As the night progressed Clarke found herself getting steadily drunker and drunker. She was giggling in the corner with Octavia over many glasses of Monty's lethal moonshine, although when Lincoln arrived later, Octavia squealed and jumped into his arms and Clarke was left to her own devices. Clarke wandered around her house flitting between different people, watching Jasper and his friend Maya getting closer and closer together in a corner of her living room. Clarke was suddenly feeling very single, it had been almost a year since her relationship with Lexa went down the drain and it seemed like everybody here was with someone.
"Hey, Clarke! How's your night going?" Raven sat down next to Clarke on the couch, handing her a fresh drink.
"Pretty good, everybody seems to be having a good time." Clarke took a gulp of her drink, feeling a shiver go down her back because of how strong it was.
"Tell me about it, who's that guy Octavia is with?" Raven laughed at Clarke and pointed to Lincoln who was talking to Octavia and someone else who Clarke didn't recognise. She rolled her eyes at Octavia's ability to invite people to Clarke's party that Clarke didn't even know.
"That's Lincoln, he's just started working at The Dropship, I think she actually likes him." Clarke raised her eyebrows at Raven, Octavia was notorious for her lack of emotions.
"Wow, I've only known her for a week and even I know that's unusual." Raven smirked, "maybe it'll be good for her."
"Tell me about it." Clarke leant back into the sofa, scanning the room.
"Who's that?" Raven gaped as Bellamy walked into the room, he caught Clarke's eye and winked before moving across the room to talk to Octavia.
"That's Octavia's brother Bellamy, he's an ass." Clarke sent a withering glare into his back.
"He sure doesn't look like an ass, if I wasn't in a happy relationship I'd be all over that." Raven grinned cheekily at Clarke.
"Well I guess it's a good thing for me that you're happy with Finn then, so I don't have to see his stupid face all the time." Clarke took another, rather large, sip of her drink.
"Woah, what did he ever do to you? I mean aside from looking like that I mean." Raven winked and stuck her tongue out at Clarke.
"Nothing he's just over confident and a jerk. Plus he thinks History is better than Art." Clarke wrinkled her nose in disgust, something she probably wouldn't have done if she wasn't so intoxicated. "…and he called me princess." She added.
"Aww did he make you feel like the little rich girl you are?" Raven put on her baby voice and stuck out her bottom lip, imitating Clarke.
"Shut up." Clarke shoved Raven away, who immediately starting laughing.
"He's probably not that bad, everything just seems worse because you're drunk," Raven said as she stood up. "Anyways I'm going to go find Finn, don't let him get under your skin! Or do, you know, that might fix your problem." And before Clarke could start protesting, Raven had left. Clarke leant back into the sofa and closed her eyes, enjoying the sound of party music playing in the background.
"Hey, princess." Her eyes snapped open and focused on Bellamy Blake standing above her, smirking. Raven was right, he was a gorgeous human being, with curly brown hair that flopped into his twinkling brown eyes, and a light smattering of freckles on his cheeks, highlighting his already tanned complexion. Ugh, Clarke thought, who was tanned in this weather?
"What do you want." Clarke snapped.
"Nothing, just saw you sat by yourself, and I couldn't let that happen." Bellamy handed her a fresh drink - why was everybody always doing this?! Clarke thought to herself. - And sat down next to her. She took the drink begrudgingly and had a sip. Vodka tonic, she thought.
"Well then, words empty as the wind are best left unsaid." Clarke sighed, crossing her legs and glancing at Bellamy out of the corner of her eye.
"I thought you were an art student?" He said, suddenly sitting up straighter and looking at her questioningly.
"I am." Clarke rebutted defensively.
"So then why are you quoting Homer at me?" Bellamy looked baffled, making Clarke glee with satisfaction.
"Guilty pleasure." And it seemed these two words were enough to make Bellamy Blake's head explode.
"Homer is not someone's guilty pleasure! His work deserves your full attention or nothing!" Bellamy shot at her, sitting up straight and staring into her eyes.
"Well I'm not dedicating my life to Homer, but I'll still read his stories when I want to." Clarke shot back, she was glad she was too drunk to care about anything anymore.
