"What?" Clarke managed to stammer out despite her teary state.

"Fake date. I meant fake date me." Bellamy quickly assured her as he started to panic. He felt a little queasy and his heart was pounding. This had been a stupid idea. "I don't know, I thought it was a good idea. You could get back at him, pretend it didn't matter, save face, I...it doesn't matter. Stupid idea." Bellamy was so flustered he could barely think straight. Clarke being curled up in his lap was not helping the situation in the slightest.

"No..." Clarke wiped her face and looked like she was stopping crying. "No, Bell, that's a great idea. I mean, Finn would hate it. He never liked you. I could get back at him." Bellamy was sort of keen on the idea of hurting Finn, but he was thinking more along the lines of punching him in the face.

"I wasn't thinking it through Clarke, forget it." Bellamy tried to dismiss her by getting up as she was less upset now, and separating himself physically from her made him think a little better.

"Please Bellamy, I'm begging you, I don't know why I didn't think of it before, it's brilliant!" Clarke actually smiled. "I'd do anything, please. Pretend to date me for a little while just until this whole thing is forgotten."

Bellamy realized he did need something from Clarke. Really badly, but hadn't wanted to ask her before. "Look Princess, Octavia needs help with English at school. If you help her get her grade up, I can help you." Bellamy was trying to think about Octavia, and how this was for her best intentions when in actual fact it was probably, okay certainly, more for him. Just the idea of dating Clarke, even if it was fake, was getting his heart going.

However the idea that she would be faking feelings for him had to be considered. Bellamy wasn't sure how much of that he could take. He'd want it to be real, and he'd get hurt. All he could do would be to try and distance himself a little. They could act how they'd usually act but with maybe a little more physical contact.

Bellamy gulped. A little more physical contact.

"Of course! That would be great! So you'll do it?" Clarke asked, her watery eyes staring at him, wearing him down. This was such a bad idea.

"Yes. I'll do it." He could hardly believe the words came out of his mouth. "But you have to be willing to help me out with school too, and we set some serious ground rules." He added quickly and Clarke nodded and thought for a moment.

"No kissing." She said immediately and Bellamy ignored the sinking feeling in his stomach. He told himself any man would have felt the same, because he'd just lost out on being able to make out with an attractive woman. It had nothing to do with the fact it was Clarke, he would have felt that way about any girl is what he told himself.

"Agreed." Bellamy said. "No telling our parents."

"How about holding hands and stuff like that? Too much?" Clarke said in all seriousness and Bellamy tried to think of an excuse as to why that wouldn't be too much.

"Well...if you want people to know we're dating quickly, and that we're happy maybe we should?" He wasn't convinced that sounded genuine but Clarke seemed to buy it as she nodded.

"Okay then. It can't mess up our friendship. The minute it starts to get weird we end it. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Bellamy nodded, trying to convince himself this wasn't a huge mistake and coming up short. The only thing that made him feel a tiny fraction better was the fact that Clarke had stopped crying. Hell, she looked quite happy.

"Thank you so much Bell. Words can't describe how much you're helping me out right now. You're a true friend." She hugged him tight and caught him by surprise. He hugged her back but it just made him feel guilty that his intentions weren't exactly unselfish.

"I should go." Clarke said, glancing down at the watch that used to be her fathers. "Mom will be back soon. I'll meet you outside in the morning and we can talk about it some more before we get to school?" Bellamy, not trusting himself to say anything else nodded and waved at her until she left.

He was so screwed.

"I'm so scared." Clarke said yet again as Bellamy pulled up his car into school.

"We'll be fine. Our story is solid. We're agreed on everything. It's gonna be fine." Bellamy smiled like he wasn't telling a big fat lie. He had no idea if they were going to be fine. He hoped they were. Clarke needed this.

They stepped out of the car and joined each other facing the school. A couple people were already starting to glance over at Clarke and she looked like she might start to get upset so Bellamy just went for it and took hold of her hand. One girl's mouth dropped open and Bellamy recognized her from his Bio class.

