Bellarkebc: I hope you enjoy this summer break fic! If it's not what you wanted I am so sorry, I just got this idea with my head and ran with it. And I hope that everyone else enjoys it too! -Macey
Summer break meant many things. It meant wearing tank tops and athletic shorts. It meant sitting outside and sketching for hours. It meant going to the beach house that they went to every summer for a month.
It meant Bellamy Blake.
Clarke looked forward every summer to seeing the familiar head of curls knocking on the door as soon as they arrived. She looked forward to hours on the beach and sailing until sunset. To eating ice cream on the pier and going to the amusement park and going on every rollercoaster. To spending days of endless fun with him by her side.
Now that her senior year was over and it seemed like the summers they would spend together were numbered, she was even more anxious to get to her favorite place on earth. She had a terrible feeling that things were going to be different after this year.
Her best friend Raven was helping her pack.
"What about this?" Raven asked pulling out a dark blue party dress and wiggled her eyebrows.
"Where would I even wear that?" Clarke laughed, "The beach?"
"What if you get invited to a party!" Raven said, "You are going to want to impress your mystery man."
"He's not a mystery man, you are friends on facebook with him!"
Raven rolled her eyes. "But I haven't met him! Instead every summer I see dozens of pictures of him on Instagram and know very little else, making him a mystery." Raven folded the dress neatly into the suitcase. "Now what sandals would go with this?"
"I think the ones with the white straps look good with it," Clarke relented grabbing the shoes and setting them in with her suitcase, even if she didn't think she would wear them.
"You better be bringing this bikini," Raven said, pulling her new sky blue one out of the closet, "You look so hot in it. Bellamy won't know what hit him."
Clarke's bit her lip as she looked at it. She did want to impress Bellamy. She always had a little crush on him, but it wasn't until a couple of summers ago and he had shot up a half foot and all of his training for soccer become very obvious that Clarke had realized how badly she wanted to impress him.
"Yeah ok, I'll wear it."
Raven grinned in victory. "You better come back with a boyfriend."
...
Everything seemed to be right in the world as she stepped into the beach house. She was back in her element, where she wish she could spend every day of the year.
Now she was just waiting for the familiar knock.
As she was unpacking one came on the door.
She ran to the front door, excited to see the boy on her mind.
But there were no familiar curls when she opened the door.
Instead stood Octavia, Bellamy's little sister.
"Clarke! You're finally back!" the girl exclaimed, stepping in to envelop Clarke in a hug. Clarke tried to hide the disappointment on her face.
"Octavia! It's so good to see you!"
Octavia pulled away. "I'm so glad that you are here, there is a party tonight on the beach and I need a wing woman."
Clarke raised her eyebrows. "Oh really? What about Lincoln?"
Octavia waved it off, even if there was a hint of pain in her expression. "He's gone. Apparently dating someone still in high school while in college was too hard for him."
Clarke gave her a sympathetic look but Octavia shook it off. "I'm glad it's done. Time for someone new!"
"Sounds good," Clarke said, "Wanna help me finish unpacking?"
She had been dying to ask where Bellamy was, but she didn't want to seem ungrateful to have the girl there. Finally after the two were done unpacking and were catching up on the back porch while drinking lemonade, Clarke felt like it was an appropriate time.
Octavia just shrugged.
"I think he's out with Echo or something."
"Echo?" Clarke managed to choke out, even though she felt like her throat was starting to tighten up.
"Yeah she's some new girl that he is "talking" to."
Clarke nodded and changed the subject quickly.
The two girl talked until dinnertime and Octavia stayed for burgers. Afterwards Octavia said that they better be heading to the party.
It was just a short walk down the beach. They could see a crowds of people mingling around a bonfire. Music was blasting from speakers and a large bonfire along with tiki torches were lit up.
Clarke ran into a few people she recognized and a lot she didn't before she saw him. She stopped in her place, trying to fight back a tear as she saw Bellamy with a pretty girl on his arm. She was about to turn away when he caught her eye.
"Clarke?"
She plastered on a smile and reached out her arms to hug him. "Hi Bell!"
"I totally forgot that today was the day you came, I am so sorry!" he said as he held her. She quickly pushed away from him. It wasn't like she came on the same day every summer since she was six.
"No big deal. Octavia came."
