Authors Note: Hey guys! Thank you for your favs and reviews here's another one! :)
Based off of the prompt: "We're both baristas and sometimes I have trouble reaching for things and I show up to work one day to find a personalized stool with hearts and my name on it i hATE YOU but also thanks"
Clarke was not looking forward to her shift tonight. She just had the longest day at school and nothing had gone right for her today. First, she woke up late and didn't have time to get a coffee leaving her very tired and unfocused all morning, and then she found out she failed her big bio test that counted for fifteen percent of her grade and that she has to go to a dinner with her mom and her new fiancé this Saturday instead of finally having some time to relax from college and go out with her friends, so all in all Clarke is giving a big middle finger to the world right now.
She works at this cute little coffee place about five blocks from her apartment. She likes her job, really, the hours are good, she likes her boss and she and the other baristas have all become friends and they go out regularly for drinks. Ok so maybe when she said going out with her friends she meant her coworkers, but she doesn't have much time to socialize outside school or work so she made friends with the people at her work. In all honesty though she'd probably friends with them even if they didn't work together they're all pretty cool people except for Bellamy Blake. He's constantly teasing her about how her mom's a senator, calling her Princess and constantly making remarks about how she can almost never reach stuff on the top shelf. It's not her fault that she was built short and curvy.
She enters the shop, the bell hanging above the door indicating that someone has just come in. She sees that the shop isn't too busy, just a couple of regulars' and a few hipster kids writing on their laptops (Starbucks must have been full) and that Jasper and Monty are mid conversation since everyone in the shop currently has their coffee needs filled. They look up from their conversation to see who just walked in and both give her bright smiles, she tries but fails to return it, giving them a weird half smile half scowl without meaning to.
"Hey Clarke, is everything alright?" Monty asks coming up behind her, following her into the back room where she puts her coat.
"Yea I'm fine Monty, thanks for asking." She says trying her best to muster up a smile. She must succeed or at least give the impression that she doesn't really want to talk because he nods giving her arm a squeeze and retreating back into the main part of the shop.
She puts all of her stuff in her locker, ties her hair back and puts on the dorky baseball cap with the stores logo on the front of it. Just as she's putting the lock back on her locker a familiar voice floats through the air.
"Hey Clarke!" Octavia says practically skipping into the room. "Hey O, you're working tonight? I thought you and Lincoln had a date?"
"We did, but he got called back to the gallery for some emergency with one of the paintings so I figured I'd pick up an extra shift."
"Sounds good, I've got to get out there before Anya comes in a starts on me. That's the last thing I need right now." Though Anya was a good boss and was really easy-going when it came to most things, she didn't tolerate it when people weren't taking their jobs seriously.
Walking up to the counter Clarke sees a few customers heading inside and puts on her best 'I'm so happy I have rainbows and sunshine coming out of my asshole' smiles and greets the customers. She takes their orders and puts the money in the cash handing over the slip of paper to Monty so he can make their drinks.
Clarke had the late shift tonight so she works from 4:00pm to 11:00pm. The first five hours aren't too bad, they get the occasional customer who enjoys an evening coffee or is there on brief coffee date. The last two hours are always the worst though. The shop is almost always dead and the only people who come in are students needing their caffeine fix for all night study sessions or cramming every last minute they have into finishing big projects. She's been their more times than she can count and is grateful that for once it's not her getting an anxiety attack over having to finish an essay.
Jasper and Monty left soon after she came, leaving her to work with the Blake siblings for the night. Bellamy had come in shortly after Octavia, mumbling about how ungrateful some of his students were. He's the TA for the sophomore Greek Mythology class at their college and often stays back to help the students to ensure they understand it properly. Though Clarke dislikes Bellamy in many ways (not true at all her brain tells her) she admires how passionate he is about History and Mythology. It is one of his more redeeming qualities. She enjoys when he tells them stories on nights out, his eye's light with passion as his hands flailing in every which way to emphasize the points in the story. She truly believes he will make a great teacher one day.
Octavia has been chatty as always asking her about her day and then once she was done hearing about it, proceeds to call Professor Jaha "A useless asshole who doesn't know what he's doing" for giving her an F. She and Octavia had become close and it was moments like these that reminded her why she chose this whirlwind of dark hair and sass to be her best friend. Bellamy had been his usual teasing self, dropping the occasional Princess here and there, but nothing that made Clarke's day worsen. That was until about fifteen minutes before she left. They were all closing up, cleaning out the machines, wiping up the tables and mopping the floors when she was telling O more about how she really didn't want to go to dinner with her mom's new fiancé Marcus when Bellamy made a comment that was totally unacceptable.
"What, is he not good enough to replace Daddy?" He had said in an ignorant tone.
Bellamy and the others didn't know about what happened to her dad, just that he wasn't around anymore. The only one who knew the truth was Octavia and that was because she was Clarke's best friend. She had told her that her dad died when she was 15 while saving her from a burning building when their house caught on fire. He and her mom had been divorced for about a year at the time so Clarke was living with him and visiting her mom on the weekends. She had been home alone doing homework in her room when she smelt smoke and figured out that something was burning. When she went to see what it was she discovered she was trapped because the stairwell was on fire and it was the only way to get downstairs. Her father had luckily come home from work early that day and managed to save her, but died from carbon monoxide poisoning from inhaling too much smoke, Clarke blamed herself for it even though she was told the fire was caused by faulty wiring and she couldn't have done anything about it. She had come to terms that it wasn't her fault, but the wound still wasn't healed and the comment had just opened it up again.
Seeing the hurt written across her friends face, Octavia quickly dragged Bellamy into the back room. Clarke assumed she was going to tell him the truth about what happened with her dad and she didn't really feel like sticking around to see the pitying looks so she quickly finished mopping up and left.
Her next shift was a week later and she was once again dreading it, but this time for a completely different reason. Bellamy had called and texted multiple times throughout the week leaving messages and voicemails where he apologized profusely, but she had ignored them all, not wanting to see the pity in his eyes that she had been trying to avoid by not telling the others. He had eventually stopped and she was hoping he had gotten the hint that she didn't want to talk about it.
After putting her stuff away and heading back out into the main part of the shop, she saw that Bellamy and Miller already had it covered so she decided to go to the stock room and put away some inventory.
She had gotten through most of it leaving the stuff for the top shelf last because it always took her longer to get the stuff up there. On her tiptoes trying to put the cups on the top shelf something caught her eye. Turning she noticed there was a stool in the corner with her name carved into it and little hearts all around her name.
Someone cleared their throat from the doorway causing her to jump in surprise. She turned to find Bellamy standing there staring awkwardly at the ground.
He looked up at her as he started talking, rubbing the back of his neck in a nervous gesture. "So, I um know that you're still pretty pissed at me and I am really sorry, I had no idea, but even if I had I still shouldn't have said anything. I know I tease you a lot for not being able to always reach the top shelf so I figured as an apology gesture I could make you a stool to stand on."
Clarke just stood looking at this dork of a man who had become someone very important to her (if anyone asked she would deny it) and couldn't believe what she'd just heard.
"So, you said something that was wildly inappropriate and to make up for it you hand carved me a stool so I can reach stuff on the top shelf to say you're sorry?"
"Uh yeah, you wouldn't answer any of my phone calls or texts so I figured a nice gesture might do the trick."
Clarke crossed the room, giving him a brief but tight hug.
Releasing him she let out a snort. "I can't believe you made me a stool as an apology gift. You're officially the biggest nerd ever and I still hate you but also thanks." She said with a teasing smile that he returned easily.
The End