An AU where Clarke is in college and Bellamy is her crabby neighbor who thinks Christmas sucks. I don't own the 100 or anything affiliated. Enjoy :)
It was 7:45 when Clarke stumbled out of her apartment, a piece of toast dangling from her mouth, trying to pull her sweatshirt on and hold her backpack at the same time all the while running towards the stair well. She was going to be so late to class. She didn't know why she'd agreed to go out with Raven the night before. The two of them had gotten shit-faced drunk and Clarke had woken up thirty minutes late with a massive hangover. Note to self: don't go out on Sundays.
"You dropped something." Clarke froze and tried not to sneer at the voice before turning around. Her neighbor was standing by his door holding one of her folders with a smirk planted on his face. Clarke deadpanned and stomped up to him, snatching the folder of out his hand and shoving it into her backpack.
"Thanks." She muttered, spinning around and flying down the stairs. The walk from her apartment to school wasn't that long, only about a fifteen minute walk, but she jogged today and tried not to seethe at her neighbor's stupid smirk that he always wore.
When Clarke first moved into the apartment complex, she'd been almost over the moon to find that her neighbor was fairly attractive, and attended the same university that she did. She imagined him being sweet and charming, sensitive to her feelings, and dreamed the two of them always hung out. Only...the first time Clarke had ever met the guy, he'd laughed at the oversized sweatshirt she was wearing and asked if she needed any spare change. Needless to say, Bellamy Blake was the complete opposite of sweet, charming, and sensitive.
His sister, Octavia, was a different story altogether. She didn't live with her brother, but she had an English class with Clarke and the two of them got along pretty well. Clarke wondered how they were even related, but Octavia had assured her many times that her brother wasn't really a jerk, he just didn't know how to make new friends. Clarke doubted it.
When she flew into said English class exactly on time, but with windswept hair that resembled a bird's nest and panting horrifically loud, she slumped into her seat while the professor started the lesson. Octavia hid a snicker at the state of her friend and tried to be a nice friend while Clarke muttered under her breath about her shitty morning.
"Did you see my brother?" Octavia suddenly broke through Clarke's mutterings, smiling apologetically at the affronted look Clarke gave her at being interrupted. "He hasn't been answering my calls and I'm worried about him." She admitted, fiddling with her long brown hair.
"Yeah, I saw him this morning. Why?" Clarke asked, internally wincing at her unintentionally rude tone at the mention of Bellamy. Octavia, who had grown used to Clarke's dislike of her older brother, only sighed slightly and rested her chin on her hand.
"His long time girlfriend, Roma, broke up with him and moved out. They were together since their freshman year of high school, so he took it really hard. He hasn't been coming to class for a week, since it happened, and he won't answer my phone calls or texts. I just want to make sure he's okay." She gnawed on her lower lip, corners of her mouth turned down in a frown. Clarke felt bad for her.
"Now that you mention it, I think I heard some fighting a few days ago. It was kind of late at night, so I didn't really pay attention to what was going on, but he didn't make a sound or show his face for a while after that. This morning was the first time I've seen him since then." Not that Clarke actively looked for Bellamy Blake. She'd be happy if she never had to see the guy again. Octavia hummed and looked down at her English binder, scribbling down the notes. Clarke looked away, frowning slightly, and started to sketch Octavia's profile.
When their English class ended, Octavia and Clarke parted ways with friendly smiles, though Clarke could see that Bellamy's withdrawal from his little sister's life was really bothering her. Octavia had divulged Clarke with a small tidbit of the Blake siblings private life and admitted that when she'd moved out of Bellamy's apartment to live with her fiancé, Lincoln, she'd cried herself to sleep every night for a month from the absence. Clarke wondered what it was like to miss someone so much.
After Clarke's classes ended, she started to trudge towards her home, pulling her sweater tighter around her and trying to keep her teeth from chattering.
"It's pathetic to watch you try and pretend like you're not freezing. Get in. I'll drive you." A large SUV pulled up next to her, the window rolled down to reveal Bellamy's face inside. Clarke chewed on her lip, considering denying the offer, but a gust of cold wind made chills travel up her spine so she climbed inside of the warm SUV and placed her hands closer to the vents spewing hot air. The drive was silent, but Clarke softly thanked him as they trudged up the stairs together towards their apartments. When they got to their doors, Clarke started to dig around in her backpack for her key, only to freeze when she realized that in her rush to get out of the door that morning, she'd forgotten it on the hook by the door.
Instead, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed her land lord's number, chewing on her lip slightly as she waited for him to pick up. She didn't even notice Bellamy leaning against the wall by his unit, watching her.
"Hello?" Her land lord finally picked up.
"Hi, Mr. Kane? This is Clarke Griffin from 301D. I'm sorry, but I've accidentally locked my key inside of my unit. Is there any way you could unlock my door for me? I'm so sorry." She apologized, leaning back against her door.