"I have to introduce you to someone!" he said, pulling her towards where the other girl stood. "Echo this is Clarke, the girl I was telling you about."
At least he hadn't forgot her completely. "It's nice to meet you," Clarke said, trying to force a kind tone in her voice even if she felt bitter.
"You too," Echo said. Clarke knew she was trying just as hard to sound kind as she was.
"We are going to have so much fun these next few weeks!" Bellamy shouted, wrapping an arm around Clarke.
After a few minutes of awkward small talk, Clarke excused herself to go find Octavia. She found Octavia talking to a group of guys. When Clarke approached, Octavia grabbed her and pulled her to the side.
"Did you see that Lincoln was here?"
Clarke shook her head, looking around and spotting Octavia's ex. He was laughing along with some people that Clarke did not know.
Clarke grabbed Octavia's arm. "Come on, let's go dance!"
They had fun dancing and Clarke almost forgot that Bellamy was there. Until he came up with Echo and they started to dance by them. Clarke decided it was time to leave.
"Sailing tomorrow?" Bellamy asked as she told him goodbye. She agreed.
As she lay in bed that night, Clarke scrolled through Bellamy's instagram. To her joy, there was only one photo of him and Echo. He rarely used it, unless it was summer. There were at least a dozen of him and Clarke over the past few years that he had instagram. There was them lying in a hammock and them eating a giant thing of cotton candy. Her favorite was them in his sailboat.
They were going sailing tomorrow. Maybe things would be back to normal.
...
When she stepped on to the dock and saw the familiar sailboat sitting in the water and Bellamy standing in it, she couldn't stop the grin from coming on her face. It fell when she saw Echo sitting behind him.
"Clarke!" Octavia waved, jumping onto the dock and running over to her. When she got to her she brought her voice to a low whisper. "I'm betting you right now that Echo complains before we even start."
Clarke stifled a laugh as she headed to the boat. The sailboat wasn't much. It was Bellamy's grandfather's before him. But he adored it like it was his child.
"I'm just finishing checking the rigging, then we will be ready to set off!" Bellamy shouted, "Who is helping me today?"
"Of course I am!" Clarke replied back, "I'll hoist and trim if you steer us the right way."
"I can help watch wind," Octavia said, stepping into the boat.
"You said I wouldn't have to do anything," Echo snapped. Octavia gave Clarke a pointed look and Clarke hid her smile.
"You don't babe," Bellamy replied, pulling the last line off the winch. "You just have to not fall off."
Bellamy grabbed a life jacket and handed it to Clarke.
"Are you ready Clarke?"
Clarke gave him a mock salute. "Yes Captain."
He grinned at her. "Then let's get this baby on the water!"
It took not even ten minutes for Echo to complain.
"I feel like we are tipping to the side too much, are you sure that we aren't going to capsize?"
Octavia rolled her eyes. "We are barely even leaning to the side."
Bellamy glared at Octavia before turning Echo. "This boat won't let us down, I promise."
Twenty minutes later she got up and shakily walked to Bellamy. "I feel sick, can we head back?"
Octavia groaned. "We've barely been out here! We haven't even been going that fast, I want to see if we can get this puppy to fly!"
Bellamy sighed. "No we better head back, go ahead and set back down."
As Echo headed back to her seat Bellamy shouted, "Watch the boom!" Octavia and Clarke ducked as the support of the main sail soared overhead. One person did not.
There was loud thump and Echo was down.
Bellamy shouted, "Echo! Octavia, come steer." Octavia obliged with a smirk on her face.
Clarke watched as Bellamy bent over his girl. "Are you alright? Remember how before we left I told you if I said "Watch the boom" it meant you should duck?"
"Just take me home," she snapped. Bellamy helped her back to her seat. "Take us home O."
Clarke felt her anger towards Echo grow. They would usually spend all afternoon sailing, and it hadn't even been an hour. When they docked and Clarke started to tie up the boat, Bellamy came over to her.
"I'm sorry we had to come in early."
"It's fine," Clarke said, not even trying to hide the disappointment in her voice. She was tired of being disappointed.
"No it's not, I know how much you look forward to sailing. I promise we will go out again soon. Just us two."
Clarke smiled. "That would be great."
"How about we go to the amusement park tomorrow to make up for it?" Bellamy asked, "The new rollercoaster is supposed to be the most intense one yet!"
