Clarke glanced at herself in the mirror. Raven had managed to push her out of her comfort zone for tonight. She had promised Raven last month that she would finally go watch her race. The fact that it was illegal didn't sit with her well but she eventually gave up that argument after watching Raven's face light up when she would talk about it. Since the Finn fiasco she hadn't been smiling much and that's how she ended up here in black skinny jeans that were just a little too low and a little too tight. The shirt was too low for her liking and hugged her curves and while this isn't something she would normally wear it was hard not to admit that she looked hot.
"Clarke get your sexy ass out here, it's time to go." Clarke looked at the clock, it was already eleven o'clock. She took one more look at herself in the mirror.
"It's only one night." she told herself, "we're doing this for Raven."
"Clarke!"
Clarke jumped at the sudden yelling. She grabbed her phone and license; she didn't want to carry a purse. She walked out of her bedroom and could see Raven standing by the door with her arms crossed. Of course Raven was just dressed in a tight t-shirt and some jeans. It took a lot of arguing for Clarke to agree to wear this after Raven claimed she would stick out like a sore thumb and everyone would stare at her. Clarke not being one to welcome attention decided to follow her best friend's advice.
It took all of thirty minutes to get there. She hated Raven's bucket seats in her car and it felt odd having the back seat completely gutted. Raven pulled up and parked into a line with a bunch of other cars. It honestly looked like an independent film version of Fast and the Furious that was close to reaching the end of their budget. She snorted at her own thoughts and Raven raised an eyebrow at her before getting out of the car and walking around to the front of her hood. Clarke soon followed and walked up to Raven and she leaned her hip against the front of Raven's car.
"So what now?" Clarke looked around and there were about thirty to forty people mingling, some were drinking other's weren't.
"Well I have to find Bellamy and give him my share." She watched Raven pull out a wad of money. Clarke learned awhile back to not ask where she got that kind of money. "Will you be okay by yourself for a few minutes?"
"Yeah." Truthfully she didn't want to be left alone but she also didn't want to look like a lost puppy following Raven around. She watched as Raven left and Clarke folded her arms across her chest and looked out over all the people. She felt so out of place but she found this group of people oddly interesting. It was like watching a family reunion or something. Her eyes roamed her surroundings and fell on the building behind everyone. She saw the letters sprawled across it Miller and Sons Auto Shop.
"Well I haven't seen you around here." She looked to her left and saw a guy with a hooked nose and noticed his eyes looked at her body from top to bottom. "You must be my divine intervention for the night." His voice made Clarke's skin crawl.
"I doubt it." Clarke said dryly. She wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone; she was here for one reason and one reason only. To support Raven and then get home and binge watch Netflix until she passed out.
The guy raised his eyebrow and took a step closer, "I could get us out of here, take you to my place nearby and give you a night you won't ever forget." He ran his hand down the curve of her side resting on her hip.
Clarke scoffed, "You've got a hand, which I can promise you will be the only action you'll be getting tonight."
"You've got a mouth on you, I bet-"
"Murphy!" She watched as the guy turned around. Clarke's eyes went to the girl walking over to them. The girl was in short shorts, combat boots, a tank and a plaid shirt tied around her waist. Clarke was jealous of the girl's hair. If only she could get her hair to look that good in a messy bun. The girl pulled the guy's shirt causing the guy to stumble away from them. "The girl is was out of your league, you want a level playing field go grab one of the whores congregated around my brother."
"Fuck you Octavia, the girl can make her own-" Clarke watched as the girl gave Murphy an elbow to the nose without even turning to look back at him. Her eyes were wide watching this girl that looked like she was 100 pounds soaking wet bring Murphy to his knees with blood running into his hand.
"Why don't you get one of the whore's to go nurse that injury?" Octavia held her hand out to Clarke, "I'm Octavia."
Clarke shook her hand, "Clarke." She peeked over Octavia's shoulder to see Murphy heading back over to the group of people she saw before.
"Ignore Murphy, he thinks he's God's gift to women. But from what I've heard God short changed him in a vital area." Clarke found herself laughing, "So are you here by yourself?"
Just as Clarke was about to answer Raven walked up, "Okay, we're good now. I wanted to take you to meet-"
"Hey hooker!" Raven turned around and smiled. Clarke watched as they fist bumped and Octavia swung her arm over Raven's shoulders.
