Octavia Blake let out a frustrated sigh as she frantically searched through her bag for her keys to the apartment she shared with her brother Bellamy. This was a regular case, as she was darting off to her Women's & Gender Studies class at 7 am every Tuesday and Thursday after late nights the days before.
Giving up the search, she began to bang on the door, "BELLAMY LET ME IN! I KNOW YOU'RE HOME YOU LAZY ASS!"
This noise continued on until she heard the shuffles behind the door, and the click of the door revealing her clearly pissed off older brother.
"Again O? Seriously you should get another one made! What if I wasn't here and you would be stuck waiting until I got home?" Bellamy chastised her.
Octavia pushed him out of the way and entered their two bedroom apartment. It was small but it was home and had everything the two of them needed to live comfortably. Since their mom's death a couple years ago they had both had to get jobs and apply for financial aid. Bellamy worked the mornings doing construction, while O worked at a pub as a bartender.
The living room had a large, long couch that angled around the room that was piled with blankets that their mom had made, and taught Octavia how to make. There was an old wooden coffee table that they found at a flea market with circular, flower patterned coasters randomly placed, as well as all her fashion magazines and the history one's that Bellamy subscribed to each year. They had a brand new flat screen that the two of them saved up for with a sound system. Their place was the choice hang out place for their separate friend groups.
The kitchen was well stocked, and it was a rare occasion to see frozen dinners and ramen noodles like other college students. Bellamy loved to cook, and Octavia wasn't going to complain when she found dinners ready for her when she got home after him.
"Will you relax, if that happens I will go to Clarke and Raven's or Lincoln's," Octavia waved her hand to dismiss his worries.
Bellamy grimaced at this, he didn't particularly like Lincoln. Octavia had met him through Clarke. He was her TA for her Medical Theory class and Octavia had met up with Clarke for lunch and Octavia was smitten right away, and the feeling was mutual. Bellamy of course wasn't crazy about any of Octavia's past boyfriends either. There was her high school boyfriend Atom, who was his friend first until he betrayed Bellamy by dating his sister. It didn't help that Bellamy had also caught them in the middle of doing it in the bathroom of a party. He had chased Atom across town the whole night and left Atom tied to a tree for the entirety of the night. Octavia was pissed at him for 2 weeks. The only person Bellamy didn't mind too much was when his friend Jasper had a couple dates with her at the beginning of her freshman year. That is until Bellamy had discovered Jasper sold weed and made moonshine with his roommate Monty. It was quickly forgotten however when Octavia stated he was sweet enough but just too immature for her to see anything serious happening. Bellamy then warmed up to Jasper again and then was happy to have his friend and a new drug dealer for when he smoked occasionally.
"There will be no need for that, you know what! I will get you the key myself! And maybe we will keep a potted plant outside the apartment door and we will keep it there. Or inside a porcelain pig or something like that. Yup! We are doing that! No need for you to stay with anyone! No one at all!" Bellamy ranted, obviously failing to mask his distaste for Lincoln.
Octavia rolled her eyes, dropping her purse on the kitchen counter, "You know Bell, you could at least try to get along with Lincoln. He has tried inviting you out for a drink, and to football games but you keep making excuses when I know your only plans after 7 pm are going over to Miller and Murphy's to drink beers and brag about your latest hook ups."
"O, the guy just rubs me wrong! For one he is too old for you! Secondly, you met through Clarke Griffin, and you know my opinions on her, snotty princess, & I am sure all her friends are the same! Lastly, I have friends, I don't need more!" Bellamy insisted, plopping on the couch, flipping to the History Channel.
Trying to keep her calm, Octavia avoided getting more frustrated with him & headed to her room.
"By the way the guys are coming over to talk about the battle of the bands the college is hosting. Can you make yourself scarce?" Bellamy yelled at her without taking his eyes off the TV.
Slamming her door Octavia ignored his request, she had work anyhow, but he didn't need to know that. She tore off her leather jacket, throwing it onto the bed, she shrugged off her jeans, spaghetti strap top and wool camisole. She threw her discarded clothes into her hamper, and proceeded to rifle through her closet for her black skirt and t-shirt with the Mecca Station logo on the front. She also pulled on a pair of black translucent tights, and her black knee length, lace-up boots.
She touched up her makeup in her desk mirror, and tied her hair up in a high pony with two strands of braided hair on either side the pony.
"Alright O, you can do this, another shift," she told herself.
As she re-entered the living room, Nathan Miller and John Murphy had arrived with a six pack of beer. Bellamy had a blue binder opened on the coffee table. A little surprising fact about her brother was that he was scary organized. To do lists, graphs, charts, pros & cons, he was your guy.
"Hey Tave," Miller smiled up at her giving her a friendly wave. Nathan Miller was one of the only friends of Bellamy's that she could stand. He was in the Criminology program with Bellamy (which was ironic since he used to always steal things as a teenager, which drive his cop dad up the walls). John Murphy on the other hand was rude, loud, brutally honest & lazy as hell. The guy came off as an idiot, but he was some sort of poetic genius when it came to English, especially Shakespeare. It was a surprise when Murphy had gone to college because he had been denying going since the beginning of high school. The guy had a rough family life, dad was sentenced to the chair after killing five people in a bank robbery, and his mother was a drunk who committed suicide not long after his dad died. Murphy then began acting out, cutting class, doing drugs, being an overall shit disturber. Bellamy didn't like seeing the guy throw his life away so he knocked some sense into Murphy (literally), and with a little help from their old high school Principle Jaha they made him see some of his worth.
"Hey Miller, you guys still looking for a bassist and keyboardist?" she asked them.
Miller nodded, "Yeah, you would think in a college with 20 000 students there would be someone who could play the guitar and keyboard decently."
"I play bass, I could do it if you guys want?" she offered.
This was then followed by laughing all around from Murphy and her brother.
"Look little Blake, I'm am sure you can play a few things but we are looking for someone amazing, someone of a more male gender," Murphy chuckled, blowing off her suggestion.
This pissed Octavia off, so she was a girl so she couldn't be as good as some guy?
"Bell? What do you think? You have heard me play!" Octavia questioned her brother, giving him that 'you better have my back look'.
Bellamy knew the look well, but it didn't stop him from sighing.
"Look O, you are alright, but this is kind of a boys thing, and last time I heard you, you were just okay," he let her down as easy as he could.
"Right, well then, it is not like that was two years ago and I have been practising three times a week since then. But no, I am just some silly little girl trying to get into her big bros band! Well, let me tell you something boys. I will prove to you that I am good enough to be in your little band, in fact I will prove that I am too good for it! I am making my own band, an all-girl band and we are going to kick your ass at the Battle of the Bands!" she yelled, grabbing her purse and storming out of the apartment for work.
Murphy snorted, "Well this will be entertaining!"
Bellamy grimaced, "She's pissed, one thing I learned being her brother is to never underestimate that girl. She can pack a punch in more ways than one."
"I am sure she will enter, but let's be real we have been practising for months, she is just rounding up a band now, auditions are in a week, we will be fine," Miller assured himself and his friends.
"Like I said it will be fun just to see what girls she rounds up for her little disaster waiting to happen," Murphy laughs.
Bellamy smiled, Octavia would get over the band thing and everything would be fine. The guys would find a bassist and keyboarder soon and they would win the trophy and the $25 000 cash prize. This was just a bonus, a little friendly competition that they could surely beat as easily as it was to put pants on in the morning.
Yes, Bellamy thought. This was not something they should be threatened by.
And boy was he wrong…