Chapter 6
The next morning Clarke wakes up to the sound of the front door slamming closed.
It’s not the first time she’s woken up this way. Whenever there is a big party on that Octavia and Raven go to, they usually don’t come home until early the next morning, and when they’re as hungover as they usually are, closing the door softly isn’t really high on their list of priorities.
She rolls over with a groan to check the time while stretching out her waking limbs.
8:29AM
Clarke groans again and lifts her hands to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
She just lays there for a few minutes and when she doesn’t hear the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, she assumes that whoever it was must have gone into the kitchen.
She’s not entirely sure why she bothers to get up and check, because she’s still kind of annoyed about being forced to go to the party last night, but she still loves her friends, so she gets up and makes to go check on whoever just came home.
When she gets down stairs and moves towards the kitchen area, she’s greeted with the image of Raven sitting slumped over the table with her head in her arms.
“Good morning Raven, have a nice night?” She asks in an overly chipper mood, knowing how much it will annoy the brunette.
“Shhhhhhhh, not so loud.” Raven whisper-yells as she looks up with pleading eyes. She instantly squints and uses her hands to block out the light before collapsing back on the table.
“So on a scale of one to ten, how hungover are you?” Clarke asks, half curious and half amused.
“Twelve.” She mumbles quietly before passing out.
Clarke considers waking Raven up and trying to get her up to her bed, but knows that it would be way more effort than it would be worth, so instead she just grabs a glass of water and heads back up to her room.
After that Saturday passes by in a blur and Clarke doesn’t really remember much of what happened.
After returning to her room she put on some music and lost herself in studying. She took a break sometime around early afternoon to grab some lunch and discovered that at some point Raven must have woken up and moved herself to the couch. After that she had a quick shower and continued on with her study.
Before she even realised it, the day was over and she was yawning tiredly as her head hit the pillow.
On Sunday morning Lexa gets to the gym a bit earlier than she usually would. She spent the previous day sleeping and helping clean up the house. She did so grudgingly seeing as it was Lincoln’s party, but she didn’t exactly want to live surrounded by empty bottles of alcohol so she put in the effort to help out.
By the time the house was back to normal it was mid afternoon and she was already feeling tired again. That being the case she took another nap and then spent the rest of the day reading through her course books and taking down notes to help herself memorise everything.
She planned to send Prisa a message and see if she was up for a chat, but before she knew it, it was late and she was tired. So instead, she got comfy in her bed and turned in for the night.
Back in the present, Lexa jumps slightly in surprise when she sees someone sit down on the exercise bike next to her. She looks up and is met with a familiar set of blue eyes.
She pulls out her earphones and offers a small smile in greeting.
“Hi there. I didn’t mean to startle you.” Clarke greets her, slight amusement in her tone from obviously catching Lexa’s surprise.
Lexa just huffs and rolls her eyes, causing the blonde to chuckle softly.
Clarke just smiles at her and Lexa can’t help but notice that it doesn’t seem forced. She also can’t help the natural smile that covers her features as a result of that.
“Are you here to work out or are you hear for idle chit chat?” Lexa asks in a teasing tone before she can stop herself.
Clarke doesn’t respond, just grins and puts in her own earphones before getting to work on the exercise bike.
Lexa watches her for a few moments before shaking her head, putting her own earphones back in and getting back to her own workout.
Neither of them bring up the fact that Clarke didn't end up bringing Lexa's hoody back to her.
Lexa because she forgot. (She actually just doesn't mind the blonde borrowing it for some reason...) And Clarke because she wanted to wash it before giving it back as a way of saying thank you. (She actually just wanted to keep it for a bit longer for some reason...)
Lexa goes into the library on Monday afternoon after a busy day of classes. She has a lot of work to get through and knows that if she goes home, either Lincoln or Anya will try to find a way to distract her from doing it. They wouldn’t be successful, but they would probably push her to the point where she would snap at them and then she would feel guilty about it for the rest of the evening.
So because of that, she decided that going to the library for a couple hours would be the safest bet.
There are quite a few people around and not many spare tables seeing as it’s only the second week back for the year and most people still have the motivation to stay on top of their work loads. It’s still about two weeks too early to be able to come in on a Monday afternoon and have free pick of where to sit.
