Chapter Eighteen: Confrontations
"Oh. It's you."
The blunt, rather rude greeting left Octavia feeling more stunned than mad. In all of the years that she had known Monty, not once had he ever looked this pissed, especially not at her. It was weird, slightly scary, and she did not like it. "I'm sorry," she murmured, shouldering her bag as she took a step back. "Maybe I should talk—"
"No," he cut her off, rubbing his eyes. Octavia paused in her retreat, watching him closely. He jerked the door open wider, just enough for her to make out the pile of laundry at the base of the staircase. "You can come in if you want, but I can't be held accountable for any radiation poisoning."
Octavia fixed him with a hard look. "What's your problem? Have I offended you in some way?"
Monty sighed deeply, running a hand down his face. This time Octavia noticed the dark circles around his eyes. "Not you directly," he admitted. He offered a dry smile, but Octavia didn't find it comforting. "You haven't talked to Jasper recently, have you?"
The sudden switch of conversation made Octavia uncomfortable. "That's kind of why I'm here to talk to you."
Monty peaked over his shoulder into the house as if to make sure no one was watching, and then he stepped out onto the front porch, closing the door behind him gently. "You need to be straight with him about how you feel." His voice was calm but his eyes were intense.
By nature, Octavia had always been fearless; she'd put a snake's head in her mouth on a dare, gone up against some pretty big guys in soccer, and now she was starting to take on more experienced challengers in martial arts. The only difference was that none of those things had made her squirm as much as she was as she stood under Monty's firm stare.
She was so used to doing things that concerned only herself; having other people's feelings riding on her was nerve wracking.
"I know I do," Octavia replied when she finally found her voice again. "How," she paused for a moment, "how is he doing?"
"A train wreck," Monty said. "What did you have that was so important that you stood him up at homecoming?"
Octavia ignored his accusing tone, instead trying to keep her eyes level with his. "I went to TriKru's homecoming. It was the same night."
Monty's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing into slits. She supposed he would have been scarier if it weren't for the way he was swaying back in forth in exhaustion. "You chose a Grounder over Jasper?"
"Hey," Octavia snapped. "Jasper never asked me. And that Grounder is my boyfriend so back off!"
Octavia realized her slip the moment Monty's angered expression went blank. She shouldn't have said that. What was he going think? What if he told Bellamy? Lincoln was her secret, the one part of her life that belonged to her and only her. If it somehow got back to her brother, all hell would break lose.
She considered denying it, but at this point there was no use. She had hesitated too long.
"Well, then," Monty's soft words surprised her. When she met his eyes, he didn't look angry. It was more like...disappointment. "I suggest you tell that to Jasper. Because if you don't stop leading him on like this, I'm going to take care of it myself."
Octavia wanted to be mad.
She wanted to be mad at Mony for the way he basically scolded her and threatened her. She wanted to be mad when he walked back inside the house without another word and closed the door in her face. She wanted to be mad at the disappointed look he gave her.
But she couldn't.
…
"I'm bringing muffins for bribery purposes if all else fails."
Bellamy glanced over at Clarke who was climbing into the passenger side of his car. Her hair was braided off to the side and she wore a classy sweater. "Can I have one?" He reached over toward the basket of muffins in her lap before she responded, but Clarke slapped his hand away before he could grab one.
"These aren't for you," she said dryly, but her eyes held a certain humour to them.
Bellamy rolled his eyes at her. "Come on, Clarke. I didn't have breakfast."
"Maybe you should eat breakfast next time then."
"Maybe if you hadn't scheduled this meeting to be so early, I would have been able to."
"Don't blame your poor time management skills on me." Using his peripheral vision, Bellamy noticed Clarke wrap one of the muffins in a napkin and set it in the cup holder closest to him. "I'll give you an ugly one," she said, "but only because you're giving me a ride there."
Bellamy didn't feel it necessary to say outloud that he would have driven her anywhere as long as she wasn't with Finn or Wells. "What happened to your car anyway?"
"Jasper," was her one worded answer. Bellamy chose not to comment any further.
Most of the ride constituted of small talk regarding upcoming student council events as well as jamming out to Queen and Boston. Despite how early he had to get up that morning, Bellamy was in a pretty good mood during the ride. It wasn't until Clarke instructed him to pull into a winding driveway that led to an enormous house that had to be worth more each month than what Bellamy has made in his entire life thus far.
