Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Trying to get anywhere during the daylight in New York City is one of the most arduous experiences ever, which is why Lexa lets out a long sigh of exasperation as she lets up on the breaks for all of 5 seconds before being forced to slow to a stop again. At this point, she’s seriously questioning her decision to leave earlier so she could drive in daylight, because she thinks at this rate, it probably won’t make a difference that she left early with the traffic the way it is.
Living in New York had never been quite what Lexa had expected. She isn’t all too happy with the city itself, but at the time she moved, she’d really had no choice. It’s not like there’s a lot of reasonable real estate out there where she could have started a bookstore, and when a spot in the city opened up, she took it.
The city is, quite frankly, a little gross for Lexa’s taste. It’s dirty, crowded, and often smells like a terrible combination of urine and rotting garbage. She grew up in New England, where everything was much less crowded (save for the bigger cities) and the air smelled like pine trees, and you could actually see the stars at night, so living in the city was pretty different from what she was used to.
It was a tough transition for her, but it was also something she’d been working towards all her life, and certainly not the worst challenge she’d faced by far, so she made it through without too much of a struggle. Thankfully she’d had many people to help her from the start, and one who she trusts enough to leave the store in the hands of for an entire summer while she takes a much needed vacation. She’s sure it’s a little unethical to leave her store in the hands of someone else for the majority of the summer while she does nothing but relaxes, and she still wonders if the fact that she can afford it is something she’s entirely comfortable with.
Truth be told, Lexa can’t even remember the last real vacation she took. Which is probably why she needs this summer more than anything. She can’t help but feel guilty for leaving the store all summer. It is her bookstore, after all, and she is responsible for it. But there’s a reason she hired people to work for her, so she supposes it’s really not anything to be too concerned about.
She’s looking forward to spending time by the lake and getting some time to herself to actually relax and unwind, though she thinks over two months may be a bit excessive. However, Anya had insisted she take that much time, especially after the stress her last few months had caused her. She was grateful to have her, and trusted her judgement enough to know she must be right.
It’s just a little hard to relax when she’s been sitting in traffic for almost two hours and still has somewhere around six hours of travel to do once she actually gets out of the city. It doesn’t help that she has her overexcited dog, Heda, in the back seat, moving from window to window trying to gauge her surroundings, letting out a bark every now and then at passing dogs on the sidewalk, and her phone jack for the stereo isn’t working so she can’t even listen to something that she enjoys to try and drown that out. Only two hours in and she’s almost more stressed than she was before she left. What a way to kick off the summer…
Mom: Hey Clarke. Hate to do this but the hospital needs someone to cover some extra shifts tomorrow, so I don’t think I can come to your gallery opening. So sorry, but I’ll come see it another day. Love you.
Clarke reads the message over again to let herself fully believe it. She frowns and looks over at her roommate. “Hey, Raven,” Clarke starts, putting her phone down in her lap and poking the girl at her feet with her toe, “How much alcohol do we have in this place?”
“Dunno, a couple bottles, why?” She asks, but they both know why. Clarke is notoriously known as the life of the party and takes any chance she can to prove it.
“We’re having a party. Tomorrow. After my gallery opening. Anyone who wants to come can come. Octavia, Bellamy, Monty, Jasper, the whole crew.” Clarke tells her, getting up as she does. Raven doesn’t have to know that part of the reason she wants to have this party is so that she can ignore the fact that her mother is letting her down again. “Come on, let’s go out and get everything we need to throw a killer party for a shit ton of people”.
“Alright, princess, whatever you say.” Raven says, getting up herself. Clarke tenses a little at the nickname. Hearing it still doesn’t feel right. It’s too soon, the implications too raw. She shakes the unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach and moves to grab the keys anyways and make her way through their living room to the door.
Opening it and stepping outside, she’s reminded of how much she loves the feel of the lake after a storm. Everything smells like fresh pine needles and rain and she loves it. Things that were once dirty are now clean, and everything is revitalized and fresh. Plus, it means she doesn’t have to water her plants the next day or so, which is a nice bonus.
