Clarke POV
It was five minutes to six and Octavia was still straightening her hair.
"Come on, we're going to be late, O," I complained, watching Octavia from the other side of the room.
Octavia had come over to get ready in mine and Raven's dorm room, since we had a private bathroom and she didn't, and she had been taking forever to do her hair. Even easygoing Raven was losing patience and pressuring Octavia to hurry up. Raven and I exchanged exasperated glances, feeling more like Octavia's prom dates than anything else.
Finally, Raven snapped. She marched into the bathroom and ripped the straightener's cord out of the socket.
"You're freaking pretty, okay?" Raven yelled.
I could hear an argument ensue, which quickly ended when Octavia gave in and marched out of the bathroom.
"Satisfied," she said, grabbing her wristlet and heading out the door.
"Yes!" Raven and I exclaimed in unison before following Octavia down the hall.
Jasper, Bellamy, and Harper had been waiting downstairs in Bellamy's SUV and questioned us about why we took so long. Raven just gave Octavia a dirty look, which made Jasper cackle from the passenger's seat.
"We're not all going to fit in here," Octavia noted, hanging out the rear door.
"I'm not driving my car," I protested. "I'm running on E."
"I'll take mine," Raven volunteered.
"I'll ride with you," Jasper quickly hopped out and offered Octavia shotgun.
"Dude!" Bellamy groaned. "You're gonna do my like that?"
"He's so whipped," Octavia snickered, climbing into the passenger's side and giving Bellamy a knowing look.
Bellamy led the way and Raven followed close behind. It was only about a ten-minute drive to the Ely Center, but traffic made the trip take a little longer than expected. Bellamy had a habit of turning the heat on high and rolling down the windows. Why, I didn't know, but it made the car extremely noisy so none of us could really have a conversation too easily.
"You look great," Harper smiled.
"What?" I yelled, unable to hear her over the wind blowing through the car.
"I said you look great!" she said louder.
"Oh, thanks! So do you!"
"These kinds of things make me nervous!"
"Me too!" I groaned.
Harper reached into her satchel and pulled out a silver flask.
She took a swallow and the held the flask out to me. "Something to take the edge off?"
I was a little skeptical at first, but I figured what the hell and took a drink. She offered some to Octavia who refused her flatly.
"I never drink before nine," Octavia sneered.
"O, be nice!" I scolded her.
"Well, I don't."
"Sorry, she's wealthy," I apologized.
We arrived at the Ely Center a little past six-thirty. Lexa's showing was at six, so we'd already arrived a little later than I wanted. We had all been so busy that I hadn't even noticed how great everyone looked. We were all dressed to the nines. Even Jasper was actually wearing nice slacks and a button-down shirt, which was a big change from his usual hoodie and jeans. I couldn't help but feel proud that my friends cared so much about Lexa's exhibition. I knew Lexa didn't really have a lot of close friends at New Haven U, so it really made me happy that everyone was trying to include her.
The Ely Center was so beautiful inside. I'd only been there once for a school project and I had forgotten how charming it was. The building looked like an old 15th century chapel with dark wooden walls, cathedral ceilings, and crosshatched windows. There was a set of worn, wooden stairs to the left and a maze of dimly lit rooms straight ahead, which is where we all went.
"Where's Lexa?" Raven asked.
"Around here somewhere," I replied, searching the foyer for her.
The place was more crowded than I thought it would be. I couldn't believe how many people had showed up for the exhibition, a lot of them looking rather fancy too. There were a lot of older, very chic individuals holding champagne glasses and staring down their pointy noses at the photographs on display.
Everyone else had wandered up ahead when suddenly Harper came up beside me while I was rounding a corner into another room and took hold of my arm. "Oh, my God," she exclaimed, pointing toward a funny looking man with large-framed glasses and wrinkles around his eyes who was admiring a photograph in the far corner of the next room. "That's A. D. Coleman."
"Who?" I asked.
"A. D. Coleman? The famous writer and critic?"
I shook my head. "Still not ringing any bells."
"He's only written like two thousand essays on photographic criticism," said Harper, somewhat giddy. "What the heck is he doing in a place like this?"
"Is he really that famous?"
"Oh, Clarke," Harper sighed, squeezing my arm a little tighter. "I have so much to teach you."
We both started laughing at that when suddenly I heard someone say my name. I looked up and there was Lexa. She was wearing an elegant black dress and her hair was smoothed and pulled back. She looked stunning. She was standing in the room adjacent, staring questioningly at me and Harper. I quickly realized how it looked with Harper holding my arm and I quickly pulled away from her. I hoped Lexa hadn't gotten the wrong idea, but from the look on her face she definitely had.
