"Ew! You're naked!" Clarke heard, forcing her to peel her eyes open. Her gaze focused across the room, on her best friend. Raven was standing in her doorway, wearing an expression of fabricated disgust. This was not the first time that Raven had seen Clarke naked.
The blonde was actually surprised that she wasn't under the blankets. She was freezing. "Mmhmm."
"I swear, if I hadn't heard you calling out your girlfriend's name last night, I would've thought that someone was actually in here with you," Raven teased. "Phone sex really that good?"
"Leave me alone," Clarke whined. "Your stupid movie choice made me really horny."
"Yeah, that's what made you horny. You and Lexa better spend a whole day rolling around in her big, expensive New York bed next weekend."
"That sounds nice," Clarke murmured. "Why are you waking me up?"
"Oh, no reason. Good morning!" Raven chimed, grinning teasingly. The blonde huffed, picking up her pillow and covering her face with it. "No but really, you should go into work today. I feel like a drink anyway. And you know that you're the only bartender I drink from."
"That's not true," Clarke muttered, pushing the pillow away now as she sat up and searched the ground for her discarded pajamas.
"Yeah, it is."
"How about when I was in Europe? When you let that creepy asshole serve you drinks?"
"I was desperate," Raven claimed. "Anyway. You missed work yesterday because of me, and I feel bad. So you go into work, I'll buy a drink from you, and then we'll be even. Oh, and I'll give you your Paris necklace back."
Clarke looked up at her friend, pausing her task of getting dressed. "Wait, you have it again?"
"You never wear it, Griffin! I wore it when I went Harper and I went to the mall yesterday," Raven explained, digging her hand into her pocket and producing the necklace. "It's really cute. You have good taste."
"Thanks," Clarke deadpanned dryly, finishing putting her clothes on and then grabbing the piece of jewelry. "I'll go into work today. But that doesn't really mean you need to wake me up at eight in the morning."
"I know," Raven said, smiling widely, "but I woke up early for some reason, and I can't just hang around this place by myself. And it's nine, not eight."
"Can you at least make something for breakfast?"
"You got it, roomie!" Raven agreed, grinning and then turning and leaving Clarke's room. The blonde sighed in relief and then stripped off her clothes – again. She needed a shower.
"Octavia!" Raven exclaimed excitedly as she and Clarke both noticed their friend entering the bar. Behind her was the whole gang – Lincoln, Bellamy, Jasper, Monty and Harper. "Whoa, and everyone else . Were we planning Clarke's intervention today or something?"
"What?" Clarke demanded, furrowing her eyebrows.
"She's bluffing," Monty called, rolling his eyes. The six new arrivals crowded around Raven at the bar, and Clarke didn't even have to ask them for their drink orders.
"Thought you didn't work Sundays, C?" Bellamy asked, tilting his head and looking pointedly at her.
"I usually don't," Clarke answered, shrugging and passing him a beer. He nodded his thanks. "But I took off yesterday, so. And I'm taking off next weekend too."
"Why are you taking off next weekend?" Jasper asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "I was gonna say that we should all hang out next Saturday."
"We'll have to rain check," Clarke said, frowning. However, she was hardly upset about delaying hanging out with her friends. After all, she could hang out with them any day of any week. Lexa was different. "I'm going to New York."
"Sex party weekend," Raven offered as explanation, and Clarke rolled her eyes, aware that her cheeks were flushing. She'd gotten better about not blushing a lot when Raven mentioned her sex life, but anytime other people were around, she basically turned into a tomato.
"No," Clarke argued, shaking her head. "I still haven't seen Lexa's exhibit with all of her pictures in Europe."
"Okay, that and the sex party weekend."
"That's cool," Lincoln commented, though his girlfriend was standing next to him with pursed lips. Clarke tried to ignore the look, sliding her friend the drink that she usually ordered. Octavia took it with a silent nod of thanks. "You should take pictures of the exhibit if you can."
"I'll see," Clarke agreed, smiling.
"So, rain check for the next weekend then?" Jasper asked. "Since you've gotta go see your oh so special girlfriend?" The sarcasm in his voice was, of course, teasing.
"Hey, not all of us can be so lucky to live next door to our significant other," Clarke commented, rolling her eyes at him. He'd been crushing on his neighbor, Maya, for about three months before finally asking her out. "And yeah, that should probably work. Though, I will have work..."
"That's fine, we'll start the party here then," Harper offered, grinning.
"It's not a party if I'm serving you guys drinks," Clarke huffed, passing Jasper and Monty their drinks.
"Sure it is," Jasper piped up, "just not for you."
