"Bell, please!"

"O."

"Bell, I'm too tired to walk home, come on."

He sighed in defeat, "Alright, but this is the last time."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," she squealed, more excitedly than necessary.

"The last ti—" and she closed the call before he could even tell her he's going to be there in twenty. Teenagers.

"Hey, Octavia, do you need a ride home?"

"Nope, all settled. My big bro is coming to get me." And meet Clarke, she didn't add, as she basically ignored Miller and watched her beautiful — and very sweaty — captain help Wells and his injured ankle get to the showers. The truth was she didn't want to introduce them just yet, she just wanted Bell to know who she's talking about when she mentioned her best-friend-and-possibly-more. And it's going to be quite a lot of mentioning, probably.

She has planned everything; it would have been simple and casual, she would just introduce them, in a relaxed and totally detached way, Bell would wave and grunt his greeting and she would proceed to—

"My big bro is coming to get me." Murphy's voice came behind her, mocking and full of contempt, "We kicked your lazy asses and you all can't even stand up long enough to walk yourselves home."

Octavia turned hastily, already making her way to the smirking boy to give him a piece of her mind. But a strong hand gripped her bicep, followed by a calm "Octavia, don't."

"You didn't beat anyone, jackass. While my ass was scoring the first point of the game, your ass was warming the bench the whole time." She jumped forward, but only to have the satisfaction of seeing him stumble back a bit. Lincoln's fist tightened around her arm, but she was already backing down, mentally counting to ten.

Admittedly, they all hadn't been at their greatest, but even if they lost the match they'd still managed to throw some great actions. Still, their best player was injured, they all had a rough week at school, and everybody was a little out of it in general, so they already saw it coming when halfway through the game the other team had way more scores than them. No big deal though, this wasn't a qualifying match anyway.

"Well, at least I didn't look at my captain's ass the whole time." Murphy bit back.

"Ew," Miller, Murphy's team captain, turned around to look at Murphy.

"I said I didn't look at it, idiot," Murphy clarified, rolling his eyes, but Miller just shrugged with a grimace, making his way back to the showers.

Octavia grit her teeth, determined in not showing any emotion if not controlled rage. She stood exceptionally still, hate-filled gaze fixated onto Murphy's eyes. She could feel Lincoln standing beside her, not moving yet.

But at that point Murphy smirked, huffing a laugh. "Well, she didn't deny it, so we can all agree Blake here has an unrequited crush on—"

"Shut your fucking mouth, Murphy."

"Oh, come on, it's not like she doesn't know already."

Octavia felt the growing heat in her cheeks, and it made her feel angrier and angrier by the second.

"Octavia, let's just go." Lincoln said with a cautious tone. "Bellamy's here." He added when he saw Octavia wasn't responding. She and Murphy were having the most intense staring contest in the whole universe, but at the mention of her brother's name, she turned around, in time to see Bellamy approaching.

Bellamy already wore his usual annoyed expression, marching towards her and showing with every fiber of his being his need to get the hell out of there immediately.

"O," He said as he finally came close to the small group, "Lincoln," he nodded shortly towards him before turning to Octavia again, "Are we ready to go?"

Octavia nodded, "I'm going to get my things, wait here,"

"Alright." Bellamy shoved his hands into his leather jacket, watching her sister run away.

Alright, alright, now you put on a cute smile and say… what do you say? Oh god, Octavia, get a fucking grip. You don't say anything. Small talk, boom. And you both will casually walk out together. And then you offer her a ride home, she accepts and you look at her from the rearview mirror the whole time. Simple as that.

"Watch you step."

A hand touched her side, startling her. She looked up to see her, smiling sweetly at her. Octavia melted a bit, but she recovered as quickly as she could by jumping back a little and couching. Maybe a little awkward, but you can't blame her, you just can't.

"Hey, Griffin," she stated, "You still here?"

"Yeah, Wells took longer than expected, but now Theo's here, so it's all good," she nodded, shoving her hand in the pockets of her pants. "You?"

"Me?" Octavia asked, confused for a millisecond.

"Yeah, I mean, weren't you going to the showers like fifteen minutes ago?"

"Uh, yes I was. Just got caught up with some fucking idiot."

"Let me guess. John Murphy had to run his mouth."

Octavia nodded, sighing tiredly, "Yup, just right. Asshole just can't shut up."

Clarke huffed, "We have English Lit together, he's a walking talking nightmare."

"You tell me," she joined her in laughing, puffs of warm breath mingling with the cold night air. "Hey Griffin," she repeated with more confidence that she expected.

"Blake," she grinned.

"Do you, uh, do you need a ride home?"