"Thank you." Clarke said quietly as they started to walk into school together. She could feel people's stares burning into her skin and she felt so bad for dragging Bellamy into all this. She felt so bad she almost pulled away and put an end to the whole thing. But actually Bellamy's strong hold on her hand was very reassuring and she didn't want to let go.

"Clarke!" Harper's voice chimed from the side of them. Harper's smile dropped a little when she saw their hand's intertwined. "Bellamy! What...When did this happen?" Bellamy nodded at Clarke who took a deep breath and told their carefully rehearsed story.

"I found out that Finn was cheating on me. And I went to Bellamy for comfort and we walked and realized that we actually wanted to be with each other. I always knew Finn wasn't right for me, and I now know that Bellamy is." Clarke gave his hand a little squeeze but it barely registered with Bellamy who felt like suddenly he'd received a large sting. Clarke had sounded so real. He told himself it wasn't. It was a fake relationship with fake stories and fake feelings. Feelings that he had to fake to.

"I'm so happy for you too." Harper said with no more questions. She wasn't too interested in the details thank god. However Harper did spot what she assumed would be trouble behind the couple and she was a bit more interested in that. She quickly nodded behind Bellamy and Clarke's heads so they looked around.

Finn and Raven.

Finn was looking cocky as hell, Bellamy thought but Clarke was trying to focus on not looking upset at seeing them together. Raven was looking highly uncomfortable. She was the new girl around here and everybody already knew who she was because they were too nosy to keep out of it.

Clarke felt marginally better when she saw the smug look on Finn's face drop like a brick when she saw her holding hands with Bellamy. She even dared smile at him as he headed over, despite Raven's obvious effort to convince him otherwise.

"Clarke?" Finn said like he couldn't believe it was her. He shot a filthy look at Bellamy who decided just to ignore it. He was too pissed at him right now. "Clarke, I was wondering if I could have a word with you."

"I think you said everything the other day Finn, when I caught you with your throat down her mouth." Clarke spat out, letting her anger vent, assured by Bellamy's hand in hers. Raven looked so confused. Clarke realized she had no idea what they was going on. Finn hadn't told her.

"You just ran out, you didn't give me a chance to explain." Finn tried to reason but Bellamy got a little closer to him and spoke before Clarke had a chance.

"It sounds like she doesn't want to talk to you Collins, so why don't you back off?" He was a bit taller than Finn so he was hoping this would make him a bit worried and he'd back off but he didn't.

"Finn, what's going on?" Raven asked from the side and Finn looked like he'd only just remembered she was there.

"What's going on Raven is that your Finn here has been dating Clarke since he moved here."

"What?!" Raven burst out and turned to Finn. "You've been seeing somebody else?"

"Raven, I can explain! It wasn't..." Finn started but Clarke couldn't contain herself.

"What? It wasn't your fault? Need I remind you, it was you who asked me out, it was you who kissed me? It was entirely your fault!"

"I can't believe you." Raven spat at Finn and then stormed off, turning everybody's attention to Bellamy, Finn and Clarke. People started whispering to each other and it was just making Bellamy more angry.

"Clarke, what the hell?" Finn yelled.

"What the hell? She had every right to know!" Clarke yelled back, not really caring who heard.

"Screw you Clarke, God, you're such a bitch." Clarke didn't register Bellamy's hand leaving her own until she heard it colliding with Finn's face. He yelled out in pain and stumbled back quickly, hitting a couple of bystanders behind him.

"Don't you dare call Clarke a bitch!" Bellamy hurled at him. "That's my girlfriend you're talking about." He said, taking hold of Clarke's hand once more. She wasn't sure how she felt about all this, but she did get a sense of satisfaction seeing Finn's face bright red on one side.

"Bellamy Blake, what is going on here?" A stern voice bellowed from behind him.

"Ah, Principle Jaha." Bellamy tried to say brightly. "I can assure you, if we step into your office, I can explain everything." Bellamy smiled the biggest smile he could manage. He gestured towards the office door, trying to make a joke about the whole thing. "Shall we?"

Hope you're liking this so far, thanks a million for all the positive feedback so far! :)