It’s fairly dark out, but as she’s walking towards the car, Clarke notices another girl, probably her own age, walking into the house next door with the big, muscular guy from down the road, and stops to look at her as she takes the bag he was carrying (maybe even struggling with, a little) out of his hands with ease. From what she sees of her before she opens the door and goes inside, she’s pretty breathtaking; short, with her long brown hair in a perfect braid, walking almost regally towards her door. From how heavy her bag looks, Clarke guesses she’s definitely fit, but somehow she still looks delicate and small. She’s definitely not gonna hate having a girl that attractive living next door to her and Raven all summer.
“Hey, Griffin, let’s go. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to stare at the hot neighbor all summer.” Raven teases, and Clarke narrows her eyes at her, then starts to walk towards the car again.
“Fuck off Raven. I’m not staring, just seeing who our new neighbor is.” Clarke says, getting into the car as she does, but blushing nonetheless
“Whatever you say, Clarke.” Raven says with a smirk, getting in the passenger side of the car. “But it looks like she’s friends with that quiet guy from down the road so my guess is she’s not gonna be joining us for jell-o shots anytime soon.” Raven says, and Clarke quirks an eyebrow.
“Hm, well, we’ll see about that. But I do like what you’re thinking. Jell-o shots are always a crowd pleaser. Definitely putting that on our list. Along with a nice bottle of tequila and some limes, and OF COURSE, your favorite, jäger!” Clarke teases, and Raven’s eyes widen.
“Oh don’t even joke about it, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to drink that stuff again, not after last time.” They both laugh at the memory of Raven walking around behind the dunes of some beach, insisting that they were on the moon and that she was the first person to walk on it without a spacesuit and then proceeding to vomit and claiming it’s her body’s way of adjusting to the moon. Clarke pulls out of the driveway with a smile on her face and drives off and down the road towards the town center and the liquor store.
Clarke knows that now that she’s seen her, she won’t rest until hot neighbor girl makes at least one appearance at one of her parties, if not only so she can prove Raven wrong.
(She hopes that she’ll get to do much more than jell-o shots with her, too).
“Lincoln, there was no need for you to help me set up. I’m perfectly capable of bringing my things in on my own.” Lexa tells her friend, as he unpacks the food she brought with her and stores them in the cupboards for her.
“It was no trouble. What kind of friend would I be if I just sat in my home and watched you bring all of your bags in?” He replies, smiling at her as he grabs a glass and fills it with water for himself.
“Fine. But you certainly didn’t have to help me unpack everything.” Lexa says, moving to get a glass of water for herself. After filling her own cup, she moves to fill a bowl with water for Heda, who was probably just as thirsty as the other two. The dog laps greedily at the water and Lexa walks back over to help Lincoln unpack everything.
“I’m just trying to be helpful, that’s all. Things have been very quiet around here. It will be nice to have a friend next door. And you’re too short to reach these higher cupboards anyways.” Lincoln says with a smirk, walking over and squatting to pet Heda as she now licks lazily water. Lexa puts her hands on her hips in defiance and looks up at the cupboards.
“Lincoln, I am not that short.” She pauses to glare at him, and he tries to hide his smile as she does. Lexa softens again, before saying “But, it will be nice to have a friendly face here. Have you met any of the others in the area?” Lexa asks, taking a seat at one of the kitchen’s four stools. Lincoln moves to join her.
“Not yet, I have seen them, but only in passing.” He says, sitting down as he does. She nods, almost imperceivably.
“I take it that the lake has been relatively quiet these past few days, then?” She asks him, noting herself how quiet everything was when she first arrived.
“Yes. Not a lot of activity, but the weather’s been less than desirable, so I don’t blame anyone for wanting to stay inside these past few days.” He tells her. She turns slightly to look out the window. She can’t see much, but she can see the moon starting to peek through the trees, and waves of grey where it’s beginning to be reflected in the lake. She can make out a few stars as well and it relaxes her a little to think of how different this place is from New York. She turns back to Lincoln and says,
“Well, it’s beautiful out now. I think I’ll go out for a short walk with Heda before it’s too late. You’re welcome to join me if you want.”
“I’ll let you go on your own, so you can take in the lake for yourself. But I’ll see you soon.” He says, standing to walk towards the door.