"Clarke, meet Octavia." Raven looked between her two friends with a look of hope.
"You can call me O." Octavia smiled, "But we've met, Murphy tried to lure your girl home."
Raven laughed out loud, "I would have loved to see him try." she looked at Octavia, "Are you racing tonight?"
Octavia rolled her eyes, "It's my turn for flags."
Raven laughed and Clarke was confused and apparently it showed, "flags are the flag or makeshift flag that you bring down at the line for the race to start. Unfortunately O here picked the short straw." Clarke laughed as Octavia grumbled.
"Actually since I'm not racing tonight I was wondering if you could take a peek under my hood. I don't want Bellamy sniffing around, he'd probably change out a part to help him win."
"Why would some random guy come sniffing around your car?" Clarke asked and the looks she got made her embarrassed of her question.
"Bellamy is O's brother, he runs the races." Clarke made an o shape with her mouth and nodded.
Clarke turned at the sound of a deep voice carrying over the crowd, "Alright, we've got four racing tonight. Monty and Jasper just radioed back and the roads are blocked and ready to go. Get your shit and let's roll!" The small crowd cheered. And Clarke looked back to see both girls smiling.
"That's my cue." Raven gave Octavia a fist bump and turned to give Clarke a hug, "See you at the finish line" she winked and Clarke watched her walk away.
"You ready to see how we live?" Octavia smirked.
"Let's do this." Octavia cheered and Clarke laughed to herself but followed Octavia as she led the way into the sea of people. She walked through and she saw all different types of people. She could see why Raven fit in here.
"Jasper! Monty!" Octavia grabbed Clarke's hand and dragged her over to two guys.
"Hey O." They both smiled at the girl, "Raven tells me you drew the short straw tonight."
Octavia gave them both the finger before turning to Clarke, "Clarke this is Jasper and Monty, they work here at the garage with my brother."
The guy with the goggles hanging around his neck shook her hand, "Ravi de vous rencontrer" Clarke gave him a small smile before she dropped his hand. Clarke could see Octavia rolling her eyes.
"We need to go; otherwise Bellamy will start bitching at me." Octavia started walking towards the cars and Clarke followed. Once Octavia broke through the crowd Clarke saw four cars lined up behind a spray painted line. She smiled seeing Raven stand by her car talking to a guy that was definitely over six feet tall. When Clarke's eyes met Raven's she smiled and walked over to her with Octavia.
"Clarke this is my boyfriend." Octavia beamed, "well, secret boyfriend." Octavia winked.
"Clarke meet Bellamy's best friend Lincoln." Raven laughed and it fell into place for Clarke. From what she was getting it sounded like Bellamy was an overprotective controlling asshole.
"Someone say my name?" Clarke looked to her right. Her eyes raked over his body. From his dark brown curls to the gray t-shirt that stretched over his biceps. She could admit to herself that he was hot.
"Bell this is Clarke, Raven's friend that she's been talking about." Octavia smiled at her brother but Clarke noticed that she put some space between herself and Lincoln.
"Ah, the infamous hermit." Clarke felt her face heat up. "Glad you could join us rebels tonight." Bellamy winked at her and Clarke just raised an eyebrow.
"So are we ready?" Lincoln spoke and Clarke looked at him, he had a panty dropping kind of voice. She could see just one reason Octavia looked at him like he hung the moon. Yet it seemed Bellamy was clueless that his best friend and his sister were hooking up.
"Nah, Murphy showed up with a busted nose. Serves him right with the way he goes for girls who are spoken for while their guy is here." Bellamy shrugged. "He went inside the shop to clean up. Whoever busted his nose did one hell of a job." Clarke could see Octavia looking smug, obviously proud of herself.
"O you said you wanted me to look under your hood right?" Raven was walking towards what Clarke assumed was Octavia's car.
"Wait, why is Raven checking under your hood? You're here every day. I mean fuck you work here. I could have done it yesterday." Bellamy had his arms crossed.
"Because I'm so close to leaving your ass in the dust, and who knows what you'd pull." Octavia called over her shoulder as Lincoln decided to follow them leaving Clarke alone with Bellamy.