Lexa takes a quick look around to try and find somewhere quiet to work when she spots a familiar face looking down into a text book.
She hesitates for a moment but realises that her options are fairly limited, and if she were to be honest with herself, the option presenting itself currently isn't really that bad.
She makes her way through the crowd and softly places her books on the table, drawing the attention from the other girl sitting there.
The blonde looks up and green eyes lock with blue.
“Lexa. Hi.” The blonde greets politely.
“Hey Clarke. Do you mind if I join you?” Lexa asks, not sure why she was feeling slightly shy all of a sudden.
“By all means.” Clarke smiles and gestures to the seat across the table.
Lexa smiles her thanks and takes the seat, before arranging her books to get started on her work.
They fall into a comfortable silence, which Lexa is thankful for. She has a lot of work to do and the whole point of coming to the library was to avoid distractions.
Even so, that doesn’t stop her for looking up every now and then to see what the blonde was up to. Most of the time, Clarke seems to be busy with reading one of her text books, or writing out an essay, but occasionally when Lexa looked up, she found Clarke looking back at her. In these instances they’d share a, friendly (?) smile, before both continuing on with their work.
This is how things went for about an hour until Lexa was snapped out of her focus by an exaggerated sigh coming from the blonde across from her.
“Everything okay?”
“No.” Clarke answers as she rubs her temples. “I feel like my head is about to explode.”
“Maybe you should take a break?”
“I think I will.” Clarke says as she gets up from the table and stretches. “I’m going to grab a coffee, do you want one?”
Lexa is a bit surprised by the offer but pleased by it at the same time. “Black please. No sugars.”
“Coming right up.”
Lexa watches as Clarke leaves the library to get them coffee. She knows it’s only a small gesture, but she can’t help the smile that forms on her face because of it. After a moment though, she shakes her head, adopts her stoic facade and gets back to work.
She's interrupted again a couple minutes later and looks up expecting to see Clarke back with coffee, but instead is surprised to see her brother with his girlfriend, sitting themselves down at the table.
“Hey Lex. Hope you don’t mind.” Lincoln greets, and she’s pretty sure that it wouldn’t matter even if she told him that she did mind.
She lets out a sigh and accepts the fact that she probably won’t be getting much work done until they leave.
Instead of acknowledging her brother, she looks across to Octavia who offers her a wide smile in greeting.
“Hello Octavia.” She offers in return.
“Hey. Who are you sitting with?” Octavia asks, gesturing to the pile of text books and unfinished essays on the table opposite where Lexa is sitting.
“That would be-” She starts before she is interrupted.
“Me.” Clarke answers for her, sitting back into her seat and passing a coffee across the table to Lexa.
“Thanks.” Lexa says gratefully as she accepts the beverage and takes a sip. She holds in the smile threatening to display across her face though.
“Not a problem.” Clarke says while taking her own sip, before placing it down on the table and greeting the new additions.
“Wait… I thought you had a lecture this afternoon?” Octavia says to Clarke, confusion evident in her voice, drawing the attention of everyone at the table.
Clarke sighs slightly before giving a forced smile. Lexa is pretty sure that Octavia doesn’t see through the mask, but Lexa recognises it instantly. She wonders why the blonde, who apart from their first meeting, has always seemed so cheerful, has a mask in the first place.
“The lecturer called in sick so it got called off this week.” Clarke says convincingly. Octavia seems happy enough with the answer, but now Lexa is left wondering why Clarke is lying to her friend.
“You should have called me. We could have met up and hung out or something.” Octavia says playfully.
“I thought I’d just make the most of the spare time and get a head start on some my work.” She replies before looking between her friend and Lincoln. “Besides, it looks like you were doing just fine without me.”
Octavia and Lincoln share a smile and Lexa just continues to sip at her coffee while observing the conversation taking place around her.
For the next half an hour, they group alternates between working slowly through essays and chatting casually. Though Lexa notices that mostly, if not all, of the conversation is started up by her brother or Octavia.
The library is becoming less crowded as the late afternoon becomes early evening, and Lexa contemplates whether it’s worth staying much longer seeing as the distractions seem to be getting more and more frequent the longer that Lincoln and Octavia are sitting with them.
She’s about to pack up and make her way home when Octavia’s phone goes off and she quickly answers it to stop her ringtone from playing in the quiet library.