“Mhm” She mumbles, grabbing Heda’s leash from the counter, “Thank you for your help Lincoln. Maybe tomorrow we can go for a walk and catch up. You can tell me about the area, and I can tell you how everything is in New York?”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, Lexa.” He answers.
“Alright. See you tomorrow.” Lexa says with a wave, as Lincoln walks out the door. She walks up to Heda and clips her leash to her collar and grabs a baggie before walking out the door herself, with Heda in tow. She heads down the path towards the lake and sets out on a walk.
Lexa’s not sure who stops more on their walk, Heda or herself. It is truly beautiful here, and even in the moonlight, and there’s so much to take in. She smiles as she takes a deep breath in, savoring the fresh air and lack of smoke filling her lungs. She’s been here for less than an hour and somehow she already feels so much more relaxed than she was before. It doesn’t last long, as Heda pulls on the leash, ready to keep moving, and Lexa obliges, following Heda as she pulls her toward yet another tree to pee on.
She keeps an eye out for any neighbors that might be out on their walk back, but everyone seems to already be inside, settling in.
Having quiet neighbors is definitely something Lexa can get excited about. After living in a bustling city, it’s nice to get away to somewhere quiet and picturesque.
Maybe three months away from the city is exactly what she needs.
“Are you nervous?” Raven asks Clarke from her place on the couch. Evidently, Clarke doesn’t hear her. She’s sitting at the table staring down at her glass of wine like it’s invisible, or it might be anyways if she stares hard enough. “Hellooo? Clarke?” Raven calls out, snapping to get her attention. Clarke’s head snaps up at the sound.
“Huh? Sorry, Raven, what’d you say?” Clarke asks.
“I said are you nervous? You know- for your gallery opening?” Raven asks again.
“I don’t know.” It’s true, she doesn’t. Truthfully, Clarke spent a lot of the day thinking about hot neighbor girl, and doing whatever she could to put off thinking about her gallery opening tomorrow (and the fact that her mom wouldn’t be there for it). “I guess, maybe. I mean, it’s my first big gallery opening, all my friends will be there, it’s definitely intimidating. But I’m also excited for you guys to see it. I’m pretty proud of this stuff.” she says.
“And Abby will be there, and you can finally show her how great you are!” Raven encourages.
Clarke frowns. “Well, not exactly.” she says quietly
“What do you mean?” Raven asks, her wide eyed excitement for Clarke quickly fading.
“My mom isn’t coming. She texted me earlier saying the hospital needed someone to cover shifts and she won’t be able to make it.” Clarke tells her, looking down at the glass in her hands and toying with it to distract herself again.
“Clarke… I’m so sorry. That blows. She’s gonna come see it sometime, though, right?” Raven asks, getting up to sit at the table with Clarke, giving her the same worried look she always gives her when something happens with her mom. She hates that look. It makes her upset to think anyone pities her for having a shitty mom. Especially Raven. But if anyone deserves to give her this look, it’s Raven. Raven was there for her through every rough patch with her mother and understands just how unphased Clarke is by her mom’s unsupportive nature after so many years of facing it. Still, Clarke is irritated when she sees that sympathetic look, no matter how much good is meant by it.
“Yeah. Or, she says she is anyways. But she said she’d be there tomorrow, and look how that turned out.” She says, a serious bitter edge to her tone. She isn’t be surprised, at this point, not after everything she went through with her while at art school. She definitely doesn’t let herself be sad about it anymore. Not after all the excuses and the dismissals. No, now it just fuels a fire in her that wants to prove to her mother that she doesn’t need her help, or anything from her. That she is where she is because she’s strong and impassioned.
“Hey, come on, she’ll come. She has a whole summer’s worth of time. She can’t be busy for three and a half months straight. She’ll see how great you are, I know she will.” Raven assures Clarke, grabbing her hand on the table and giving it a small squeeze before standing. “I think I’m gonna head to bed now. You really should too, Clarke. You don’t wanna be too tired to hear the hours worth of praise you’re gonna get tomorrow.”
Clarke smiles at that before saying “Don’t worry, I’m just gonna finish this glass of wine and then head to bed myself.” Clarke says, feigning a smile for Raven’s sake.
“Alright. Night, Clarke.” Raven calls over her shoulder as she walks up the stairs.