"So this is where the junior superintendent spends his time, then, huh?" Bellamy's mouth felt dry as he parked the car—the driveway was so big that there were actual drawn out parking spaces. "I can't believe how spoiled this kid is."
"Yeah, well, he spends most of his time alone." Clarke unclipped her seatbelt and flung the door open.
Bellamy frowned, climbing out of the car after her. Wells was waiting for them on the porch, if it could even be called that; there were about fifteen marble steps that led to the landing and two huge pillars that supported the roof on either side of the door. Bellamy felt more like he was walking into a national monument than someone's house.
"Welcome!" Wells pulled his hands out of his hoody pocket. "I was watching out the window for you. I see you've brought Bellamy."
Bellamy could've sworn he heard contempt in Wells' voice, but perhaps he was just being moody. Clarke nodded toward the door, as if prompting Wells to open it. "He's co-president of student council, Wells. Of course I brought him with me," she said.
Ballamy snorted smugly at Wells' dumbstruck expression, but he recovered from it quickly which was boring for Bellamy. "My dad is up in his study waiting for us."
Clarke shuffled past him and down the hallway with her muffin basket hanging from her arm. She clearly knew the way to the study because she had no hesitations in leading the three of them through the giant house. Bellamy on the other hand had to spend most of the walk with his eyes trained completely on the back of Clarke's blonde head. Every time he glanced around to take in his surroundings he'd only get more angry about how nice the house was in comparison to what his mother and sister were forced to live in.
"You're more loaded than I thought you were, Jaha," Bellamy mumbled. Wells shot him a look as Bellamy expected he would, but he just ignored it. Wells wasn't particularly terrifying.
When they reached a pair of intricately carved wood doors, Clarke shoved them open without so much as a knock. Even when intense, Clarke was usually super polite so this no-nonsense, breaking down doors thing was a little new to him. It pained him to admit it, but it was kind of cool.
"Thelonious," she said firmly as she strolled into the room, "we need to talk."
Jaha looked up from his computer, the light from the screen reflecting off of his glasses. Slowly, his mouth parted into a small smile. Bellamy wanted to splash his face with hot coffee. "Clarke Griffin," Jaha welcomed, rising to shake her hand, "down to business as usual. It's been a long time."
Clarke shook his hand and then returned it to her side. "Yes, but not without good reason— you did get my dad fired."
"Clarke—" Jaha started.
"—but I'm not here to discuss that," Clarke cut him off coldly. Bellamy fought back a grin. Her viciousness towards the superintendent made him feel warm inside. "We're here about how you want to sell our school in order to create a parking garage!"
Jaha sighed, steepling his fingertips together. "Listen, Clarke, I don't want to do this any more than you do, but the fact of the matter is that I have to think about the greater good of everyone; West Arke is low on funding, and quite frankly, in better disrepair than any of the other schools in the district. The tax payers dollars allotted to education are heavily being used to try and fix that school up, but it doesn't seem to be doing much good. Just this week alone we've had two janitors quit due to not being able to handle the disrespect."
Bellamy internally groaned. For once the bastard had at least a basis of an argument. He turned to Clarke, but she only stared Jaha down with a fierce intensity. "So what you're saying is that it would be more profitable to tear down the school and over crowd the other two?" she quipped, folding her arms.
Jaha quirked a brow. "There are three others in the district, Miss Griffin."
Bellamy snorted out loud, stepping forward so that he was by Clarke's side, close enough so that he could feel her muffin basket gouging into his side. "If you're as rich as this kid is, maybe," Bellamy pointed over his shoulder at Wells, "but most of the kids who go to West Arke are middle class and even if they worked every day during their life they would still never be able to pay for a full year at Mount Weather, let alone a four year tuition. You of all people should know that, Mr Superintendent."
Clarke smiled at him slightly, but Bellamy was too focused on the man sitting in front of him to think much of it. Jaha's lips curled and his eyes were calculating. "Bellamy Blake, correct?" Jaha asked. Bellamy nodded, eyes hard. "Top of your classes; that's very impressive."
"Thanks, but no thanks," Bellamy said back.
"Listen, Jaha," Clarke said, dropping her basket on his desk, "we know that we're twisting your arm with this. You obviously need the money and what you said about West Arke being a fixer upper is true too, but what Bellamy said is important. Most of us don't have the finances to go to Mount Weather and even though it's not as expensive, TriKru had a tuition too. And there's no way that the Reapers would be able to take in over twenty-five hundred kids."
"Ah," Jaha leaned back in his chair, "you've come to barter, huh? I should've known that Clarke Griffin would have an idea other than begging."