"Nice best friend you have."
"Nice sister you have." She challenged which caused him to raise an eyebrow at her.
"Well aren't you a spitfire." Clarke rolled her eyes, "So what did Reyes have to do to drag you out here? Steal your textbooks? Hold your schoolwork hostage?" Clarke didn't say a word, all she had to say she could express with her middle finger. Bellamy smirked, "Is that an offer?"
Her skin didn't crawl like it did when Murphy made the same innuendo. Instead she felt her face grow hot and she looked over at Octavia and Raven, who was already under the hood. "So when did all of this start?" She found herself asking.
"What do you mean?" Clarke just twirled her finger around motioning to all the people and cars, "Oh, It's pretty much been the same group of people for a long time. Reyes is probably the newest member. Your girl has skill, I'll give her that."
"So are you racing too?" Bellamy nodded. "So much is riding on this race anyways?"
Bellamy shrugged, "Not a lot, about three thousand."
"Three thousand? As in dollars?" It felt like her eyes had actually bulged out of her head.
"What else would it be in? Monopoly dollars?" his chuckle irritated her.
"How is that not a lot of money?"
"Races can easily get up to at least eight thousand on a good night. I guess I don't really think about it being an obscene amount anymore." Clarke was speechless. Was he out of touch with reality? Because she could never imagine eight thousand dollars not being a lot of money and she came from a very well to do family.
"Alright let's get this over with" a voice behind Clarke made her jump and she saw Murphy make his way towards his car not even sparing a glance at her, but she could see under his eyes was purple and his face was already swollen with a blood stained collar.
Bellamy laughed out loud "You look like shit Murphy."
"Fuck you!" Murphy got in his car and Bellamy called out to Octavia to round up everyone. Clarke just stood there as everyone started moving towards the lineup.
"Hey stay here, if you have any problems just yell for Jasper or Monty" Clarke nodded hearing Octavia yell over at her and she watched Octavia give her a wink from across a few cars as she walked out in front of the cars. She waited until everyone was in their car. It looked like it was going to be Raven, Murphy, Lincoln and Bellamy. She didn't know what to expect but she jumped hearing all the cars start up. Octavia pointed to each car and each revved its engine. She assumed this meant that they were ready.
"O use your bra!" Clarke turned and saw that Jasper was the one yelling as he stood up in his truck bed. Octavia gave him the finger but untied the plaid shirt from around her waist and held it up. Clarke chewed on her bottom lip, her stomach was doing somersaults. She was nervous and excited all at the same time, she had no idea what to expect. She watched as Octavia raised her shirt over her head using it as a flag. She held it there for a few seconds before bringing it down. She crouched and turned to watch all four cars shoot off the line and down the road. It didn't take long before all four cars were out of sight. Octavia stood up and walked towards Clarke her hair windblown but donning a huge smile on her face.
"Awesome isn't it?" Clarke couldn't help but smile with her. The girl's energy was contagious.
"So how long does the race normally last?"
Octavia shrugged, "Depends who's driving, but with Bell it's normally about four or five minutes."
Clarke didn't know if that was slow or fast, but it sounded really fast. Her eyes stayed on the street as Octavia explained that the track would loop all the way back around to here so they didn't have to go anywhere. They just had to sit and wait. After a few minutes Octavia bit her lip and bounced on her feet.
"You okay?"
"Yeah it's just that normally we start picking up the cones now from the roads so the cops are less likely to get called. Jasper asked me to go with him because Monty went to get food because he had the munchies."
"Go ahead, you can go. I'll be fine." Clarke waved her off.
"You sure?" she watched Octavia chew on her bottom lip.
"Yeah. Go." Clarke watched as Octavia gave her a smile and told her that she'd be right back. Clarke just stood there watching for the cars, it felt like forever but she was sure it was just her eagerness to see the end of the race. She watched Jasper's truck pull out onto the road with Octavia sitting on the side.
Clarke was bouncing on her toes the anticipation was killing her. "COPS!" Clarke spun around looking and everyone was splitting up and jumping in cars. She could hear the sirens off in the distant. She didn't have a car, Raven was her ride and she had absolutely no idea what to do. People were pulling out and she didn't know a single person. Everyone she knew was either racing or gone.