"I'm pretty sure that defeats the purpose, dimwit," Raven said, smacking Jasper playfully on the back of his head. "If Clarke can't party, I'm not partying."
"Whipped as fuck," Bellamy teased, grinning as he took a sip from his beer.
"I'm trying to be a supportive best friend," Raven defended, narrowing her eyes. "And you know who's really whipped is Lexa, because last night –"
"Raven!" Clarke exclaimed, her eyes widening with alarm. Raven broke out into loud laughter, clearly not planning on actually describing what had happened the previous night. Everyone else just looked between the two with curiosity, and even though Raven hadn't finished her story, Clarke's beet red face probably gave her away. "You guys are seriously ridiculous." Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed someone trying to hail her from the other side of the bar. "Back in a bit."
"You won't get lost, will you?" Lexa asked, smiling a little to herself as she thought of Clarke coming up to see her. She was honestly beyond excited.
"No, I have GPS in my car," Clarke insisted, Lexa smirking slightly as she made her way through the parking garage below her building. "I'm more concerned about where the fuck I'm going to leave my car when I get there."
"There's a pay to park garage pretty close to here," Lexa promised. "I'll cover it."
"I can pay for it, Lexa."
"You're already paying for gas, Clarke," Lexa reminded her, smiling a little as she located her car. "Plus, you're my guest, and since I don't have an extra parking space for you, I'll pay for it. Prices are ridiculous anyway."
"Fine," the blonde agreed, and Lexa grinned widely.
"I'm so embarrassingly excited for you to get here."
The laugh she heard from the other end of the line made her heart skip a beat. "It's not embarrassing to be excited to see me. After all, I am pretty amazing." Lexa hummed in agreement, unlocking her car and climbing inside. "So, you off to work?"
"Yeah," Lexa confirmed, sighing. "But luckily, I get off early today. I'm going to stop by the gallery and hang there for a while. I'm kind of trying to get the owner there to ask me to take more pictures. I could really use an excuse to take a couple of weeks off from the museum again."
"You better not go anywhere amazing without me," Clarke threatened playfully, and Lexa smiled despite herself.
"Then how would I be able to take you later and be the expert tour guide?" Lexa teased.
"Mm. Valid. But still. I miss you."
"Me too," Lexa said softly.
"Ah, damn it, Raven's banging on my door. I gotta go. Have a good day, babe! Love you!"
Lexa sighed, not sure if she sounded happy or sad as she did so. "You too, Clarke, and I love you too."
The line ended, and Lexa buckled herself into her car and began to pull it out of her parking space. She was really missing Clarke lately. Almost everything she did reminded her of the beautiful blonde. She saw her blue eyes in the sky and her blonde hair in a flash everywhere she went. It was excruciating sometimes, just needing her and not having her. Lexa was desperate by now.
Anya kept insisting that she should ask Clarke to move to New York, but Lexa kept knowing better and better that it would never happen. Or perhaps it could one day, but not right now, not in the stage of life that Clarke was in. She was dependent on her friends. Lexa wouldn't be the one to take her away from that.
Speaking of Anya, Lexa's car Bluetooth suddenly began to ring with her best friend's number. She answered it quickly. "I'm on my way to work, what's up?"
"Making sure you were awake," Anya admitted, "because I texted you and you didn't answer."
"I was on the phone with Clarke," Lexa justified. "Something you need?"
"Yeah, just to warn you that your ex girlfriend is single and prowling," Anya answered, laughing despite what the statement implied. Lexa narrowed her eyes, trying to keep full attention on the road anyway.
"Costia?"
"Obviously," Anya answered. "Do you have any other exes that I don't know about?"
"No. What do you mean she's prowling?"
"I mean, that I heard through the grapevine that she's interested in you."
Lexa rolled her eyes. "Of course she would be – three years after cheating on me, never apologizing for it, and right as I'm dating someone who is way fucking better than her."
"Hey, I just wanted to warn you, don't bite my head off," Anya insisted. "I just wanted you to know, because I know your bae is coming to the city this weekend."
"Did you just say my bae? You're starting to sound like Clarke's friends, and you haven't even spoken to them."
"Maybe you're just behind in the times, Lex," Anya suggested, laughing. "Oh by the way, Luna, Tristan and I are crashing your place Saturday night. Not all night, but they want to meet Clarke and I want to watch her get you drunk on real drinks for once."
"That's not going to happen," Lexa denied, rolling her eyes.
"You say that now."
"Yes, and it will hold true this weekend as well."
"But sex is so fun when you're drunk. Don't you want to get drunk with her and correctly christen your apartment?"
Lexa scoffed, rolling her eyes. "You're so gross."
