Clarke POV
I was typing furiously on my laptop when Wells walked back into my room. I didn't notice him because I was so tunneled until he rested his hand rested on my shoulder. I jumped a little bit at the touch, but relaxed when I saw that it was him. I took a couple of breaths before sliding my computer down my legs and willing myself out bed.
"I'll just wait outside while you get changed." He said softly and walked out again.
I looked down at my clothes, noticing that I was still in the outfit I had borrowed from Octavia. I shrugged them off and reached for a pair of white pants and a black top. I pulled my hair back messed up the ponytail. The girl staring back at me finally looked like Clarke again, except somehow even more tired that what I normally looked like. I pulled a hoodie off the back of the door and went out into the hallway. We walked in step with each other all the way across campus, a comfortable and well-needed silence rested between us.
The sushi place was not as packed as I imagined that it would have been. There were still plenty of people to where it might start to be uncomfortable, but no one was sitting on top of each other. The building was very narrow, but long, with three long tables and stools stretching the lengths that the food counter and kitchen didn't take up. Jasper was standing on one the stools towards the back, waving to us. We brushed past people and found three extra stools waiting.
"Great to see you guys. Jasper is about to have a conniption if he doesn't get food here soon." Monty said tapping two of the stools.
"For warning, both of us never eaten sushi before. You might have to take it easy on the two of us." Wells said taking the seat closer to everyone and pulling the stool next to him out for me.
"How have you guys never had sushi before?! We live in Seattle and you haven't had sushi?!" Jasper said as he bolted up from the table. "I have to remedy that right now." Monty tried to reach and grab him, but Jasper was already slipping up to the counter and waiting to order.
"I'm sorry about him. I must have forgotten to remind him to take his meds this morning." Monty said with a sigh.
"Don't worry about it. Roommates can only do much before turning into a parent. And I think that is the last thing that Jasper needs." Wells said taking a sip of one of the waters that were on the table.
"I didn't know that you two were roommates. You must have gotten really lucky with the random selection to get such a good friend out of a roommate." I said fidgeting with the lace of my hoodie.
"Oh, I and Jasper have gone back since kindergarten. If we didn't get a room after requesting to be together, I don't know what both of us would do." Monty said fondly.
"Oh if only roommate story was like that," I said quietly
"Did you get stuck with someone awful?" Monty said with pity in his voice.
"She wasn't awful. She just didn't really care. Her parents were forcing her to go and that just made her not care more. It's a shame too, she was such a good writer. I think the last time that we talked she was going to get an agent, but that was like a couple weeks ago."
"So you have just been living by yourself since then? Doesn't it get lonely?" Monty questioned.
"I like the quiet which is nice. It is weird sometimes to look over and see an unused bed with no one there. But other than that I don't have to worry about weird strangers in my room at any hour." I ended the last part with a bit of a chuckle to lighten the mood slightly.
"So you are meaning to tell me," Jasper said placing plates of food down in front of all us, "That you basically have a single but with two beds and you haven't even thought about pushing them together and making a mega bed? Or that you haven't stacked the mattress so that it doesn't feel like you are sleeping on rocks?"
"Well, they told me that I could be assigned a roommate at any time so that I couldn't do that," I said and looked around for silverware. Monty slid me a set of chopsticks. "Oh come, one guy, you are gonna embarrass me by making me try and learn a new utensil."
"Oh yeah!" Jasper said popping a piece of sushi into his mouth. I fiddled with them for a good minute before Monty took over and assisted me with my grip. Needless to say that I still struggled to get the first piece into my mouth. After I did lift it to my mouth, it was yet another obstacle to swallow the piece of sushi. I wasn't put off by the taste, but the texture was something that was totally foreign to me. When I finally swallowed it there was a round of applause waiting for me.
"So what do you think?" Jasper said as I took a drink of water.
"I'm not exactly sure just yet," I said repositioning my chopsticks and going in for another piece.