She felt a sudden flash of hope as she had thoughts of the two of them eating funnel cakes and going on ride after ride. "That sounds awesome! I can't wait!"
...
Clarke thought she should have braced herself to be disappointed as she saw Bellamy pull up in front of her house with his truck, Echo in the passenger seat. Octavia was in the backseat with a boy. Clarke had to squeeze in next to them.
Octavia introduced him as Ilian. Apparently they had met at the beach party after Clarke left. Clarke was already regretting coming. No one wants to be the fifth wheel.
"We are going to want to go to The Monster first, if we want to not wait in line for too long!" Octavia said jumping out of the truck.
"I want to get lemonade, I am dying of thirst," Echo said, fanning herself with her hand, "It seems like it's way too hot out here."
"Ok babe," Bellamy said giving her a kiss on the head, "And then straight to The Monster."
Octavia took Ilian's hand. "Yeah we are going to skip the lemonade and go have fun. Bye guys." Before Clarke could protest she was gone. Great, she thought, now she was a third wheel with the guy she was in love with and a girl she hated.
Before they got to the lemonade stand, Echo dragged them to the Ferris Wheel. This was one ride Clarke and Bellamy usually skipped. She sat on the opposite side of the gondola, staring out at the park.
"Hey I think I see the Monster!" she said, pointing to the new bright green roller coaster in the distance. Bellamy turned to look but Echo patted his knee and started talking to him. Clarke glared at her and went back to staring off in the distance. The Ferris Wheel seemed even slower than usual today.
When they finally got Echo's lemonade and approached The Monster, the line was at least a thirty minute wait. Clarke didn't mind, she looked up to the sky at where The Monster made a steep incline and looped around.
"I am not going on that!" Echo yelled. Clarke had had enough of this girl.
"Well I am. I guess I will see you later," and she marched through the gate to the end of the line.
She was so upset at this point, she figured that she would ride The Monster and then take a taxi back home. No longer would she put up with Echo and the whining and Bellamy giving into her every whim. She would not spend summer like this.
Her fuming instantly diminished when a familiar figure came and stood next to her.
"Where's Echo?"
"We will meet up with her after the ride. No way was I going to miss this!" Bellamy smiled. Clarke returned the gesture.
As they slowly made their way to the front of the line, Clarke was happy to catch up with her favorite person. They told each other about their last years in high school and how things were changing. They discussed the movies that they wanted to see this summer and the books they had read that they thought the other just had to read too.
"Do you know where you are going to school?" he asked. She knew he was going to live at home next year but go to classes at a community college.
"Actually yeah, I decided to go to BVU."
Bellamy's eyes lit up. "That's only an hour away from here!"
"I know," Clarke laughed, "I can come and visit whenever you want."
"This is so exciting," Bellamy continued, "I can finally show you what Christmas is like here and I can take you to the Farmer's Market in September, and when they have the Halloween Haunted Houses out, we can go to all the good ones!"
Clarke didn't realize he had so much he wanted to show her. Maybe he did still care about her.
They discussed college until it was time to board the ride. They were buckled in and Clarke couldn't contain her excitement.
"This is going to be so epic!" she squealed as they become locked into their seats.
"You better have your hands up the entire time," Bellamy said, sticking his own in the air
"Of course!"
They moved out of the station and up the ninety degree incline in front of them. She stole a glance at Bellamy who was looking at her back.
"Are you ready?" he said as they reached the top.
"Bring it on!"
Her sentence was cut off by them hurtling straight down. They whipped through the turns and twisted around in circles. Clarke could barely keep her hands up.
When they finally slowed down and pulled back into the station, Clarke was out of breath.
"If the line wasn't so long, I would say we need to go again," Bellamy said, as they excited the coaster.
"Agreed, that was awesome!" Clarke exclaimed. She laughed as she saw their photo appear on the screen. Her eyes were squinted shut but her mouth was open in a scream. Bellamy had wide eyes with a look of terror on his face.
"Another great one for the wall!" he said as he paid for two wallet sized pictures for them.
Clarke couldn't agree more."I would argue this one beats last year's when we actually tried to smile for the camera on The Boomerang."
Bellamy nodded. "That one was terrible!" His smile turned into a look of confusion as he looked around. "Echo was supposed to wait for us here."
