Clarke POV
The rest of the week continued as the first with a slight twinge of anxiety. I shot a text once I home from practice to Raven, explaining the whole friend situation. From how she responded, I think that my secret is safe for right now. Only one of the meals that we ate until Friday she was there for, but she pretended to not know me. Huge relief off my chest!
"Finn wants to know if you need a ride to work tonight?" she leaned over to me when the boys were throwing the trash away.
"Sounds great, what time?" I whispered back
"Probably around 7, I'll text you when we are on our way." She leaned in even closer to give me a hug. "It was really nice to meet you! Let me know if you need to get away from these rowdy boys." She threw up the fake meeting shield once again.
"Will do. Now if you will an excuse me, I have to go and ace a test." I said rising from the table and swinging my backpack up. I probably looked like I was running out, but I really did have to go make a test.
There was a large lump growing in the crook of my neck from looking down for the past hour a half. Slinging my heavy backpack on definitely didn't help out the pain. I knew that barely picking up my feet while walking is one of the most annoying things, but I didn't feel like putting that much effort into walking right now. And there was nothing more blissful than collapsing on my bed and passing out.
Unfortunately, my wonderful sleep was being infiltrated by the continuous ringing of my phone. Digging blindly into my backpack, I brought it next to my face and pressed the speaker button.
"Hello?" I said gravely
"I just wanted to call and make sure that you are alive. Finn just left his apartment about five minutes ago. So probably about fifteen to twenty minutes until we are outside your place." Raven spoke from the speaker.
"Sounds great. Thanks for the heads up. See ya in a bit."
"See ya." I clicked the call closed and rolled myself out of bed. My hands followed the normal steps of taking coffee with my eyes still squinting. While the coffee was brewing, I changed into comfy clothes to warm up in. I popped the lid on my mug and put a couple outfits into my bag for this weekend. I gathered up my book for English that I needed to finish and a notebook. After lugging a less heavy bag this time, my feet took me down and out the door.
"So… a pre-med student huh?" Finn said helping everyone out of the car.
"Yup." The ride over here was quiet and slightly awkward. I flipped open my book and started to read when Finn chose to spark conversation.
"I wouldn't have pinned that for you." He said halfway to the dressing rooms
"Yeah, I have gotten that more than you would think." I slipped down the hallway and snuck into my room. Clearing off my vanity, I sectioned out spaces for my books. Collapsing back into my makeup chair and looking into the mirror, my hair was still sleeping tousled. My fingers found the hairbrush and not so gently started to work through the knots.
The coffee was definitely starting to kick in and do its job. Shortly after the club officially opened is when it had it's fuller effect. I headed out onto the floor to help serve due to the sudden burst of energy and lack of attention span. The club was really full already about thirty minutes after opening. Murphy actually looked thankful, for once, that someone had come out to help without being asked to. I picked up the nearest notepad and headed out onto the floor.
There was plenty of people to take orders from and plenty of people to jostle me around. Waiting back at the bar was a tray full of drinks to trade for some more orders. I slid the pad over to Murphy while going to balance the tray.
"Those up to do VIP. I want 60% of your drink tips for tonight!" He said raising his voice so I could hear him.
"55% percent with a fifty thrown in!" I said equally loud and started to walk away.
"75 BUCKS PRINCESS!" I heard him yell and flashed him a thumbs up. Lucky for me the path over to the stairs wasn't too crowded. Getting up the stairs with a full tray was something that Octavia made look easy. But once it was done, I was swarmed practically with people reaching onto the tray and throwing cash back onto the tray. The last couple of drinks I had to hand out to a group of girls that pre-gamed a little too were giggling and hanging on each other and threw down a wad of piles the growing pile. After a quick dilemma, I stuffed the bills into my bra and hurried out of there.
I slipped through the door of the bar and plopped down in the little alcove under the register. Murphy stuck his head down to where I was while my hand was groping around for a couple of bills that slipped from the stacks.
"Don't judge more or you are not gonna get your cut," I said sternly before he could say anything at all. He just nodded and smirked.
"Just do me a favor and tuck your legs in so that no one trips." He straightened back to get back to work. After a couple failed attempts, I managed to cross my legs and leave space to count out cash.
With the money counted, percents took, and piles divided, I emerged from the alcove and slipped Murphy's cut into his pocket.