Dinner went well for the rest of the night, filling itself with laughter and good times. When we got into the hours closer to closing is when we started to wander back to our doors. Monty and Jasper lived on this side of campus, leaving just Wells and me to walk in the other direction. The night had cooled off quite a bit, leaving a nice breeze in the air compared to the hot restaurant. The walkways very comfortable and quiet, the only sounds coming from us was the sound of our shoes hitting the walkways.
It wasn't weird that Wells followed me into my building, but normally he didn't come all the way up to my dorm room. I didn't think anything of it though, I just let him into my room. He settled down on the bed across from mine, stretching out.
"Thanks for coming out tonight, it was nice to spend time with you." He said as I straightened up some of my desks.
"It's no big deal. It was nice to get out and just hang with people. Definitely, something that I am going to take advantage of more of." I said finishing up and crawling up onto my bed.
"Well from the sound of it, Jasper and Monty are gonna keep planning stuff. They really like you, which is really cool."
"Oh, it will be interesting to see what they have up their sleeves," I said chuckling and leaning my head against the wall.
"You look tired. Do you want me to head out?" He said gesturing to the door.
"I now it seems rude, but I really am tuckered out." He nodded and stood up from the bed. He walked over to my bed, patted my knee and walked out the door. I stared at the door until I noticed the flashing light on my phone. I turned it over to find a text sent from Octavia, well over a couple hours ago, telling me that the club wasn't opening up tonight. Flicking out of that text, Bellamy's name flashed right under Octavia's. I clicked it without thinking and started at the keyboard that popped up.
"I just need to tell everyone but I just need the right time". I typed up and looked at before I had the courage to hit the send button. I closed the app and flicked over to twitter. I was scrolling through an article on Rosalind Franklin when a text emerged from the top. I pull down the notification bar and saw it was from Bellamy. "Sure thing", it read. I tossed my phone to the side and rested my head back against the wall. My eyes closed and drifted off to sleep.
Finn POV
The place was definitely shady. Glass crunched under my feet as I moved through the abandoned house. The whole house creaked in the wind, sending my nerves even further on edge. "Hello?" I spoke to the empty house. I took a step forward and something pushed me into the back of my head. I felt the glass scrape across my face and neck as I collapsed. Something heavy swung into the side of my head before I could regain my bearings, knocking the daylight out.
When I shook the grog off, I couldn't move. I was sitting in a chair, my hand tied behind the back and my legs tied to the front legs of the chair. Knowing that struggling against them probably wouldn't get me anywhere was logical, but I wasn't thinking logically right now.
"People always struggle. Do people just think that they are just for the show sometimes? Like I would waste the time to fake tie knots for you to get out easily?" A soft female voice said somewhere in the darkness that surrounded me.
"Who is there?" I shouted
"Well that doesn't matter too much now does real question is who are you?" the voice spoke again.
"I was told to go to that address at that time. I was supposed to meet a Lexa there. My name is Finn"
"What information were you to bring Lexa?"
"Information on Bellamy Blake, I have an offer that would help the both of us." There wasn't a response for a while, just silence. Unexpectedly, the lights kicked on and blinded me for a few minutes.
When my eyes finally stopped hurting, I was able to look up without too much pain. I felt a slight throbbing in my head from earlier and when I twisted my head to the side, there was a sharp pain in my neck. A woman stepped out from one of the few shadows, the black of her clothes blended seamlessly into them. She walked over to me and her shadow cast over me.
"What information do you have?" She said curtly, her mouth barely moving.
"I'm guessing that you wanna make more profit and keep him on a tighter leash. There is a new dancer that he has his eye on, that would be an easy person to get to."
"And the name of this new dancer?" Her head cocked slightly to the side with intrigue.
"Clarke Griffin." I breathed out. She nodded and waited a couple seconds before speaking again.
"So what do you want out all of this? You said that it would benefit both of us."
"I want you to show the true Bellamy to Clarke in the process. He is using his darkness to shroud her from who he really is. I want her to see how much of a monster he is." I saw a smirk creep across her face and a chuckle emerge.