“Night. And Raven?” Clarke calls back.
“Mhm” Raven murmurs.
“Thanks. You’re the best.” She tells her.
“Course I am.” Raven confirms, and Clarke shakes her head and laughs, waiting until she hears Raven shut her door before taking another sip of her wine.
“Tomorrow is gonna be an interesting day.” she muses quietly to herself as she finishes off the glass, allowing her thoughts to drift away from her mother and the gallery opening and slowly towards the new, hot neighbor girl.
(She really needed to learn her name, and soon).
The entirety of the next day is a blur for Clarke. It’s spent in a whirlwind of getting ready, fielding phone call and texts, both from the gallery with details on how the evening would go, and her friends telling her how excited they are and that they’ll be at her place afterwards, and staring out the window hoping for another glimpse of hot neighbor girl. She’d taken to calling her by Raven’s slightly-less-than-polite nickname when she thought of her, and feels a little bad about it, but Clarke thinks that at least it’s kind of a compliment so she’s not being too rude. Plus, it’s not like she’d ever call the girl that to her face.
She goes until mid-afternoon without seeing her, until suddenly, there she is, jogging down the path by the lake. She’s with the big, muscular guy from down the way again and they’re both sweaty and look exhausted, and Clarke can’t help but be a little mesmerised by the swing of the girl’s ponytail as she runs by. Clarke watches as the girl disappears just as quickly as she came. She barely has a second to think about her before she hears Raven calling her from upstairs, and she tears her eyes away from the spot where her neighbor has long since disappeared from to go see what Raven needs.
Whatever she needs, Clarke wonders how it could possibly be important enough to take her away from thinking about how she’ll stage a run in with hot neighbor girl...
By the time Lexa gets back from her run with Lincoln (because they decided the both needed to run anyways, so why not run rather than walk), it’s almost sunset. She contemplates staying outside to watch the sunset but decides that her need to shower far outweighs her desire to watch the sun set. She figures there’ll be plenty of chances to watch the sunset, anyways. Besides, she’s hot and sweaty and would rather not have to worry about any of her neighbors walking by and having their first impression of her be from meeting her post workout, covered in sweat, and probably smelling as awful as she looks. She heads inside, ready to take a nice cool shower and settle in afterwards to relax for another quiet evening alone.
Clarke looks up at the clock for what she assumes is the hundredth time in the past three hours. 9:57. Still an hour and a half left of her gallery opening. Everything had gone relatively well so far. Things were pretty slow for the first hour or so, with mostly elderly couples from the area coming in and out and congratulating her, but eventually her friends started trickling in and now she’s surrounded by people she knows. So much so that she hasn’t had a minute to herself. Thankfully, she thinks the majority of people here have already talked to her, and it looks like things might be quieting down for her, so she takes this opportunity to grab a glass of the champagne the gallery provided and head over to one of the more cleared out corners of the room. She stands there and looks around the room slowly, smiling when she gets to all of her friends, standing in front of one of her favorites, a painting of one of her chrysanthemums after a rain storm. She starts to walk towards them, when from behind her she hears a quiet “Excuse me?” and turns around.
It’s a little dark haired girl, smiling up at her with wide eyes. Clarke smiles, and replies “Yes?”
“My name’s Bella and I asked my mommy and she says you painted all these pretty flowers and I wanted to tell you that I really like them and I wanna be just like you when I grow up.” The little girl tells her, and Clarke’s smile widens.
“That’s very sweet of you, I’m so glad you like my paintings.” She tells her.
“My mommy says she’s gonna buy me lots of paintbrushes when we get home and I can paint all the flowers I want!” Bella tells her, looking over her shoulder to smile at a tall, dark haired woman, who smiles back at her and waves. Clarke’s chest tightens at the exchange, and her smile falters briefly, before the little girl turns back to her, smiling still, and Clarke quickly goes right back to smiling.
“Maybe some day I’ll see your flower paintings in a place like this some day.” Clarke tells her, and the girls eyes widen. She can’t help but hope this little girl never loses her reason to smile.
“Do you really think I could?” Bella asks her, almost bouncing with excitement. Clarke squats down, to be level with Bella, before saying,
“Of course I do! I was your age when I started and here I am now. You just gotta keep painting.” Clarke tells her.