He didn't even flinch when I did so, just setting a few drinks on the tray. "Tables 4 and 5" He what he said curtly before getting back to his customers.
This patterned continued until I could feel the coffee starting to wear off. Finishing out last of the table run, I got back into my alcove to finish the final money count. Once I slipped Murphy's cut to him, I rushed out of the bar and back to my room. Settling down on the couch, I put some headphones on and opened up my book.
The headphones were not helping what-so-ever. Every sound I could vividly hear everything that was happening about 100 feet away and through plenty of walls. I was about ready to bang my head against the wall since no one would really hear it. Slipping off my headphones was a really bad choice that I undid quickly. I padded down the hallway and opened the door, almost blown away from the music. When I had enough, retreating to my room and turn up my volume seemed like the best idea.
A hand tapped me on my shoulder after I had gotten a few pages further into my book. I turned my head up to see Bellamy looping his arm through one of my backpack straps and snatching my book out of my hand. He started to walk out the hallway without saying anything. With my headphones around my neck, I hurried out to the hallway to see him exiting into the floor. Trying to keep up with him was a difficult task for a number of people, but his height made him easy to track.
Since he just went and took my schoolwork, then he doesn't deserve for a knock on his door. I twisted the knob and barged into his office.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I said looking at him.
"Well hello to you too." He said with no expression
"Seriously what the hell?!" I said pointing to my backpack that was still on his back.
He slid the bag own and rested it against the desk and placed the book on the desk. He remained silent
"So now you are refusing to talk?! You are just going to stand there in silence!" He continued to stand there. I'm pretty sure that I could hear both of us breathing
"You're a child! First, you are mad at me, now you steal my shit and won't talk to me! Fine, I'll be back down in my noisy room!" I said turning around to the door.
"Back to the to the room where you can't hear yourself think instead of a nice quiet room. Suit yourself." He spoke up. I turned back to him to see him gesturing to the chair. I took a couple of seconds to try and compose myself.
"Why didn't you just ask if I wanted to use the quiet office?! That would be the normal thing to do!" I whisper yelled at him.
"Because I knew that this would work the fastest." He pulled the desk chair and gestured to it.
"You actually are crazy!" I said throwing my hands up as he walked closer over to the door.
"I'll come and get you a couple of minutes before you need to start warming up. You're welcome." Bellamy said in the doorway before quietly closing it.
He was right, it was almost dead quiet. I almost felt a need to reach for my phone for music, but there was a little bit of music still seeping through the walls. The chair was still pulled out when I tentatively walked over it. It wasn't as comfy as I would've picked out for an office desk, but it would have to do.
The quiet was a huge relief to have a quiet room. I had taken out a decent chunk of the book out and was able to take a couple notes on what was happening. The amount of music that came through was just enough that I could tune it out. Walking in circles around the room really did help to keep me awake and not snoozing in the chair. Unlucky for me, I didn't really realize that the door opened and someone is watching me until I had finished my circle.
"Are you ok there crazy?" I heard a deep voice speak from behind me. Not gonna lie, I was a little bit scared.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I slide my bookmark in place. "So I'm guessing that it is time to go out."
"Yeah, Raven is pacing up and down the hallway right now." His mess of curls was a halo of the club lights.
"Oh great. If you'll excuse me." I said brushing past time him and out the door. From the top of the stairs, Finn stuck out from the crowd leaning against the door of the hall. He caught my eye and his shoulders relaxed down. As I walked down the steps, he poked his head down the hallway probably trying to relax Raven.
"Oh thank god. If she didn't find you within the next minute I'm sure that Raven really would of went crazy." Finn spoke up when I got over there.
"Yeah sorry about that. Well, you saw I was up in Bellamy's office." I said stepping into the hall to stretch.
"Why were you up there anyway?" He asked with a confused look on his face.
"Trust me, it is a weird story." My hands were crossed behind my back as I bent forward.
"It's just a little unnerving I guess."
"How so?" I said continuing to stretch
"Well it's just the girls that Bellamy brings up to his office...well they-" He said scratching his arm.
"I was studying. In case you haven't noticed, this place isn't very study friendly and he has the quietest place." I said snapping at him. He took a step away.