"Look, kid, I don't do revenge if a girl just turned you down for someone better looking with deeper pockets. You are a gonna have to look somewhere else if that is what you want." She turned away from me and started to strut away from me. No, she had to hear this!
"Wait, Bellamy is Lexa's most problematic dealer right?! What is a better way of controlling him then making someone he cares about the target. Clarke doesn't know about even an eighth of some of the things that go on in that club. Bellamy has instructed that we all keep it from her. Why else would he do that? He is protecting her!" She stopped and turned back around.
"So you are willing to use this girl as a bargaining chip? You are willing to place this girl that you too have feelings for to keep her from some guy. Do you really know how stupid you sound?"
"Well, I figure that since she is the driving force with what needs to be done, he won't let anything happen to her." She scuffed and pondered the deal for a little bit. Sweat was starting around my wrist bindings.
"I will look into it, but I don't want you to get you hopes up. I'll contact you if I'm going to proceed with anything."
"That's great," I said a smile stretching across my face. "So um… what exactly am I supposed to do about leaving." I said shaking my bindings a bit.
"Oh let me take care of that for you." She said walking back over to me.
"Thanks, this really means a lot."
"I'm sure it does." She said when she was towering back over me. She started to raise her fist and brought it to my head before I could protest at all.
Clarke POV
I had made it through to Tuesday without any mention or remembrance of work after the final text from Bellamy. I had continued back into my more college schedule and added a few more activities. Now I actually started going to the gym again, mainly with Wells, to make sure that I stay in shape and there was less suspicion on me. Monty and Jasper, as well as a couple more random people, started sitting with us for any meal that they were available for. It felt like a completely normal college experience, I was finally being a normal student. Except when I got that damn text.
"Hey! Most of us are meeting up to work out some new choreography and just rehearse. Wanted to know if you would join us? Oh, by the way, this is Finn." I stopped dead on the way back from the laundry room.
"Any info on when or where?" I typed nervously
"Raven got an owner to let us their studio for a couple hours tonight in the college area. I think she said at like 7. You in?" I didn't have class, but I was supposed to have gym time with Wells tonight.
"Well you might wanna give me the address so that I can show up," I replied
He sent back a picture of a handwritten address that could possibly have been worse than my handwriting. I knew the place, I had practiced there a couple of times when my old studio was having repairs.
"See you then!" I texted in response
"See ya!" He responded back a little too quickly. I plopped my phone into the hamper, repositioned the basket, and continued back up the steps. Once back inside, I folded everything up and tried to cram everything into the limited drawer space. My eyes flicked over to the extra set of drawers and instantly regretted it. But my feet when faster than my conscious and I took the last stack and placed it in the top drawer. It's not that bad Clarke, I probably won't get a new roommate in the middle of the year.
I texted Wells to get out working out.
"How much would you hate me if I wanted to tap out tonight? I don't think that I could even drag my body there tonight with how tired I am." I set the phone aside, knowing that it would take him at least ten minutes to see the text. I went back to check the time to see that he had replied.
"I get it. Sleep does sound really good actually. Still wanna get dinner before?"
"Sure. Pasta?"
"Sounds great."
There was still plenty of time left until my evening was going to start to get busy. As a treat to my, I clicked on the long forgotten button for Netflix and settled in. While I made myself comfy, I made the choice to start a show, Sons of Anarchy, that I hear one of the girls talking about in the laundry room. Armed with my back scratcher for a longer reach, the lights flicked off and blankets grew higher up around my shoulders.
Three hours and about four episodes later, I didn't want to leave my bed to get food. Only the excessive amount of beeping from my alarm across the room was able to pull me out. I still had about thirty minutes until I had to get down to the mess hall. But reluctantly I slipped on my shoes and pulled my hoodie over my shoulders. A cold wind had bit into the air, pushing my hood up for me. The trip across the lawn was quick to thanks to the cold wind and me not being entirely dressed for the weather.
