-star @LexaWoods isn’t following me on Twitter. Let’s get her to #FollowClarke2K16 and I’ll share a selfie with the bae ❤️
The tweet had over 500 likes and counting and too many retweets to even count. Lexa is in complete disbelief. She mutes her phone and stuffs it into her back pocket. She finishes divvying up the food and puts on her best game face as she returns to her living room, where surprise surprise, Clarke is taking selfies once again.
“Hope you’re hungry, I went a bit overboard with the Chinese food,” Lexa says raising the plates in her hands.
“Perfect, I’m starved!” Clarke says rubbing her hands together.
“Well good thing I ordered extra then…bae."
Clarke freezes, mid-bite of her egg roll and then grins, “Saw that did you?"
“Oh I think the whole world saw that Clarke…”
“You’re not mad are you?” She asks genuinely concerned.
Lexa shakes her head, “No…I mean, I’m always in the public. Social media was my way of retaining that sense of privacy but I think this is good. You know, for the film and all that…"
“Right, for the film,” Clarke nods a part of her somewhat hurt.
“Right."
Silence consumes them and only sounds of soft chewing and egg rolls breaking can be heard in Lexa’s LA home. Clarke leaves shortly after another quick run through of their lines, official rehearsals and filming began in just two weeks and while she doesn’t want to over do it, she wants to be prepared.
The next morning Clarke wakes up to a myriad of notifications which normally isn’t anything out of the usual but this was different.
She scrolls up to find the original feed and that’s when she sees it.
@LexaWoods: Okay, okay. You win Griffin. #FollowClarke2K16 is officially over but you can say hello to bae.
Below her tweet is a photo of Clarke and busy studying her lines, she doesn’t remember Lexa having her phone on her during yesterday’s rehearsal but she sure as hell isn’t mad about it. She screenshots the tweet and quickly sends a reply to her co-star.
@PrincessPeach: Told you, I always win ❤️ ❤️