“Wow, I can’t wait to have paintings in a big room like this.” Bella says, and before Clarke can stand up she grabs her for a hug. Clarke briefly hugs the girl back before standing up. “Thank you very much for talking to me. I’m gonna go home and paint a hundred flowers now!” Bella says, and Clarke laughs.
“Well good luck, Bella. I’m Clarke by the way. Tell your mom that if you ever have paintings in a place like this that I’d love to come see them.” Clarke says.
“Really?! This is awesome! MOMMY-” Bella yells, before running off to her mother. Clarke watches as Bella’s mother smiles, and Clarke assumes the little girl tells her mom all about what Clarke has told her. Bella grabs her mothers hand and Bella practically drags the woman over to Clarke.
“Mommy this is Clarke. Clarke, this is my mommy.” Bella says, looking proudly back and forth between the two women.
Bella’s mother extends her hand, smiling and says, “I’m Amy Pearson, nice to meet the artist behind all these paintings my daughter has been raving about.”
Clarke shakes her hand and says, “Clarke Griffin. I’m glad she likes my paintings. I just told her I hope to see her in a gallery of her own some day.” With that she smiles down at Bella who grins widely back at her.
“I’m gonna paint lotsa flowers, mommy. Just like Clarke does!” Bella tells her, and her mother’s smiles down at her as well.
“I know you are, sweetie.” She tells Bella, before looking back to Clarke and saying, “Thank you so much for talking to her, you have no idea how much it means to her”.
“It was no problem at all. Always glad to talk to a budding artist.” Clarke says.
“Well, your gallery is lovely, I’m glad we came to see it. It was nice meeting you.” Amy tells her and Clarke smiles.
“Great meeting you both. I look forward to seeing you at Bella’s first gallery opening soon!” Clarke says, and Amy laughs. Bella just beams at her as her mom starts to leave.
“Bye Clarke!” Bella says, waving goodbye to her as she catches up with her mom and the two walk towards the door.
Clarke lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in and finally lets her mind drift to her own mother. Her mother, who couldn’t have let anyone else cover for her tonight so she could go to her own daughter’s gallery opening. Her mother, who leaves behind her a trail of broken promises and lonely nights. Her mother, who didn’t even come to her own graduation because she wanted so much more for her daughter and Clarke didn’t give it to her.
She hates that she’s letting this ruin her night. She’s standing in a gallery filled with her own paintings, surrounded by all of her friends, and a little girl just told her she was inspired by her; yet, here she is, standing alone, feeling sorry for herself.
She looks up at the clock again. 10:23. Still an hour until she can go home, change into something that isn’t this tight, dark dress and these heels that make her feet feel like they’re on fire, and celebrate this night with all her friends.
Clarke downs the rest of her glass of champagne with ease, and scans the room for her friends. She figures it’ll be easier to pass the last hour of the gallery opening if she has them to keep her mind occupied.
Anything’s better than standing alone, thinking about her mother.
Lexa’s half asleep on her couch, her worn out copy of Slaughterhouse Five resting gently on her chest as she mindlessly pets Heda who’s lying in her lap, when she hears a door slam and a loud cheer from next door. Suddenly, the sound of a loud bass and some vaguely poppy beat floods her ears, and she wrinkles her nose. Heda’s head snaps up and she runs towards the source of the sound, while Lexa looks up at her clock.
12:13. She’s pretty sure at this point last night, everyone, including herself, was already asleep. She picks up her glass of wine and walks over to the window, where Heda’s standing on two legs, trying to get out and attack the source herself.
“Heda, down.” She tells the dog, and Heda jumps down and sits at Lexa’s feet. Lexa looks out the window. She scans the house for an open curtain, something that could indicate why all of the sudden, at 12:13, her neighbors decided to throw a goddamn party. All Lexa sees is about 10 or so cars lining her neighbor’s driveway, and a few people standing outside, laughing and smoking.