"Oh come on, you know it's going to happen," Anya teased. "You guys had sex in your kitchen the last time she was here – and I had to witness it."
Lexa flushed. "Well, I told you not to come over that day."
"You could've added a little note that was like 'Hey, Anya, I'm going to fuck my girlfriend all over my kitchen, so please don't walk in, or you'll see my whole naked ass and also my hot naked girlfriend!'."
"That was the underlying message," Lexa deadpanned. "Anyway, we didn't get to finish having sex in the kitchen."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I was like five seconds too early, I got it. I'm pretty sure you spent that whole weekend yelling at me," Anya said, laughing. "But that's why you have to do it this weekend."
"Why are we discussing sex, Anya? I'm going to have sex with her in my apartment whether I drink or not. And contrary to what you seem to think, drunk sex is not any better than sober sex. Even if it feels better in the moment, you can barely remember it the next day. Plus, we'd be hungover. Where's the fun in that?"
"Ah, fuck you, I'll get Clarke to get you to drink."
"I'll just barricade my door once Clarke gets here. That way none of you can come in at all."
"Yeah, good luck with that," Anya teased. "You're probably almost at work, I'll let you go. See you, Lex!"
"Shouldn't you be on your way to Miss Perfect?"
The question drew Clarke's attention up from the drink she was making for a customer, her gaze landing on Bellamy. She smiled at him. "Soon. Had to squeeze in a shift. I'm leaving at around eleven and driving the whole way up there without stopping."
"You're driving all night?"
"Lexa's gonna stay up and wait for me," Clarke insisted, though she was pretty sure that her girlfriend would eventually fall asleep. Which is why the brunette had ensured that, just in case, a key would be tucked under the doormat. The blonde was almost certain that she was going to have to use it. "I'll be fine."
"I mean, why not just go in the morning?"
Clarke handed the drink she'd just made over to her customer, who grunted his thanks, and then looked back to Bellamy. "Then I have to waste four hours of my Saturday that I could be spending with Lexa. I wouldn't expect you to get it," she said, rolling her eyes playfully.
He sighed. "I don't get how you do that. Have a long distance relationship. How do you get used to that?"
"You really don't," Clarke admitted, exhaling. "You want a beer?"
"No, I'm okay," he insisted, shaking his head. "Octavia's held up at work and so is Lincoln, so she wanted me to tell you before you were on the road that she's sorry for saying whatever she said about Europe."
"I'm not mad at her," Clarke stated, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Of course you're not," Bellamy said, smirking. "You two fight all the time and somehow never get mad at each other. I guess she just wanted to make sure you knew. I think everyone's a little low key terrified that you'll stay away for three weeks once you leave."
"Trust me, no," Clarke insisted, chuckling. "I have to be back at work on Monday."
"Is that what's holding you here?" Bellamy asked. He seemed deflated, far less light and happy than usual. "Your job?"
"You guys are too," Clarke rushed out, aware that it may have sounded like she didn't care about her friends. "Obviously. That is a given. Plus, I... I couldn't move to New York. That would be... crazy."
"Crazy like taking a three day vacation to London and staying instead for three weeks and falling in love with some random photographer?"
Clarke laughed – it was easier to laugh about how crazy it was than to think about it. She cleared her throat afterward, though, and said seriously, "I know that none of you can really understand, Bell, but you should really try to. I love Lexa. I couldn't break up with her just because she lives four hours north of here."
"It just seems like you're heading for disaster," the guy said quietly, his voice laced with concern. "And I feel like if you get hurt by Lexa, you're going to be even worse than after Finn. And who knows what you'll do then?"
Clarke pursed her lips. Having it explained like that, Clarke could understand why her friends were so concerned with her long distance relationship. Breaking up with Finn had thrown her into a state of unmotivated wallowing. The only thing that had broken her out of it was her spontaneous decision to go to Europe. If she were to lose Lexa, it could be worse.
But Clarke was confident that she wouldn't lose her girlfriend. "I get it, Bell. But I love Lexa more than I ever could've loved Finn. And I trust her with my heart. If I didn't, I wouldn't be in this relationship with her."
He nodded. "I guess I should just trust your judgment then. We all just... we're worried about you. We don't want things to get bad again."
"Neither do I," Clarke promised, "and Lexa loves me. One day we'll end up living together, somewhere, and it'll be... incredible. But for now, we've accepted what we're stuck with."
Accepted it, yes. But the more her friends brought it up, the more Clarke felt like she shouldn't be stuck with this distance between her and her girlfriend.
She practically watched the clock throughout the rest of her shift, waiting for it to tell her that her shift was over and she could leave and drive to New York, and pretend that everything was perfect again.