“Hey Bell what’s up?”
Pause.
“Yeah I’m with at the library with Lincoln, Clarke and Lexa.”
Lexa notices Clarke’s shoulders tense the moment her name is brought up in the conversation.
“Sure I’ll ask if they’re interested and be right over.”
Pause.
“Alright see you soon.”
Octavia hangs up the phone and looks up to the group with a smile on her face.
“Bellamy is having some people around for a party at his Jasper and Monty’s place. You guys are obviously invited.” She says while packing up her own work.
Clarke’s shoulders relax again and Lexa can’t help but wonder why they tensed in the first place.
“I’ll pass. Say hello to everyone for me though.” Clarke gives a brief smile and continues on with what she was working on.
Octavia looks like she’s about to protest the blonde’s decision but doesn’t end up doing so.
“What about you, feeling up to it?” Lincoln asks Lexa with a hopeful expression.
“Sorry, but I’ve already got a lot of work piling up and I want to stay on top of it.”
“Lex, it’s the second week of the year, how much work could you possibly have?” He asks in a disbelieving tone.
She has to make a conscious effort not to sigh in exasperation and roll her eyes, instead she just put on a fake smile and says, “Sorry, maybe another time.”
Lincoln looks slightly dejected but cheers up immediately when Octavia takes his hand and they say their goodbyes.
Lexa lets out a sigh of relief when the quiet falls back over the table. She looks across to Clarke to find that she is watching her with curious eyes.
Lexa raises an eyebrow in question to which the blonde just smiles and shakes her head slightly before returning to her own work.
Lexa’s gaze lingers, her own curiosity now present, but eventually she pushes it down and gets back into her work.
It was another hour of fairly uninterrupted work before Clarke closed her large textbook with an unintentionally loud thump.
Feeling a bit guilty she takes a quick look around and decides that it doesn't really matter because there aren't many people left on the surrounding tables, and those who are still there are either talking amongst themselves or just browsing social media on their laptops.
Remembering that she has company she looks up and offers Lexa a guilty smile.
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Lexa says with a bit of a chuckle. “I’ve just about reached my limit for one day as well.”
“What’re you majoring?” Clarke asks, suddenly curious.
“Law, you?”
“Bio-med.” Lexa gives her an acknowledging nod and goes back to her work. “I thought you’d reached your limit for the day?” She asks playfully.
“I have, but I’m also about twenty minutes off finishing this essay.”
“I’ll wait until you finish then.” Clarke says and smiles at the curious look she gets in return. “It’s peaceful here. I like the quiet.”
Lexa hums her acknowledgement and goes to say something. Clarke can see the hesitation in her eyes and waits to see if the brunette will say what was on her mind or not.
Eventually she does.
“Is that why you lied to your friend about your lecturer calling in sick?”
Clarke knows she should feel guilty about being called out on her lie, but she feels more amused that Lexa had seen through her so easily.
“Technically it wasn’t a lie…” Clarke answers playfully causing Lexa to roll her eyes.
“There never was a lecture this afternoon was there?”
“Nope.”
“Clever.” Lexa smiles slightly. “If my friends didn’t already know my schedule I’d probably adopt a couple fake lectures as well.”
“And why would you do that?” Clarke asks, not sure why she was so curious all of a sudden.
“Sometime my friends can be… Overbearing…?” Lexa answers hesitantly.
Clarke recognises that their conversation has somehow turned from playful to deep rather quickly and from the looks of things, the brunette realises it as well. Seeing the obvious discomfort, Clarke decides it’s probably best to change the topic.
“Your twenty minutes are ticking Woods.” Clarke offers, giving Lexa the opportunity to get back to her work, which the brunette takes after offering a thankful smile in return.
Twenty minutes later, Lexa is almost finished when she hears another sigh across the table from her and looks up.
“Everything okay?” She asks, noticing the conflicted look on Clarke’s face.
“Hmm? Oh yeah, I just…” Clarke pauses and looks up from her laptop, which she has been staring at for the past twenty minutes, to lock eyes with Lexa.
“You just…?” Lexa prompts, curious as to what has the blonde looking so conflicted.
Clarke looks to be having a debate internally before she lets out another sigh.
