Chapter 51

Madi opened the locket then and there.

"I found this mommy. A picture of you on one side and a picture of Clarke on the other…"

"Yes…"

"But I've always had this locket, mommy. Did you or Clarke put the pictures in recently?"

"No… but I can explain."

"And then Meghan told me that maybe you and Clarke might have been more than just friends…"

Madi looked at her expectantly.

"I will explain… at home, once you've showered, had lunch, and slept for a bit"

Madi looked confused. But she let it go.

When they reached home, Madi ran up to her room to freshen up for lunch.

"Clarke. Madi opened the locket!" Lexa sent a text to Clarke.

"Uhh. Lexa, I opened it for her on the night of the recital itself, remember?" came Clarke's reply.

"Not the one you gave her babe. I'm talking out our locket. THE locket." Lexa sent back

"Holy #% !" came Clarke's reply.

"I don't know how to do this. Tell me how to do this."

"Hey. Hang in there. I think you can explain it to her. She'll understand. She's smart and pretty mature too."

"Okay, I'll try. You're allowed to think I'm crazy, but can you be here when I tell her?" Lexa sent.

"That would be a nice way to go about with this. But I'm a little caught up with Aden's thing"

That reminded Lexa.

"Oh yea. What happened, you didn't call back" Lexa sent.

"I'm still at the school. Aden got into a fight with another kid. The kids mom insists that he be suspended"

"Oh my god. Clarke, do you want me to come there? I can drop Madi off at Anya's and come there in like 10 mins"

"No no, I've got this. I'll handle it" came Clarke's reply. Soon after that another message from her

"Let me get home, and call you. We can talk about both Madi and Aden's situations then"

"Sure thing" replied Lexa.

It was around 7 pm now, and Meghan's mom would soon be here to drop Madi back home. Lexa's phone rang. It was Clarke.

"Hey" Clarke's voice sounded small, and far away

"Hey Clarke… I'm so glad you called, is everything okay?"

"Yea yea, it's all good…" Clarke fell silent then. Lexa sense something was wrong.

"Lexa can you come over for a while?" came Clarke's soft delicate voice. Lexa knew this voice. Clarke was crying.

"Yes. Yes of course. You know what, I'll bring dinner. I'll stay with you a while. I'm just waiting for one of Madi's friend's mom to drop Madi home, then we'll leave for your place. Is that fine?"

"Yea"

"Clarke, whatever it is, it'll be okay. I'm coming over. We'll sort it out."

"I know" came Clarke's reply.

"I'll see you in 20 mins" said Lexa and hung up.

When Clarke opened the door and saw Lexa, she felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Her first instinct was to throw her arms around Lexa and seek comfort, but she hesitated.

That's when she felt two little arms wrap around her hips

"Clarke, you were supposed to come pick me up from school! I thought we were going to spend the afternoon together!"

Clarke leaned down and kissed Madi over her head and said "I'm sorry bug, something came up at Aden's school and I had to wait back. I'll make it up to you, I promise" Clarke squeezed her shoulder and kissed her forehead this time.

The little gesture put a wide smile on her face.

"Okay. Where's Aden?! I've got to tell him about this reptile we studied about in school today"

"He's in his room honey, you can go upstairs and find him"

Madi ran. "Don't run on the stairs baby, girl" Clarke called after her.

When Clarke turned back around to greet Lexa, Lexa pulled her into a life-assuring hug.

And Clarke felt her insecurities melt away. She felt so over-whelmed, she began to cry.

"Your eyes, the minute I saw them I knew you'd been crying, and that you wanted to cry some more. I'm here Clarke. What happened?"

They were on the living room couch now, and Clarke was narrating to Lexa.

"Apparently the teacher entered the classroom to find Aden threw a punch right into the other boy's eye. The kid's got a black eye now and his mom kept arguing with me, telling me things like what kind of mother teaches her kid to hit other kids. What kind of fucked up family are you running, does your child not know how to behave in a classroom"

"What a bitch"

Lexa, I didn't even know what to say. Because Aden admitted to doing it, but he wouldn't tell me why he did it. By some miracle I convinced the teacher not to suspend him. But only if Aden apologized to the other boy. And he wasn't willing to do that either. So I promised the other mom that once he's calmed down and I make him understand, he will apologize."

"Clarke…"

"We came home, and I asked Aden repeatedly, but he just wouldn't tell me. And he kept yelling back at me saying it wasn't completely his fault. He then threw a tantrum to eat his food because he was angry with me now, and I lost my temper a bit with him, told him to go to his room. And now he won't talk to me. He's just been giving me the silent treatment since then."

"Clarke, is that why you've been crying?"

"I'm clearly doing something wrong Lex, I don't know why he did what he did, I don't know why he feels he can't talk to me about it, and maybe the other kid's mom was right. Maybe I am a bad parent.

Lexa held Clarke's face in both her palms and made her look at her. "That's not true. Even you know that. You've raised Aden into this beautiful human being and I'm sure he acted out due to some reason. Maybe we need to just give him some time to understand what he's done. Maybe he'll come to you on his own.

Clarke wiped at her tears. "I hope so"

"Do you want me to try talking to him?" Lexa asked.

"Will you?"

"If it'll make you feel any better" Lexa said.

"I just need someone to get through to him…"

"Okay, how about you wait here. I'll get you a glass of water. And then I'll go try to speak to him, okay?"

Clarke nodded. When Lexa stood up, Clarke caught her hand and stopped her

"Thank you" Clarke said.

"Always" Lexa said.

"Am I interrupting something?" asked Lexa from Aden's room door.

"Mommy, I was just telling Aden about the reptile!"

"Leksa! You're here!" Aden said excitedly and jumped off the bed to run into Lexa's arms.

"How's my little man doing?"

"Awesome!" he said. But Lexa could see he'd clearly forgotten the events of the afternoon.

"Aden, I wanted to talk to you about something"

"Okay…"

"Madi, honey can you go help Clarke with setting up dinner downstairs?"

"Yea sure"

"We'll be right down"

After Madi left the room, Lexa carried Aden and made him stand before her on his bed.

"Did mommy send you up here to yell at me?" he asked as he crossed his arms across his chest, already in defense mode.

Aden, can I tell you something about your mommy?

"Yes"

"She is the strongest woman I've ever known, she has a heart that's tougher than your favorite wrestlers of the world and throws a punch better than any of them could"

"What? How do you know that?"

Because when we were in school together she hit a boy who was bullying me one day. And he couldn't move his arm for a whole day."

"Woah!"

"My point is. Your mommy's a tough one. She doesn't break easily. But you know what breaks her? Hurting you. And she thinks she's hurt you and that's why you won't talk to her"

"Mommy thinks I'm wrong because I hit Chris"

"And you think you're not wrong?"

He nodded. "Why don't you want to explain to your mommy why you think you're not wrong?"

"Because I'm not sure if she'll be okay with what I have to say"

"But darling, her not knowing is even worse don't you think? She's your mom, she's got your back. No one's going to root for you more than a mother."

"But she might get angrier if I tell her why I did it"

"If you've made a mistake baby, she'll forgive you. If it was someone else's mistake, she'll even take on the whole world for you, but you need to tell her, you need to talk to her. She is on your side"

"And if she isn't?"

"If by any small chance she isn't, you have me." Lexa winked at him. He smiled and gave her a tight hug.

He then ran outside his room, and downstairs to his mommy.