"Well, princess, I've been studying him and his influences for almost five years now." Bellamy ran his hand through his hair and sighed, "and I've never met somebody who has quoted him to me drunk." Clarke looked up at him and Bellamy smiled at her. "I guess there's a first time for everything." He put his hand on her knee and stood up. Clarke felt a jolt of electricity raced up her body from the point where he had touched her. "See you around princess." Bellamy winked at her as he left the room. What the bloody hell was that?! Clarke shook her head in an attempt to get her thoughts straight.
—
The rest of the night was a blur of laughter, more drinking and dancing, but by the early hours of the morning Clarke found herself sat in the living room with Raven and Octavia (who was staying in their spare room as going home was too much effort she had decided) eating leftover snacks.
"So Octavia, what's going on with you and that Lincoln guy?" Raven asked between mouthfuls of popcorn.
"I'm not sure yet, I work with him so I don't want things to be awkward, but we'll see." Octavia shrugged her shoulders and giggled. "Where's Finn gone?" Octavia asked.
"Asleep, he passed out a couple of hours ago. He's always been a lightweight. Good job changing the subject there O." Raven stuck her tongue out and Octavia slapped her playfully. "What about Clarke?" Raven asked, and both girls simultaneously turned to look at Clarke who was halfway through a mouthful of m&ms.
'What." Clarke said with her mouth full.
"First of all, gross Clarke, don't talk with your mouth full." Octavia looked disapprovingly at her best friend. "And secondly, I saw you talking to my brother for ages!"
"Ooh yeah tell us about that!" Raven grinned at Clarke.
"Why, there's nothing to tell. He's an ass, who thinks he's better than everyone." Clarke said, "sorry O, I know he's your brother."
Octavia shrugged, "no worries, he's always been kind of an ass. He's got this huge chip on his shoulder about our upbringing, and hates people who take their lifestyle for granted."
"Oh, now everything makes sense." Clarke thought back to their conversations, and Bellamy's reaction - and nickname - made more sense to her. Didn't mean he had to be rude to her, she thought begrudgingly.
"Wait I don't get it, Octavia, what was wrong with your upbringing? You seem fine to me." Raven asked, and Clarke winced at her brashness. It wasn't Raven's fault, she had no idea what Octavia had been through.
"It's a long story, but basically our Mum died when I was twelve and Bellamy was sixteen and she left us with basically nothing so Bellamy had to sell our house, work part time as well as going to school just to buy us food and pay our rent. He had no help from anyone and so the fact that he is where he is now it pretty amazing. It never affected me as much because Bellamy never let me worry about anything, he even turned down a place at Cambridge to stay at home with me while I finished school." Octavia explained to Raven.
"Wow, that's intense, you're very lucky to have a brother like him." Raven looked amazed at everything Octavia had just told her.
"I know right, I don't know what I would have done without him all these years. Even though I have known Clarke for years now she had never met Bellamy before tonight, because he was always away working or studying in my last couple of years of high school." Octavia continued.
"True story, I didn't even recognise him when he barged into my house earlier this evening." Clarke was still holding onto some of that residual anger from earlier.
"Yeh he doesn't make the best first impression, and I have no excuse for that." Octavia laughed and snatched some of the popcorn from Raven's bowl.
"Guys, as much as I have enjoyed this evening, I need to go to bed as I have way to much work to do tomorrow." Clarke stood up and yawned.
"Yeh, Clarkes is probably right," Raven said standing up next to Clarke. "Do you need anything for the spare room O?"
"No, I should be fine, thanks. See you all in the morning!" They all walked to their separate bedrooms and waved as they closed their doors. Clarke leant against the door, her brain spinning. She peeled off her clothes and put on her comfiest pyjamas before getting into bed and pulling the covers over her, she couldn't stop thinking about Bellamy bloody Blake, his immediate negative judgement of her, the way he called her princess, the fact that he'd understood her Homer quote without a second thought. Well that was two out of three against him, she thought, perhaps he wasn't such an ass maybe they would actually get along.