Clarke glanced around, but couldn't find the girl either. Bellamy pulled out his phone dialing her number.
"Echo? Where are you at, we are off the ride. What do you mean you left? We've only been here for an hour and half. "
He argued for a minute more before hanging up the phone. "Well I guess it's just you and me. What ride next?"
The day improved so much after that. They rode all of their favorite rides. They played carnival games. Clarke won a monkey and gave it to Bellamy. After getting soaked on the rapids, they stopped for some food and texted Octavia to meet up with them.
"Where's Echo?" she asked, stealing a fry from Bellamy's tray.
Bellamy swatted her hand away. "She decided to head home early I guess." Octavia put her hands up towards the sky and mouthed 'thank you'.
"That ice cream looks really good," Bellamy said, eyeing Clarke's cone, "Can I have a bite?"
"Sure," Clarke said, swiping her finger through the ice cream and sticking it on his nose.
"You did not just do that," Bellamy gasped.
Clarke laughed. "Oh I think it looks quite good on you."
Bellamy reached over and shoved the cone up so it hit Clarke in the face. "Looks good on you too!"
Octavia shook her head while holding up her phone. "You guys are such dorks."
It was finally feeling like summer as the four continued on going on rides. Ilian was a little opinionated for Clarke's taste, but nothing could ruin this day anymore. She had her Bellamy back all to herself.
On the car ride home while she sat in the front seat of Bellamy's truck with the windows down and feet propped on the dash, Clarke sang along with the songs on the radio off key. She felt Bellamy's eyes keep glancing over to her.
"Why do you keep looking at me?" she said, "Is there something on face? What did you do"
"Nothing," Bellamy laughed, "You just look very at home over there."
Later that night, before Clarke went to bed, she checked out her Instagram to see her picture of her Bellamy soaked after the river rapids had gotten 125 likes.
She saw in her notifications that she was tagged in a post. Bellamy had posted a picture of the two of them with ice cream on their faces. Octavia most have taken it when they weren't looking. Clarke was looking at Bellamy with her mouth open in shock while Bellamy was looking at her with joy.
"Why eat ice cream when you can wear it? Just a typical day with clarkegriffen"
Clarke quickly liked it, and after debating with herself commented a heart.
...
The next day while Bellamy was at work, Clarke and Octavia spent the day at the beach. Octavia begged Clarke to go with them to a new club that night.
"It will be so much, we don't even need fake IDs to get in!"
"I don't know," Clarke sighed, "I don't want to be a fifth wheel."
"But you won't be!" Octavia exclaimed, "I don't think I'm going to invite Ilian. I don't know if we are going to work out. He wants me to delete my social media accounts. Says it 'will be the death of me' or something."
Clarke raised her eyebrows and Octavia shook her head. "I know, what a weirdo. And I don't think that Echo is coming either."
Clarke perked up. "She's not?"
Octavia gave her a knowing smile. "Nope. Bellamy said something about not wanting to deal with how needy she is."
Clarke couldn't believe her ears. "Yeah ok I'll come."
"We better find something for you to wear," Octavia said, pulling Clarke towards the house. "In case you want to impress someone."
Clarke thought of the dress that Raven had packed. "I already have something in mind."
...
The music was loud, the lights were low, and the floor was crowded with people. It was exactly the kind of thing Clarke was hoping for.
All heads turned as Octavia and Clarke walked past.
"Shit Lincoln is here!" Octavia said suddenly, pulling Clarke to the side.
Clarke glanced to where Octavia's ex was dancing with some other girl. He hadn't seen them yet. "Good. You look hot, make him regret what he lost."
Octavia gave Clarke a weary glance.
"Octavia." Clarke grabbed her shoulders. "You are a great dancer and are easily the best looking in the room. Anyone will be begging to dance with you. Go grab yourself a guy and make Lincoln jealous."
Octavia nodded and straightened up her shoulders. "You're right. I can do this." With one last fleeing smile she stalked off past where Lincoln was dancing. His eyes went round when he saw her and they followed her as she went up to a guy and dragged him to the dance floor. In seconds Lincoln was glaring at the guy that had his arms around Octavia.
Clarke's eyes wandered around the club until she saw a familiar head of curls sitting at the bar. She adjusted her dress and made her way through the crowd to him.