Clarke saw a black car screech to a stop in front of her. The door flew open, "Get in!" before Clarke had time to even make a decision her body was in the car and pulled away fast enough to throw her back against the seat.
Clarke looked over at Bellamy. His face was hard with concentration. Clarke's heart was still pounding in her chest. She never expected cops to show up, yet the adrenaline had her on a high that she had never felt before. She found herself smiling and eventually found herself laughing.
Bellamy turned his head to look at her, "You think this is funny?"
Clarke couldn't catch her breath but she was waving her hands and shaking her head no. But her body was betraying her. She couldn't stop the tears from forming in her eyes from laughing. "I'm sorry." she tried to get a grip of her giggles, "I've just never been through anything like that." She was trying to take deep breaths between each attempt talk. "I honestly don't know why I'm laughing."
Bellamy smirked, "It seems the hermit Princess experienced her first adrenaline rush."
Clarke's eyes widen seeing a cop car pulling towards the center of an intersection, "Bellamy!" Her hand went to his arm and Bellamy's attention shot back to driving and her breath hitched in her throat as Bellamy whipped his car to the right. The back of his car barely missing the cop car as he shifted and pushed the car even faster straightening them out.
"Clarke you can let go now." Bellamy said through a clenched jaw. Clarke looked at her hand and immediately removed it. He had nail marks on his arm where she was gripping him so tightly.
"I'm sorry!"
Bellamy laughed, "Its fine. Normally when I get feel nails digging into me, it's on my back while I'm fucking someone."
Clarke scrunched up her nose at his narcissism, but couldn't ignore the skip in her heartbeat. She leaned back watching Bellamy navigate the streets with ease, but she could still hear the sirens which kept her from getting pulled in at watching Bellamy drive.
"Does this happen every time you guys race?" Bellamy shook his head.
"Nah, I mean it happens every once in a while, but we try to keep it as low profile as we can. Jasper and Monty set up traffic cones at some intersections that cross into the route we take. But sometimes the cops come looking, that's why we have radios." He motioned to the one sitting in his cup holder, "If anyone sees the cops coming everyone knows to get out fast. Everyone has their own place they go so they don't follow one another and end up with all of us if they manage to follow us."
Clarke bit her lip, "Has anyone ever been caught?"
Bellamy's mouth thinned. "Miller, he um" He cleared his throat, "He flipped his car taking a turn while running. He was okay luckily, but they ended up taking him in. They gave him a deal, he could tell them what he knew about our club and he'd only get six months. He ended up telling them to go fuck themselves which ended with him serving a year." Bellamy was concentrating on the road but she could tell he could probably navigate these roads with his eyes closed. "He gets out in three months."
It made Clarke worry about Raven racing. She didn't know what she would do if her best friend ended up in jail. Bellamy looked over at her. He didn't say anything but after a moment put his attention back on the road, "If you're worried about Reyes don't. She's a great racer, probably better than most of the people that have been racing for years. She'd be able to ditch them easily. While her car doesn't have as much power as mine it can turn a corner on a pinpoint. It's actually pretty impressive." This made Clarke beam with pride.
"So where exactly are we going?" She had already gotten lost after about the ninth turn.
Bellamy smirked, "We're almost there."
Clarke looked out the window. They had been driving around for about a half hour and managed to get far enough to where they no longer heard sirens about fifteen minutes ago. She wasn't sure just how far the location he chose was. Her ears perked up once she heard the crunch of gravel under the tires. "Seriously where are-" her question was cut off when she saw his headlights shinning over a lake. "This is where you go?" she looked over at him and she watched him shrug as he came to a stop and turned the car off. He unbuckled the seatbelt and got out of the car. Clarke followed and had her hands wrapped around her as she walked towards the water. The moon was reflecting on the water. Her hands itched to draw it, but she of course had nothing to work with.
"You know I've come out here quite a few times and I've never met a single soul. I like to think this means that no one knows about it." She watched as Bellamy walked over to an old picnic table and sat on the table propping his feet on the bench. He waved her over, "Come on we've got some time to kill before we meet back up."
Clarke walked over and sat on the table. She barely knew this guy and here she was in the middle of the night by a lake. Like that wasn't weird or anything, but she didn't feel any uneasiness. Clarke actually felt very comfortable around Bellamy. "So, what got you into racing?" she looked over at him. His elbows were resting on his knees as he looked away.