Lexa POV
"Clarke," I said, taken aback when I saw her arm-in-arm with another girl.
Clarke quickly pulled her arm away when she saw me looking at the two of them and came up and hugged me.
"This is so cool, Lex. Isn't this just amazing, Harper?" Clarke seemed a little overenthusiastic, like she was trying to play off what had just happened.
"Harper," I greeted the strange girl coldly, sticking my hand out. "Nice to meet you," I shook the girl's hand firmly, angrily almost, then cleared my throat steadily, perceiving the awkwardness that had just set in. "How do you two know each other?"
Clarke and Harper eyed each other skeptically.
"Through Jasper," said Harper. "We hung out last week and turns out we have a lot in common. Don't we, Clarke?" Harper smiled at Clarke, like it was a smile just for Clarke to see and not me. Like she wanted me to see the intimacy of it and provoke me. Maybe I was reading too much into things, but maybe I was right on the mark.
"We both like art," Clarke said, uneasily. "Oh, and did you know A. D. Coleman is here?"
I didn't answer. I just stared at the two of them. I didn't care about A. D. Coleman right now. I didn't even care about the exhibition anymore. All I cared about was finding out why Clarke had shown up to my showing with another girl.
It grew painfully awkward between the three of us and I couldn't take the silence anymore.
"Harper, would you excuse us for a second? Clarke, I need to talk to you. Alone."
Without even checking to make sure Clarke was following me, I marched through the gallery toward the foyer and up the creaky wooden steps to the floor above. Clarke was right behind me the whole time, trying to keep up. On the stairs, she kept trying to get my attention, but I ignored her. I didn't want to make a scene especially in front of my professors and peers. When we finally reached top floor landing, Clarke grabbed my shoulder.
"Lexa, stop," she begged.
"Who is she?" I asked, livid.
"Harper? She plays soccer with Jasper."
"How long has that been going on?"
"How long has what been going on?"
"That. That thing downstairs. I saw you holding hands."
"We weren't holding hands. She just – she grabbed my arm. We were just talking and having fun."
"I had a lot of fun with you too in the darkroom. But we were just friends too, right?"
Clarke stared at me silently for a moment. She looked so incredibly hurt and confused. I knew I was letting my jealousy get the better of me, but I couldn't help it. I felt betrayed and embarrassed, and I had good reason for it.
"Lexa, you said you wanted to be friends, remember? Not me. I wanted to be with you that night at the police station. I kissed you, remember? But you told me you couldn't trust me – that you wanted to wait. So, isn't that what we're doing? Waiting?"
"You can say whatever you want, but I saw how she looked at you. I'm not an idiot."
"Oh, my God. Nothing is going on with me and Harper," she argued.
"This is why I didn't even want to tell you about the showing in the first place."
"Oh, so you didn't want your friends here supporting you?"
"Your friends, Clarke. Not mine. They don't even like me."
"That's so not true. They care about who I care about."
"And you care enough about me to show up with some random girl to one of the most important nights of my entire life? And by the way, of course I knew A. D. Coleman was coming tonight. I also know that he could get me some really good connections if he liked my work so I could study real photography instead of fucking photojournalism. I can't believe you, of all people you're doing this to me tonight."
"Lex, please try to understand."
Clarke had gotten close enough to me that I was able to smell a hint of alcohol on her breath. Out of everything else, that tipped me over the edge.
"You've been drinking?" I said, surprisingly calm.
Clarke tried to respond, looking nervously around the room for an excuse, but nothing came. She looked so trapped. I'd never seen that expression on her before. Guilt unprovoked by fear.
"I—I just had one drink on the way over. Harper had a flask and–"
I shook my head and laughed at the floor. It was the kind of laugh that comes out when the truth is so painful that all you can do is laugh at the irony of that pain.
"I'm done," I said.
"Done? What do you mean, done?" Clarke asked, a desperate tone in her voice.
I started to walk back toward the stairs, but I turned back one last time.
"I wanted to wait," I said, moving closer to Clarke and choking back tears with every step, "because I care about you more than you could possibly understand. Tonight wasn't about a stupid exhibition, or A. D. Coleman. It was about me and my past, and about you."
"What do you mean?" her eyes narrowed, sincerely.
Just then, one of the professors made an announcement downstairs for all the student photographers to gather into the main room.
"I have to go," I said, flatly, heading back down the steps.
"Lex, please talk to me?" Clarke called after me, but I ignored her and kept going.
As soon as I walked in the main room downstairs and joined my classmates at the front, I noticed Harper in the back of the room immediately leave when she saw me enter. I knew she was going to Clarke.