Clarke looked like she wanted to slug him for that comment, but she stayed composed despite the trembling fist at her side. "Student Council wants to make this our project for the school year; we'll clean it up, have fundraisers to pay for any repairs, we'll advocate for school wide support, and," she paused for a beat, "and we've decided to enter the Quiz Bowl tournament to win the cash prize to make up for the profit you'd make on the parking garage."
Jaha's eyes flicked from Clarke to Bellamy to Clarke and then to Wells. "What does my son have to say about this plan?" he asked, raising his voice.
Wells straightened his posture from where he was leaning against the wall. "I'm all on board for it, dad. We want to save the school."
"Why are you three so adamant? You're all seniors this year; it's not like you're going to be going to this school next year anyway."
"But Clarke's brother will be. And so will Bellamy's sister," Wells said sharply. "As will tons of other younger siblings of kids throughout the school!"
"Not to mention you'll be firing a bunch of people," Bellamy put in, narrowing his eyes. "There are a lot of good teachers at West Arke that don't deserve to lose their jobs."
Clarke watched the superintendent with a look of determined intensity that was almost mesmerizing. Neither of them blinked, as if the first one to look away would be the loser forced to do the bidding of the winner. Eventually, Jaha unclasped his hands and sat up in his chair.
"I'll make you kids a deal," he finally said. "If you can raise $150,000 dollars, I will supply the last fifty-thousand that will help save the school. You're deadline is May 26, the same day that I'm due to sign the contract for the parking garage."
Bellamy felt an enormous weight lift off of his chest, but he kept up the poker face he had mastered in his many years of poker against Miller and Murphy. He wasn't going to give Jaha any sort of satisfaction.
Clarke, however, lost her mean stare and instead had a soft look to her now, as if she hadn't just been in stick-up-the-ass lawyer mode for the last half hour. "Thank you," she said.
Jaha nodded. Without a word, he turned back towards his computer screen and the typing of keys filled the small study.
Their hearing before the superintendent was over.
…
Jasper exited the screen.
He and Clarke had been watching an old rerun of Friends on Netflix, but she had left about halfway through the last episode when her dad called; that had been almost twenty minutes ago and now that the episode was over, he didn't have the heart to start the next one without her.
He supposed that he could get started on the next season of Fullmetal Alchemist that he had been rewatching recently, but it was also tempting to put on the new anime that he had just started. Inuyasha was sort of a guilty pleasure that he indulged in only when his sister was out.
Jasper leaned forward on the couch so that his stomach crunched in an uncomfortable way. He could still hear Clarke ranting on to Jake about her idea that will potentially save the school from destruction. Flopping down, he clicked play on the fourteenth episode of Inuyasha.
The odds that Clarke would come back anytime soon was highly unlikely so he at least had the comfort of knowing that he could get through at least one episode before he would have to go barricade himself in his room. The episode barely made it five minutes in before Jasper's phone went off, alerting him of a text message.
Normally, a text message wouldn't attract his attention as much as it did, but the last few days had been radio silence in his social sphere; he hadn't talked to or seen Octavia since before homecoming and Monty had been steadfastly ignoring him. Clarke was in the kitchen so it couldn't have been her. Maybe it was Abby?
If it was, he wanted to make sure to put in a request for a pizza pick-up on her way home from the hospital. Pizza and soda were his default foods on days that he felt like lounging. He argued it was comfort food, but Clarke called him lazy (since he could cook a few things relatively well.)
He was surprised and overjoyed when Octavia's name popped up as the sender.
5:34pm.
Hey, its Octavia. Do you have a minute? I think we should talk.
Octavia.
Jasper's heart rate picked up and his hands felt sweaty. She was being uncharacteristically direct and it made him nervous. What did she want to talk about? Maybe he was over reading the tone in her message, but something told him that this wasn't going to end well...for him probably.
Should he even answer her? Maybe if he ignored her then the problem would go away. She would just forget about it and everything would be okay. No way, Jasper told himself. If Octavia cares enough to say something then she isn't going to just forget about it. Unless it was trivial? God, he hoped it was trivial.
5:41pm.
Hey! Haven't heard from you in a while. Are you okay?
What's up?
Jasper.
He hoped his attempt at normalcy would make the conversation less heavy and a bit more pleasurable, but his heart was still pounding when her response came up:
5:42pm.
I'm alright—can you come outside?
Octavia.
Jasper jumped up from the couch so fast that he saw black dots and he rammed his knee into the coffee table. "OW!" he exclaimed with a few groaned curse words.