"No I never thought of you like that, it's just that I wanted to let you know."
"Whatever, we should probably get out there before we ruin any schedules." I slightly hit him with my shoulder when I went out the door. He followed saying something, but I let all the music and people drown him out.
Nothing flowed together seamlessly like it had other night. I will take fault in speeding up the dance, but Finn refused to pick up that pace by the slightest. None of his touches were light and barely resting on me. They landed heavy and were reluctant to move from their spots. He was stiff and was my first experience of what it felt to dance with a wall.
I stormed off the other end of the stage and straight up the steps when we were done. Bellamy was at the top of them, leaning against the railing. He was too locked into a staring contest with Finn to notice the anger radiating off of me. But I did notice the eyebrow lifts from Bellamy in taunt. I tried to look over my shoulder, but frustration and the distance made my vision blurry. I went to slam the door but Bellamy caught it before.
Turning on my heel and ready to yell, I raised my hands in frustration. Bellamy was over at the bookshelf, fiddling with something.
"What's your poison?" He said quietly.
"I'm underage, I don't drink," I said curtly.
"Everyone has a poison. What is your's?" He said, his back still turned to me.
"Anything that will take this anger out quickest," I said slumping down onto the couch by the shelf. He was shuffling around more until he pulled out a glass of wine and a chocolate bar. I raised my eyebrow.
"No one can be mad while eating chocolate. Plus I know this is how Octavia relaxes when she has a stressful day." He extended them out to me and pulled the desk chair to sit in front of me. I gently took them away from him and took a small sip of the wine.
"Is your plan also to box me up so I can't go destroy anything?" The wine balanced on the arm rest and the chocolate snapped easily. I extended a piece to him which he took happily.
"Well, I don't think that it would be the best idea to have you rampaging through the club. Might scare some of the customers into shitting themselves." I gave a breathy laugh and took a bigger sip of my wine.
"Sorry about the bad mood," I said looking down into the swirling glass.
"We all have them. And if it is because of Finn, it was probably something petty he brought up."
"So I'm not an ass for getting this mad at him?" I took another bite of chocolate.
"Trust me, that isn't anywhere knew some of the disputes that I have seen him and Raven get into before. Just give it about twenty minutes, he'll be back to his 'I get along with everyone personality'." He rested his hand on my shoulder before standing up and heading back to the door. "If you need another glass, the open bottle in on the shelf and if you still need a punching bag, I'm sure that we can arrange something for you." He said winking at me before stepping out of the room.
I didn't end up dancing for the rest of the night. Hell, I probably only left the room a couple times when they were in serious need of people to help on the floor and in VIP. According to Bellamy, Raven had sent Finn home because our conversation was heard from her room. I fell into the rhythm of earlier today with Murphy: take orders from even sloppier people, collect a tray, divide the money in the alcove, repeat until almost every person in the club had some kind of drink. The tips had slowed a bit, but still a decent amount.
When I shuffled out of my room after de-clubbing myself, Bellamy was leaning against the wall across from my door. Some must've been emitted noise because I saw a smirk rise up on his cheeks. I started walking and he kept about a step behind me until we were outside. His hand touched my mid back and started moving me to the little parking lot on the side before I could wait for the ride I had ordered.
"I don't need a ride," I mumbled.
"Well when you can't even talk at your normal volume level, I think that you do. I think it would be best if you had someone you knew drive you home." He said while keeping me moving towards his car.
"It's just a waste of your time." I looked into his eyes while he held the door open for me.
"I know, just get in the car." He said while I continued to stand there.
"I told you, I have a car coming."
"I'm not gonna argue with you when you are drunk."
"I'm not drunk!" I said stomping my foot and losing a bit of my balance. His eyebrows arched up, criticizing me. After a couple more second if stubbornness, the pain in my toes won over and I got into the car. I heard Bellamy's sigh as he closed the door. After the two clicks of seatbelts, he maneuvered the car onto the street.
I kicked my shoes off as he started to drive, massaging my toes. With everything blurring together and much softer music flowing from the speaker calmed me into a small nap. What sorta shook me was the arm under my knees, but I dozed off after that too. There was something fiddling with my lanyard a few times and the clicking of door locks. The arms were replaced with my soft bed. Everything after that slipped into things I couldn't decipher.