Dinner was already waiting for me at the table with Wells. He ordered me a normal spaghetti with pesto sauce and mixed vegetables. He talked for most of the time which was good. Apparently, his humanities professors had let the students split into teams and debate any ethics in science practices. Wells teamed himself up with Monty and Jasper, which is where I finally learned of their origin stories.
"So how many people revealed their true colors in class today?" I asked twirling the last couple of bites out of my bowl.
"Oh, just about everyone that wasn't a science major." he said chuckling.
"As long as you are spreading the right message, there will still be the ignorant," I said once I had swallowed my bite. "Speaking of the troublemakers, where are they? They normally don't miss a meal."
"They said that they something that they are being paid to make something for some party club. I think it was something that they are bribing with to get into the club. "
"Well good luck and good riddance," I said brushing off what he had said and digging back into my pasta.
After the two of us had finished our food, they split of our two separate way. I had about forty minutes till 7, just enough time to change and get to the studio. I tapped to call a ride while quickly throwing articles of clothing off and new pieces on. While jogging down the stairs, I threw my hair up into a ponytail. The car that I slide into definitely had a musky smell to it, but nothing that I couldn't handle.
The outside of the studio was the same as I remember, it looked like a bank. Mainly since it was an old bank, but the studio still hadn't done anything to the exterior. The inside had been a bit more modernized with steel pillars and the exposed brick. My hands traveled to my ponytail, twisting it up into a bun as I walked down the hall towards music. I fastened the bun and stepped into the room to be greeted by my co-workers.
They weren't dancing like anything that we did at work. They were just awkwardly dancing around and just having a fun time. They were listening to probably the pop top 100 charts and having just the grand time. I slid my stuff down by theirs and just fell into the rhythm as well. It was a couple of minutes after I had joined when we stopped. We took a few minutes to catch our breath before stretching out. The music had kicked over to classical music by default, making me feel more at home.
"So we need a couple of ideas for possible new dances per request of our lovely bosses," Raven spoke up as most of us had finished our stretching.
"The people are mostly blacked out, I doubt that they even remember what club they are in most of the time," Miller spoke up.
"Well, we just have to do it regardless for the couch sitters. Sex sells, so an all female and all male should be added to the list. Perhaps we can get away with just switch some couple and routines out to throw King Bellamy off our backs for a bit." None of us spoke against her because they were actually good ideas. All of us nodded to what she. "Great, we'll go upstair and work on all girls."
"Great, we'll go upstair and work on all girls."
"How come you guys get to wander around?" Finn said, still stretched out on the ground.
"Because we don't need the owners to be mad because the art might be ripped off the walls." We all bent and grabbed our water bottle before scurrying out of the room.
Since we were already towards the end of the hall, I started moving up the stairs. They started to follow me without question. When we got to the second level, I tested the first door to find it open. I reached toward the light switch and illuminated the room.
"How did you know this room would be open?" Harper said
"Lucky guess?" I offered to them, "I saw the balcony when I walked in and I figured that there were more rooms." I walked over to the bar and stretched out just a little bit more.
"So what are we going to be aiming for? Are we gonna target both sexes or just one?" Harper asked.
"Well I think that we should try and hit everything, but we all know that guys normally tip better so it might not too bad to cater to guys," Raven said.
"I'm good with that. So how exactly are we gonna achieve that?" I said pressing my back against the bar. Raven looked at me like that for a tiny bit.
"Just like that. Use one of the stages that we normally don't use, probably the one opposite of the bar. Maybe go a little bit more burlesque." Raven said
"That could work. Are you thinking more of a free for all or slight choreography?" I said pushing myself off the bar.
"I think that keeping it as choreographed but natural would be the best idea," Raven said while lining up her back up to the mirrors. I rolled the bar away and joined with Harper.