When his eyes locked with hers she smiled but he did not return it. Instead his mouth opened in shock as he looked down at the dress Clarke was wearing and back up to her face that Octavia had spent forever putting on.
"Dang do I look that bad?" she asked jokingly.
He mumbled, "God no" as he looked at her dress again. Clarke felt the heat rise to her cheeks. This was the second time in two days that she found him staring at her.
"So are you going to dance or just sit at the bar all night?" she questioned. His eyes shot back up to hers and her stomach did a flip as he looked at her.
"I will dance as long as you dance with me."
Clarke turned around and walked to the dance floor, hoping that he followed. When she stopped, she felt hands go around her waist and pull her close to a chest. She closed her eyes as for a second, taking in every detail of this moment. Her back pressed up against him as they moved to the music. The way that he held her with a tight grip, almost as if he was afraid that she would slip away from him. The song that was playing. She tried to memorize it all in case by tomorrow he was gone.
Octavia appeared by them, a different guy with her this time. They danced to song after song until Clarke was dying of thirst.
"I'm going to grab something to drink," she shouted over the music. She felt Bellamy's hands release her and she almost regretted saying it until he wrapped his hand around hers and led her to the bar. He ordered a coke for himself and a sprite for her and she gladly drank half of it before coming back for air.
Bellamy tapped her shoulder and pointed to the dance floor. She looked over to see Lincoln cutting in between Octavia and the guy. The guy left dejected as Lincoln took his place. Octavia had small smile on her face and she turned to say something to him. The two disappeared out of sight.
"It's hot in here," Clarke said, taking another long drink from her sprite.
"I think there is a balcony over there," Bellamy gestured towards the wall. Clarke got up to follow him outside. The night was muggy but the breeze offered a slight relief from the heat inside.
There was only three other people out there. Clarke made her way to the edge so she could see the view. She could see the ocean in the distance underneath the full moon. It was pretty, even with the bustling street below.
"God you are so beautiful."
Clarke turned to find Bellamy staring at her again. He reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.
She broke the eye contact and looked down at her shoes. "Thank you, Octavia did my makeup and hair to be honest."
"I don't mean just tonight." She looked back up to meet his eyes again. "You are so beautiful every day. Even when you wake up I swear to god that you are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."
"What happened to Echo?" she choked out.
"She said she never wanted to talk to me again after I made that instagram post yesterday."
"I'm sorry."
He took a step closer to her and put a hand under her hand to tilt it up. "I'm not."
Her eyes fluttered shut as he tilted his head. His lips were on hers and her hand shot to railing to catch herself.
It lasted a second before he pulled away slightly, his nose still brushed up against hers.
"Is this ok?" he whispered and she answered by reaching her hands around his neck and pulling him so she met his lips once more. She felt his hands grip her waist, trying to pull her even closer. His lips were soft and warm and perfect. One of her hands went up to his hair as she ran her fingers through the curls, something she had done before but never like this. Nothing like this.
When he pulled away and rested his forehead on hers, Clarke started to laugh.
"What is it?" Bellamy asked, a smile forming on his lips from seeing her laughing.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that."
"Well dang Clarke, you should of told me earlier."
"You should have noticed how beautiful I was earlier," she teased.
He pulled her back to him.
"I've always known you were beautiful. I was just too stupid to make you mine."
...
The next three weeks was a typical summer for Clarke. Sort of.
There was the usual hanging out at the beach. Swimming in the ocean. Playing sand volleyball. Bellamy and Clarke versus Octavia and Lincoln (who had decided that leaving Octavia was the worst decision of his life). But now when Clarke would spike it and get a point, Bellamy would run over to her, lifting her up in his arms.
There was afternoons spent all day sailing. But now it was just him and Clarke. And when Bellamy told her to watch the boom, Clarke would duck and Bellamy would remember how he had dodged a bullet with Echo.
There was walks on the beach on sunset, going to the movies, and Bellamy coming over before Clarke even woke to eat breakfast with her family. There was all this and so much more, and there was definitely a lot more affection this summer.
When it was time for Clarke to leave, it was in a way harder to leave him them usual. But then she remembered she would be seeing him in less than two months when he promised to come up on her move in day at BVU.
Clarke wrapped her arms around him one last time for the summer. She was right to think that things were going to be a lot different in the years to come. But she had a feeling that these changes were going to be for the good.