"Sorry, you don't have to answer that."
Bellamy was shaking his head, "No it's alright." He cleared his throat and sat up resting back on his hands. "So I've known Miller all my life, he lived right down the street from me and O. It wasn't exactly the best neighborhood and after a few fights Miller's dad started inviting me over. He would have both me and Miller working on cars with him until it got dark. It kept us out of trouble and me and O didn't exactly have a father figure. Eventually O started tagging along once my mom picked up her second job. So all three of us would be over there and he would teach us everything he knew about cars." Bellamy smiled, "He always loved the fact that O didn't mind getting grease all the way up to her elbows. Hell she could probably install a carburetor blindfolded. But the three of us never outgrew our love for cars, even after Miller's dad taught us everything he knew. We all took auto shop in high school and I'm pretty sure O is the only girl to ever take the class. When it came time to start thinking about college's we knew our mom couldn't afford to send us. Atom told Miller about racing and how his brother made decent money. So Miller and I started building a car together while we worked full time that summer, I gave my mom what I could to help but the rest went to parts. We built that car from the ground up and by the end of the summer we were finally able to race."
Clarke was completely engrossed in his story, "So I'm assuming you won your first race."
Bellamy laughed, "Oh hell no, the engine stalled after the fourth turn. We had to roll the car home." He looked over at her, "But we learned what worked and what didn't. Eventually we started winning and each time we won Miller would refuse his share, he told me to put it towards O's college fund. My mom never found out, she thought we both got great scholarships." Clarke couldn't help but smile with him. "I managed to get a semester out from graduating before I dropped out."
"Why?" Clarke wasn't expecting that.
"Miller's dad got really sick and Miller was still in college and was on an actual scholarship. His dad needed help in the shop and I knew he wouldn't ask any of us. So I told him I graduated early and that I'd help him in the shop until I found a job. This man single handedly made sure that both O and I stayed out of trouble and brought us into his family, and you don't walk away from family. So I started working there full time. The pay wasn't an issue, I made enough racing that it covered whatever his dad couldn't afford. Eventually he got too sick to come in, so I took over until Miller graduated." Bellamy shrugged, "I never really thought twice about my decisions. Eventually his dad passed and Miller got the shop, I guess even though things changed I didn't. I never left and went back to school. I stayed and helped Miller run the shop and once Miller got arrested he asked me to take over until he got out."
"So does Octavia work at the shop?"
Bellamy nodded, "Yeah, she works there when she's on breaks and sometimes during the week."
Clarke smiled, "Wow the brother and sister duo. I guess a family that races together stays together."
"Eh, kinda. I never wanted Octavia to start racing, I did everything I could to make sure she never had to."
"Are you still helping pay for her schooling?"
Bellamy shook his head chuckling, "No, she pays for it all on her own. We fought for the longest time about her racing. She'd come with me so I guess part of it is my fault; I mean I introduced her to all of it. She has an actual scholarship now; she races because she wants to. We fought for months about it; I wanted her to concentrate on school. Eventually she told me she was going to race and it could either be with our group or she'd go find another. I knew she'd be safer with me than anywhere else, so she races and I get to deal with her smug smile every time she wins." Bellamy leaned up and brushed his hands off on his jeans, "What about you? You're practically the exact opposite of Raven from everything I hear. How did you two end up roommates?"
Clarke laughed, "That's actually a funny story."
"Go on." He motioned her with his hand.
She rolled her eyes, "So I applied out here in my senior year of high school because I wanted to get as far away from my mother as possible. So freshmen year I get assigned my dorm room and Raven's my roommate. We actually hated each other in the beginning. I wanted to concentrate on my studies and she wanted to do every possible thing she could to drive me insane. Anyways, we both start dating around the same time; things get easier because we're never there at the same time." Clarke glanced over to see if he was still listening. He seemed genuinely interested in her story, so she continued. "This goes on for almost our whole freshmen year. We're two months out from summer break and come to find out we've been dating the same guy."
Bellamy started laughing, "You and Reyes dating the same guy? Wow, now I really need to know how you two became friends."