Clarke's head shot out from the kitchen doorway, her phone pressed to her chest. "What are you doing?" she asked.
Jasper waved her off as he rubbed his knee. "Stood up too fast. Carry on."
Clarke disappeared back into the kitchen and Jasper hurried to the front door. Sure enough, when he stepped out onto the porch he saw Octavia standing at the end of the driveway with her hands in her pockets and a neutral expression on her face.
The fact that she was waiting so far away from the house and texted him to come outside was super unnerving. She had invited herself in and made herself right at home in his living room on several occasions, so why would it be any different now?
Jasper's heart dropped to his stomach as he made his way down the driveway. It was different now, he realized, because somewhere along the lines the dynamic had changed. "Hey," he said, forcing a weak smile as he stopped in front of her. His made sure to keep his hair in his face to avoid eye contact. "You could have come in you know."
Octavia shook her head sadly but firmly. "That would just add insult to injury, and I don't want to hurt you anymore than what I know I'm going to."
Jasper's eyes blinked rapidly as he looked up at her, forgetting to keep his eyes from making contact with hers. They were dark and determined. "Wha-what do you mean? Hurt me? You don't mean…"
"Listen, Jasper," she said, "you're a great person, okay? And I love playing soccer with you and hanging out with you and being your friend. But...when we started our thing," she put air quotes around it, "I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into. And even though we were never dating, I think I need to make it clear for both our sakes that I don't feel the same way about you as you do me."
Jasper felt like all of the air was being sucked from his lungs. He couldn't see straight. Sure, he had been tense about the silent treatment she had been giving him, but he hadn't suspected something of this measure until the moment he started his trek down the driveway to face her head-on. Now his biggest fear was confirmed. "Y-you don't love me?"
Octavia groaned, hugging her stomach. "It's not fair to term it as such a strong thing as love, Jasper. I was strongly infatuated by you, okay? And I do like you still, but I view you more as a brother."
Jasper scoffed, running his hand through his hair. "Your brother? You go from seeing me as a boyfriend to seeing me as Bellamy? How does that work?"
"We were never official," she snapped back. That is what was more insult to injury than anything. "And that's why people date in the first place, isn't it? To see if you're compatible enough to start a relationship."
"And you're saying we weren't compatible?" Jasper asked harshly. His emotions were all over the place at this point. Being loud and angry were the only things stopping him from bawling right there in front of her. "You sure seemed to think we were compatible when you would kiss me!"
Octavia growled loudly, stomping her foot and putting her face defiantly in Jasper's. "We only kissed a few times! And you're right! I thought that we were compatible, but that was before—" she stopped, but Jasper had already noticed her slip up.
"Before?" he asked calmly this time, not even bothering to hide the hurt in his voice. "Before who?"
Octavia refused to look at him. "I never said it was a who."
"Who?" he repeated just as calmly as before.
Octavia sighed. Jasper kept his eyes downcast at her hands; they were fidgeting. "His name's Lincoln. He helped me out of a tight spot one time and we just...connected."
"I understand."
"It's nothing against you, Jasper." She hiked a bag further up her shoulder that Jasper had not noticed previously. "But, I don't think we should hang out for a little while. Just until we both cool off."
Jasper chuckled darkly. "Don't tell me you're scared of me now."
Octavia punched him in the arm good naturedly. "No way. Take care, Jasper."
Jasper watched as she walked away from him without so much as a glance behind her. She climbed into the front seat of a small blue sports car that Jasper instantly knew was not Bellamy's. As they drove by, he caught a glimpse of a muscular African American guy in the driver's seat.
Jasper inhaled sharply as he turned on his heel and marched into the house. Clarke was on the couch with a book and the TV still projected the Inuyasha episode that he had paused when he left. Clarke glanced up at him. "How's it going? You were out there a long time."
Jasper ignored his sister and charged toward the stairs hoping that his hair was blocking the few stray tears from her as he ran by. He heard Clarke's concerned shouts after him, but he didn't respond. He closed the door to his room just as she reached him.
"Jasper! What's wrong?" Clarke pounded on the door. "Open up! Let me help!"
"Go away," he screamed angrily.
Pulling back the blankets on his bed, Jasper belly flopped into the mess and allowed himself to sink into the plush of pillows and the comforter. The tears spilled over his cheeks and drenched his pillows. He really hoped his mom brought back pizza now. He was in desperate need for some comfort.
3/11/17