Lexa rolls her eyes in disdain and walks back to her couch. She sits down with a heavy sigh. Of course the quiet couldn’t have lasted more than one day, it had to be broken. And it couldn’t have been earlier in the evening, when any sensible person would have a party, but instead, had to start at 12 fucking 13 in the morning. It’s just Lexa’s luck that her neighbor, who she thought was another quiet, civil tennant, is actual some likely college-aged, perpetually stoned party guy who’s up here to get wasted all summer with all his friends.
‘Whatever.’ Lexa thinks, ‘I’m sure it wont last long, it will die out eventually.’ She tells herself. Heda hops up on the couch and Lexa resumes petting her. She grabs her phone and earbuds and decides to try and drown out the screams and horrible music from next door until they die out. She opts for her most peaceful playlist, puts her earbuds in and presses play.
Under normal circumstances, Lexa would go over there and tell them to quiet down, but she doesn’t. She figures that if her life had gone differently, that’s the exact kind of thing she’d love to do for the summer.
But her life was ruled by her intense drive, and she’s been working nonstop since sixteen, with no time for a rebellious, party phase. Which Lexa is fine with. She has the thing she’s wanted ever since she was 12 and doesn’t like to dwell much on what her life would be like if things had gone differently.
She is where she is, and nothing could change that.
She closes her eyes and hopes that soon, she’ll stop hearing other music as an undertone to her own.
2:54. It’s 2:54 in the morning. 2:54 in the morning and her fucking neighbor’s party is still in full swing. At this point, Lexa think’s she’s had just about enough of the cheers and the bass and whatever else is happening next door. Heda’s clearly on the same page, because she’s back at the window, trying to escape again, and this time, Lexa doesn’t even bother to tell her to get down. Maybe she should just let her go attack them, to send a message. She is part wolf, afterall.
Deciding that’s probably not the best plan, she stands and throws on a cardigan over her tank top and marches out the door.
Enough is enough, she’s gonna give her stupid, party animal neighbor a piece of her mind.
Bellamy takes another sip of his beer, leaning up against the wall and looking around the room for people he knows. Honestly, how many fucking people did Clarke invite? He’s never seen over half the people, and guesses that if he hasn’t, neither has Clarke. He spots Monty and Jasper, sitting in the corner with a bunch of people he’s never seen before and passing around a blunt. He’s not even a little surprised.
He looks for Raven, and catches a glimpse of her hair at the top of the stairs as she leads some greasy looking college kid down the hall, and quickly moves his attention somewhere else.
He notices a kind of intense looking girls standing by the door, looking a little shell-shocked, and decides to go introduce himself. As he walks towards her, he sees her eyes narrow and she walks over to him very pointedly.
“Hey!” She shouts over the music, and Bellamy wonders what he could have done to inspire this girl’s murderous death glare, “Do you live here?” She asks, eyes still narrowed, and honestly, Bellamy’s a little afraid of her, despite the fact that he has a couple inches on her.
“No.” He tells her, and she softens ever slightly. Bellamy relaxes a little too, guessing that whatever problem she has is not with him.
“Oh, well can you show me the guy who does?” She asks, scanning the room behind you, as if to try and figure that out for herself.
“Ah, that’d be Clarke and Raven, although Raven just brought some guy upstairs so I’m pretty sure she might be a little preoccupied. As for Clarke, well…” Bellamy trails off, looking around the room for Clarke. She’s nowhere to be seen, but he can hear the sounds of cheering from the other room, and knows that’s where she’ll be. “I think you’ll find Clarke in the other room, follow me.” He says, leading her into the next room over. He spots her blonde hair in the crowd and smiles “Ah, there she is.” He tells the girl, gesturing towards the brief bob of Clarke’s head over the others in the circle, and her eyes widen briefly again, before she narrows them and mumbles a quick “Thanks.” before straightening herself out, holding herself in a way that Bellamy assumes really should only belong to someone in the royal family, and walking quickly off in Clarke’s direction.
Bellamy shakes his head and laughs as he pictures this girl trying to stare Clarke down. Picking a fight with that girl is like trying to fight the sun for shining. “Good luck with that one.” he says, more to himself than the girl who’s quickly disappearing into the circle of people around Clarke, tipping his beer in her direction before taking another sip and walking back into the other room.