"I can't get there until around 8 or 9. Can you find somewhere to go until then?" Kane asked stoically. Clarke winced. He was pissed.
"Yes, thank you so much." She practically whispered, hanging up the call and throwing her head back against the door. It made a dull thunk sound and she almost considered bashing her head so hard she'd go into a coma.
"Nice going, Princess." Bellamy sneered. Clarke jumped and bared her teeth, spinning around to snap back at him. Octavia's voice rang through her head before she could bark out a response. "He took it really hard." She sighed miserably and slid to her butt on the ground. She didn't like Bellamy, but she wasn't one to kick someone when they were down, and she really didn't have the energy to deal with him anyway.
"Yeah." she murmured in response, pulling her knees up to her chest and dropping her forehead onto them.
"How long?" Bellamy asked, not looking at the seemingly miserable girl on the ground.
"8 or 9." She muttered, voice muffled by her knees. Bellamy let out a sigh before pushing himself off of the wall and extending his hand down to her.
"Come on. It's at least warmer in my place." Clarke looked up at him in astonishment before giving him a small smile and taking his hand. He lifted her to her feet easily and entered his unit, allowing the door to swing shut and almost hit Clarke as she hurried after him. His place looked almost exactly like Clarke's, only hers was a mess and Bellamy's was impeccably clean. "You can sit anywhere." He gestured around. Clarke took a seat at his small table, looking around at the sparse decorations on the wall. Just a few pictures of him and Octavia and one of a woman smiling down at what seemed to be a baby Bellamy.
"Your sister's worried about you." She looked up at Bellamy, watching his shoulders stiffen where he was standing at the fridge with his back to her.
"You want some coke?" He asked, not turning his head to look at her. She could have sworn she heard his voice tremble, though.
"Sure, thanks." She replied, deciding to drop the previous subject. He took a seat across from her, sliding a can of coke over to her and opening a can of Budweiser. Well, he was four years older than her, so he could legally drink.
"My sister talks about you." Bellamy broke their silence a few minutes later, staring down at the chipped wood table and messing with the tab on his can. "Tell me, what's the daughter of a nationally known brain surgeon and an ex NASA engineer doing living in a place like this?" Clarke searched for the contempt that usually accompanied questions about her parents like this, but she only found curiosity in his eyes.
"I just...I want to make my own path, you know? I don't want to be known as Clarke Griffin, daughter of Abby and Jake Griffin. I just want to be Clarke Griffin. That one girl you sit next to in English." She replied, shrugging and taking a sip of the Coke. Bellamy snorted and Clarke looked up, startled to find hate shining in Bellamy's eyes.
"It's nice you get to choose." He spat venomously, his mood dramatically altered. Clarke flinched and nodded, looking down and trying to shrink away from Bellamy's wrath. "I really hate self-entitled people, Clarke, but what I hate even more are ungrateful people. You've got everything you could ever want laid out for you on a gold platter, and you choose to live in this dump and work as a waitress at some sleazy bar? Idiotic." He spat, standing and moving towards where the bedroom was. "You can stay as long as you need, but keep the noise down. I'm going to sleep." Clarke winced as the door slammed and let out a long breath. She didn't know why Bellamy was so angry about her choice of lifestyle. Did it have something to do with the way he and Octavia grew up?
Octavia hadn't spoken much about her childhood, just that she and Bellamy were in foster care and had moved homes a lot when they were younger. Octavia had told Clarke that even as a child, Bellamy had been as irrational and unpredictable as he was now. But even though Bellamy frequently teased her, she'd never seen such hate glistening in his eyes directed towards her. Maybe towards their rude neighbor across the hall, Robert, who'd made one too many provocative comment about Octavia and Bellamy had sent him to the hospital with six fractured ribs and a shattered nose, but never her. It was actually terrifying.
Clarke busied herself with her homework, and when she finished she pulled out her sketchbook and started to draw, not really paying attention to what she was doodling. When she finished, she realized it was another picture of Octavia as Clarke had seen her many times, a bright smile on her bubbly face and her eyes shining. Clarke gnawed on her lip and looked at the clock on Bellamy's stove. 8:30. When had it gotten so late? Deciding she was finished imposing on Bellamy, she closed her sketchbook and dropped it and her pencils back into her bag. She set her can on the counter next to Bellamy's empty beer can and pushed her chair in before she quietly left. She only sat in the hall next to her door for a few minutes before Kane showed up, warning her that if she pulled that kind of stunt again, she'd have to pay extra on her rent. She nodded vigorously and thankfully collapsed onto her couch. She didn't even get both of her shoes off before she drifted into a sleep filled with dreams of a terrifying Bellamy-esque dragon.