Clarke stuck her tongue out at him, "It got pretty catty between us for about a week until we actually talked about it and we ended up bonding over our revenge plan." She looks at him, "So before you judge us on the next part I want to remind you that we were nineteen and women scorned." She waited and he nodded for her to continue, "So we decide since he was sleeping with us both at the same time that we'd tell him we were both pregnant."
Bellamy groans, "oh my god." His face goes into his hands, "I know the guy is an asshole but damn, that's brutal." But she could tell he was having a hard time not laughing.
"We each told him about a week a part and we only made him suffer for about a month."
"Only." Bellamy rolled his eyes.
"Yes only. But by the end of it we became actual friends and she ended up moving out of the dorms the next year and asked me to be her roommate. It the light of being the heartbroken other woman we forged an unbreakable bond. And now she's my sister from another mister." Bellamy laughed loudly and she could hear it echo across the lake.
He shook his head, "You girls are crazy, like bat shit fucking crazy."
"Careful, you're out here with a crazy girl in the middle of the night with no one in sight with a lake to toss a body in." She raised an eyebrow at him.
He leaned closer, "I'd love to see you try."
They continued to talk until Bellamy checked his phone. She could see his mouth frown in the glow of his phone screen. "I think we're good to head back now, I'll drop you off at your house."
"Okay." Bellamy helped Clarke off the table and she got into the passenger seat while Bellamy held the door for her. He came around and got in starting the car.
"I think Reyes is going to kill me." Clarke was about to ask why when her eyes fell on the time glowing from his dashboard. They had been out there for almost three hours.
"I think you're right." Clarke ran her hands over her pockets, "Shit. I don't have my phone."
"I know." Bellamy looked at her and Clarke groaned.
"I'm so sorry! I promise I'll shield your body if she comes out waving a knife." Bellamy laughed and she shot him a glare.
"I'm sorry but I just can't imagine you taking on Reyes." Clarke raised an eyebrow, "What? I've seen Raven lay out full grown men because they leaned on her car." Clarke couldn't help but laugh.
It took about ten minutes until he pulled up to the small house her and Raven shared. She heard Bellamy groan, "What?" He pointed to the car parked on the street.
"That's my sister's car and I don't feel like facing the Spanish Inquisition. So I think I'm going to do the most un-gentlemenly thing I've ever done and tell you goodnight from the safety of my own car."
"Oh that's fair; send me in there all by myself."
"Exactly."
Clarke rolled her eyes but she opened the door and got out. She almost closed the door but stopped and bent her head down so she could see him, "Thanks for saving me tonight, I actually enjoyed myself."
Bellamy leaned over into the passenger seat and looked up at her, "So does that mean we'll see you again?"
Clarke bit her lip and smiled, "Possibly." Bellamy raised an eyebrow but smirked at her which caused her to roll her eyes, "Goodnight Bellamy."
"Goodnight Clarke." Clarke closed the door and walked up the rest of the driveway and turned the doorknob and walked in. She saw two flashes of black hair and a pair of eyes glaring at her and Raven was up and rushing at her before she could move.
"Where the hell have you been!? I called you a million times! I thought something happened to you!" Raven was swatting at her over and over again as she talked.
"Ow ow ow! Calm down! I didn't have my phone!" Clarke was rubbing her arms; she forgot how hard Raven could hit.
"Yes I noticed once I heard the buzzing on my floorboard!"
"I'm sorry okay! Bellamy stopped and picked me up." She really did feel bad about making her best friend worry. Raven hadn't even popped into her mind once the car had stopped which didn't make her feel any better.
"That doesn't take three hours Clarke!" She could see that Raven was slowly losing steam which was a small victory.
"In my defense it took like a half hour to get to the lake."
"No it doesn't." Clarke looked at Octavia sitting at the table with her foot propped up on the chair, "It takes like ten minutes to get to the lake from the shop."
Raven spun around to look at Octavia "You knew he was there?" she yelled.
Octavia shook her head, "No, I knew he had her. But we don't tell each other where we go. We don't want the other one to come in trying to be the hero" she shrugged.
"Then why did it take thirty minutes?" Clarke was so confused.
Octavia smirked as she took a drink from her glass, "It seems to me he wanted an excuse to spend time with you."