Lexa was surprised, to say the least, when the dark haired guy she talked to wasn’t the house owner, and even more surprised to find out that the house owners are in fact two girls. Not that she thinks girls don’t party, just, well, it just seems like such a teenage boy thing to do. Nonetheless, Lexa is still determined to tell the owner of this house that she needs to quiet down soon, or she’ll file some kind of noise complaint.
Lexa walks determinedly towards the crowd of people, and searches for the blonde hair belonging to her neighbor that seems to have disappeared.
As she gets closer, she notices that the blonde haired girl is straddling some brunette girl. She watches as the blonde, Clarke, pulls the hair our of her face, and someone pours a line of salt down the brunette’s stomach, and fills her belly button with what seems to be tequila, and the brunette puts a slice of lime between her lips, ready to be bit into after the shot. Lexa watches as her neighbor licks the salt off of the other girl’s toned stomach slowly, and does the same to the alcohol, making sure to leave no trace of it anywhere on the girl’s stomach. Once that’s done, she watches the Clarke move up to pluck the lime from the other girl’s lips and almost teasingly climb off her, greeted by the cheers of all the people watching. Clarke stands there, sucking smugly on the lime, widening her eyes and raising her eyebrows as if to challenge everyone around her, and Lexa suddenly remembers why she’s there.
She storms up to Clarke, who’s now turned back towards the brunette, and taps her on the shoulder. She whips around and Lexa’s about to speak when she pops the lime out of her mouth, smiling. Lexa’s breath hitches at how beautiful the girl looks, and she stares briefly at her lips, before looking her in the eyes, trying to pull herself back together.
“Hey! Neighbor girl!” Clarke says to her, her face lighting up with a smile, and Lexa furrows her brow in confusion.
“What?” She asks her. She’s never seen this girl before, and somehow she knows who she is? Lexa tries to think if maybe she’d seen her while out with Lincoln or something, but she’s sure she’d remember this girl.
“You’re the girl from next door. I saw you moving in yesterday with that quiet, muscley tattoo guy from down the way.” The girl slurs a little, smiling all the same. “You’re very pretty.” She tells her, her bright blue eyes practically sparkling, her gaze confident and almost challenging. Lexa’s taken aback, because there’s no way that this girl would ever say that to her unless she was very drunk. “I’m Clarke, by the way”.
“I know, your floppy haired friend told me,” Lexa tells her, then says, “I’m Lexa”.
“Mm, Lexa. Well, Lexa, they all have floppy hair, so that’s not fair.” Clarke says, pouting a little. “You, however, do not have floppy hair. Unless you’re running, then I guess it flops. But it’s a pretty flop” She tells her.
“Right...” Lexa says, a little confused by what the other girl means. Clarke is definitely very drunk, or at least she would have to be to say what she’s saying to Lexa. She’s also kind of flirting with her. And very attractive. She takes a second to let her eyes scan Clarke’s figure. She’s wearing black, and a fairly low cut white shirt, and a leather jacket (despite the fact that it’s probably just a little too hot for that). Her hair has fallen back to messily frame her face from having pulled it back to take the body shot. Lexa gulps as that image flashes through her mind yet again, and she finds herself staring at Clarke’s lips a little. She realizes she realizes what she’s doing as Clarke clears her throat. Lexa feels her face flooding with heat and she’s definitely a little embarrassed. She can’t believe she just let herself be that obvious. Clarke is drunk, not blind.
“Not that I mind you staring at all, cuz I really don’t, but you seemed like you had-” But she doesn’t get a chance to finish before the two hear a loud crash and turn around to see a lamp on the ground, completely shattered. With that, Lexa remembers why she was here in the first place again, and turns back to Clarke with what she thinks is her best death glare, which Clarke is evidently unphased by. She just stands in front of her, lips pursed almost smugly and eyebrow quirked in amusement (at what, Lexa is unsure).
“Oh, right. Hey, the reason I came over here is to tell you that your party is loud. Really really loud, and it is quite late. I would kind of enjoy a few hours of sleep, and I am sure our other neighbors would appreciate the same thing. So, seeing as it’s almost 3:30, I wanted to come and tell you that you need to quiet all of this down soon. I assume that other people on the lake might work and you’re keeping them up till all hours of the night with your incessant partying.” Lexa finishes, crossing her arms and staring at her, trying to understand why Clarke still looks so amused.