“I finished a drawing last night, and I really love how it turned out and everything… But I’m not sure if I should upload it or not.”
“Why wouldn’t you upload it?” Lexa asks, now even more curious seeing as they were talking about Clarke’s artwork.
Definitely not a fan girl. Lexa reminds herself.
“Usually all of the artwork I produce comes from within, sort of like self-reflection I guess, or my way of coping with whatever life throws at me.” Clarke explains. “But this piece… It’s different I guess. It was inspired by someone else, and drawn for someone else. I’ve never really done artwork for other people before, and I feel like its kind of private between myself and the person it’s for, but at the same time, I really want to upload it, because I’m so proud of how it turned out.”
Lexa sits back in her chair, taking a moment to process everything Clarke just told her. For reasons she can't explain, she feels kind of honoured that the blonde had been so honest and shared all of that with her, and is even now looking at her with an expression that says she is hoping for some advice on the matter.
“I think that if it was me, that the art was for I mean, I’d want you to share it with your Instagram.” Lexa admits after hesitating slightly. “I don’t want to make any assumptions here, but from my understanding, you share all of your art…?” She waits until Clarke gives a small nod before continuing. “Then I think the person who you drew for would want for you to share it as well. Just because it’s shared with all of your followers, that doesn’t mean that it won’t still hold the same amount of meaning to the person who you did it for.”
Its Clarke’s turn to lean back into her chair and process Lexa’s words. After a few moments the look of conflict leaves her face and is replaced with a smile.
“Thanks for the advice.” She says genuinely to which Lexa just offers a smile back. “I’m going to upload it.”
Lexa offers a final nod to their conversation before adding the final touches to her essay while Clarke’s attention goes back to her laptop.
It’s a few minutes later when Lexa’s phone vibrates to alert her that she has an email. She unlocks the phone and brings up the email.
Instagram ( [email protected] )
This is an automatic notification to let you know that Clarke Griffin has uploaded a new photo to Instagram. You have elected to receive notifications when this user uploads new content, if you would like to cancel this feature, email “Stop” To [email protected] .
Regards, Instagram.
(Do not reply to this email.)
Lexa smiles to herself and looks up to where Clarke is still distracted with something on her laptop.
Lexa opens up the Instagram app on her phone and right at the top is the newest upload from Clarke Griffin. It’s taking a while to load so she scrolls down slightly to see that it was captioned, ‘Thank you for the inspiration x.’
Seeing the bottom of the image load, Lexa scrolls up quickly, excited to see Clarke’s latest artwork. Her first reaction is that it looks beautiful. The way that the flower is leaning slightly in one direction as if caught in the wind, the detail put into the stem and petals that described so much, even in black and white. Even the petals falling to spell out a word in the shadow of the flower…
Lexa gasps and drops her phone with wide eyes.
Clarke looks up instantly, concern evident in her eyes.
“Are you okay?”
Lexa looks down to her phone, thankful that it landed face down on the table before taking a deep breath and trying to calm her racing heartbeat.
It's a lot to process out of nowhere, and she is suddenly feeling very claustrophobic in the open style library.
It’s only when she hears Clarke’s voice again that she realises that she's completely failing at calming her breathing down, because now she’s practically gasping for oxygen.
“Lexa, breathe.” Clarke tells her with a calm voice, though the underlying concern is still present.
It's a few minutes of taking slow deep breaths along with the blonde, whose calm reassuring voice helps Lexa to calm down, before her breathing to return to normal.
Lexa opens her eyes, which were shut tightly while trying to calm down, and locks onto the blonde’s concerned blue orbs.
“You okay?” Clarke asks cautiously.
“Yeah… Sorry about that.” Lexa tries to deflect and they sit in silence for a little while. She’s grateful when Clarke doesn’t force the issue. “I uh, I have to go. Something's come up.” She says and quickly picks up her phone, stuffing it in her pocket before packing up the rest of her things.
She’s grateful when Clarke just gives her a concerned smile instead of trying to pry for information, and almost feels guilty for freaking out. But at the same time, Clarke is Prisa, and she needs some time to process that information.
“I’ll see you around…" She hesitates for a moment before continuing, "Thanks for the company.”
Lexa is on her way out of the library before Clarke even gets the chance to respond.