"Oh," she paused, "Now that I think about it, I think Theo has worse concerns to deal with than taking me home," she smiled again, brighter than before, "Let me just warn Wells I'm going to ride with you."

Octavia was pretty sure she had used that particular verb to tease her, but she didn't let herself read into it; instead she wasted no time in texting her brother, letting him know that they had a passenger

"Bell, this is Clarke," she introduced her as soon as they arrived near the car, where Bellamy was leaning on.

"Hi," he said, and waved his hand.

Octavia turned to look at Clarke as the girl greeted back, and she didn't like what she saw. Clarke had her flirty smile on, and as she extended her hand to shake his brother's she felt the world crumble at her feet.

She freezed, staying put even when his brother climber in the driver seat and Clarke passed by her to climb in the backseat. She snapped out of it only when Bellamy honked, and she run in the car, taking the passenger seat.

The whole ride was uneventful, as she predicted. The music, some rock crap her brother was into, made it impossible to converse, if they even had been in the mood to.

"So how was the match?"

"Uh, we lost,"

"Bummer," he puffed, shaking his head a bit.

"Yeah, we weren't at our best," Octavia provided, "Right, Clarke?"

"Well, I think we've lost a couple good chances to score a couple more times, but you know, it wasn't pretty tonight."

"Hell yes, Bell, I think Wells broke some bones this times," Octavia grimaced.

"That kid is jelly," Bellamy laughed, "How much did he even last out there?"

Octavia was about to answer, but without missing a bit, another voice preceded hers. "Oh, longer than you'd have," Clarke said from the backseat, making Octavia widen her eyes. She legitimately thought Bellamy was going to pull over and let her walk it out, but when she glanced at her brother, though a little disconcerted, she could see a smirk forming over his lips.

"I was the one breaking other people's bones back then, thank you very much," he shot back, seemingly no offence taken.

"For that I will have to see for myself, but still. Wells is good at what he does." Clarke continued, and Octavia turned to look at her only to find a peaceful expression gracing her features, maybe slightly altered by smugness.

"You know, Clarke has been captain for a while now," Octavia took the wheel of the conversation, casting a smirk at the blonde girl, who smiled back easily.

"Oh, yeah?" Bellamy asked. Octavia remembered the times when he played too, and how seriously he took it. Friendship were shaped and destroyed around games and practices, and when Octavia had told him she would start playing too, she didn't think she had ever seen him as happy as he had been as in that moment.

"Three years now, right?"

"Yup," Clarke confirmed.

"Must be really good then, huh?"

"I am, yes," Clarke spoke, "But I have a great team too. You know, Lincoln is a real catch. Anya and Monroe too."

"Yeah, I've seen Lincoln play a couple of times. He's pretty fast, I must say."

"I'm faster," Octavia interjected.

"You're just slicker," Clarke laughed, making Octavia flush irremediably. Bellamy wore a full-on smirk by now, and she had no comeback worth telling. Damn it.

"Shut up," she opted for something that suited all occasions, and smiled as her and her brother snickered. "What, you're ganging up on me now."

"We might just do that," Bellamy said.

"Jokes aside, your sister is really good." Clarke amended, earning a fist-bump from Octavia, "I'm pretty sure she made a couple of our opponents cry,"

"I wish," Octavia joked, "Murphy deserves even more than a little crying, in my honest opinion,"

"Octavia," Bellamy chastised.

"Just kidding, don't worry."

They continued talking about sports, mainly lacrosse, and bickering lightly. Octavia felt light-headed at the thought that her brother and her crush did in fact get along pretty well, an when they dropped Clarke off, she couldn't seem to stop smiling.

She got back in the car, already planning how to tell her brother that the one right there was going to be her girlfriend one day and that he should prepare himself.

"Bell,"

"Yeah,"

"I've gotta tell you something."

"Ok," he said, a little worry creeping its way in his voice.

"You see, well, how to— you know, Clarke."

"You're not going to set me up with someone your age."

"She's older than me, you idiot."

"Octavia, I'm perfectly capable—"

"That's not what I wanted to do anyway."

"Uh, ok, go on."

"Ok. Clarke. I like her."

"Yeah, me too, for what I saw she seems pretty—"

"Bell."

"Ok, I was just fucking with you. I already knew, by the way."

Octavia whipped her head around, not expecting this kind of admission at all. "What? How?"

"You left your Facebook profile open a couple days ago. You were fucking stalking the girl, weren't ya."

"I was not! The page just happened… to be… there."

"Yeah, whatever you say, sis."

"So why didn't you tell me."

"I thought you hated it when I got all controlling and shit."

"Yes, I do. Thank you."

"Anytime."

Octavia leaned back into her seat, smiling contentedly.