“Oh, come on. We’re clearly celebrating! I just had my very own gallery opening, and all my friends are here to celebrate. Lighten up a little, not all people are chiefs of no fun like you are!” Clarke says, refusing to back down. Lexa tries to intimidate her, but this girl won’t back down.
Lexa scowls and says “Well, if you don’t quiet down soon, I’ll have to file a noise complaint, and I really don’t think you want that”.
She watches as Clarke looks around the room, eyeing the surely underaged college students, and whatever illegal things are happening in that weird circle on the couch, before looking back at Lexa and frowning. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll take care of it. You can go back to being boring and quiet next door, now.” Clarke tells her, turning to walk away, but not before saying a short “Goodbye, Lexa.” over her shoulder, and moving to whisper something in the ear of one of her friends.
Her friend frowns at first, before looking over at Lexa and nodding, then smiling again as he walks away from Clarke.
Feeling slightly irritated, Lexa makes her way towards the door to leave, but not before stealing one more look at Clarke, who’s staring right back at her, with a mischievous expression on her face. Lexa tries to maintain a glare, but her face softens when Clarke waves at her, smirking. Lexa nods slightly, the smallest of smiles tugging at the corners of her lips, before turning away and leaving, her face returning to it’s neutral resting place.
Once outside, Lexa lets the last half hour or whatever it was play out in her mind, before shaking her head in confusion, and walking to her own home. Once inside, she walks up the stairs and lays down on her bed, not bothering to change. She stares out the window at the lake, and tries to get her mind off of her neighbor, but something about her has Lexa intrigued.
As tired as Lexa is, she can’t help but smile when she thinks about the fact that she has won this small battle, and that she had at least scared her neighbor into thinking that she wasn’t afraid to call the cops on her for being loud. Serves her right for throwing a party so obscenely late, anyways. And on a Thursday, too.
Lexa listens for the sound of music and cheering, but instead is finally met with silence. She’s finally able to relax, and she closes her eyes and slowly allows herself to fall asleep.
(At least she doesn’t have to worry about leaving her neighbor with a bad first impression anymore).
It took about a half hour for everyone to clear out of her house, and once they had, Clarke looked around at how much of a mess everyone had made, before deciding that she was most definitely too drunk to even try to clean it up.
She hadn’t wanted to end the party, and wouldn’t have if her grumpy (but still hot) neighbor hadn’t threatened to call the cops.
The only bonus to having to shut the party down is that she learned the girl’s name. Lexa. She smiles to herself, remembering how flustered Lexa had been when they’d first met. Clarke feels a little bad for keeping Lexa up, but at the same time, she really needed tonight, and she barely knows the girl, so she pushes her guilt aside.
Still, Clarke thinks she should maybe find a way to apologize for keeping the girl up, just so she’s not on her bad side or anything.
Besides, Clarke still wants to prove Raven wrong and do that jell-o shot with Lexa, so she obviously has to keep talking to her somehow.
The next morning, Lexa wakes to the sound of Heda barking, and rolls over to look at her clock. 7:32. She usually wakes up about an hour earlier than this to take her for a walk. She sits up and cracks her back before getting out of bed and shuffling across the room to the hallway and walking down the stairs. She slept in her clothes last night, so she doesn’t bother to change, only running a hand briefly through her hair in the mirror to fix it before grabbing Heda’s leash and attaching it to her collar. She opens the door and goes to walk out of it before she notices a small bunch of flowers sitting on her top step. She bends over to pick them up, and notices a note attached.
She opens it and reads,
Commander Serious,
Sorry for keeping you up last night.
Please accept these flowers as a peace offering.
Clarke
P.S: You don’t have to crash the next one with the ridiculous claim of ‘calling the cops’ as your excuse. You’re more than welcome to just come and have fun.
Lexa feels the tug of a smile at the corner of her lips, but sneezes before she has the chance.
She walks back inside and puts the flowers down on her table with a small smile.
She sneezes again as she walks out the door.
(She doesn’t stop sneezing for the entirety of her walk.
Thankfully, she remembered to pack her allergy medicine.)