It was different to figure out choreography with everyone backed up against the wall. But after about thirty minutes we got into a rhythm. The dance started to really come together even if it wasn't that long of a dance. I was a little dizzy after running it a couple of times with the amount of hair flipping that was happening. The rest of practice we were back downstairs and working through different couples. I partnered with Harper and for the most part tripped over myself. I had finally started to get used to dancing with Harper, everyone had decided that it was time to end.
"I didn't want to say anything in front of everyone, but did you know that there was a picture of you in the hall?" Finn said standing next to me while I packed up my stuff.
"Yeah, I danced here for a couple months while my old studio was being renovated."
"Just checking. And I'm sure I already know the answer but-"
"Actually," I said turning my phone back on and canceling my ride. "I think I'm gonna take you up on that. I have spent plenty of taxis recently." He smiled and stuck his hand out to me.
"Where to?" He said once we were all in the car, hand resting on the back of Raven's seat.
"University of Washington." He blinked at me and just turned around
"Good thing you are the same stop as me." She winked at me.
Finn POV
"Are you sure that there isn't a lot closer to your dorm?" Finn said parking.
"Trust me, I would definitely love it if there was one. Thank you so much for the ride." She said crawling out and gathering her stuff.
"No big deal. Let me walk you to your building."
"Oh, you don't have to do that. I've done it a million times before."
"Well, you can make it a million and one some other time," I said flashing a smile at her. She had a small shy smile on her lips and her hair swung around her face as she situated her backpack.
"So how long did you dance for? You looked younger in that picture." I said sharing the walkway with her.
"My mom enrolled me in classes as soon as I could walk. Her friends like to joke that she could've just brought me into her practices as well and kill two birds with one stone, babysitting and ballet." Her smile grew a little more at the memory she must be drawing up in her head.
"So you mom was a dancer as well?" I said turning my head to her in the dark gaps between lights.
"Yeah. She has been with the Pacific Northwest Ballet since she started out of high school. She doesn't dance too much anymore, but she helps to teach the younger students."
"So it was born into you."
"Whether I wanted to or not."
"So why quit dancing?"
"Well, I guess now I really haven't. As much as I love dancing and loved ballet, I guess that I always knew I wanted to help people. During my high school years, one of mom's old high school friends let me shadow her practice as a pediatrician. Being a doctor just clicked with me then."
"No backlash for not wanting to adorn the tutus?" I questioned
"She always wanted what my heart wanted. She was sad that I wouldn't be on the stage anymore, but she understood. She thought that my brains shouldn't also go to waste for the sake of limited years on the stage."
"Such beautiful dark poetry Clarke. I didn't know that you also took inspiration from Poe as well." I said overdramatically.
" Oh shut up," She said shoving my arm lightly. "What about you?"
"What about me?" I said
"You told me that you danced ballet as well. Why did you stop?"
"I got into a car crash with Raven in junior year of high school. I dislocated both my shoulders, had to wear a neck brace and shattered my left knee."
"Oh. I can see why you can't dance ballet anymore."
"I can a little bit, but not anywhere near what they want for companies. So now I work in a gym during the day and the club on weekends."
"I'm sorry. That couldn't have been an easy transition for you."
"I got through it with the help of Raven and my family. Plus dancing now helps to make me think that I didn't totally end my career."
"Even if we are just dancing in front of drunken teens every weekend," she spoke up, making me laugh. "This is me. Thank you for walking me to my dorm."
She was stopped in front of the nicer dorms, key card in hand.
"No problem. Goodnight!"
"See ya!" She closed the door and bounced away. Well, she probably wasn't bouncing, I think that I had just imagined that. Once I had turned the corner around one of the buildings, my phone was glaring up at me until I clicked it on and dialed.
"What?!" Her harsh voice erupted from the phone.
"I just got some more information about Clarke. She is a pre-med student at the University of Washington, Stevens Hall."
"Great." I hear the line die and lowered the screen from my face. I was in between two of the light posts. When my phone fell asleep, I was engulfed in darkness as I looked back up to her building.
