Now: Jun. 22, 2015
7:22 am
Clarke looked back up towards the squirrels on the rocks across from the pool. They didn't seem to notice her presence as they ran up and down the trees grabbing an acorn here and there.
She sketched the animal on her drawing pad as it was running up the tree. Something about the way it ran up and down with such speed fascinated her. It would look at the other squirrel now and then but other than that the two seemed to work in silence.
She wondered what it was like to be a squirrel, if they could actually communicate with other squirrels or if they even had thoughts like other humans. Did they just go about their day finding food and shelter to survive? Or was there more to them? Could they fall in love?
She continued to sketch in silence. It was still really early and she knew everyone besides maybe her parents and Aurora would still be asleep. She hadn't been able to sleep much the night before. After she had introduced Raven, dinner had become practically a grilling session on Raven from her mother and Aurora. Luckily once it was over the two had escaped to go watch movies in the basement where Octavia had joined them. She hadn't really watched the movie but her and Raven instantly hit it off and their girls night had been a nice distraction from everything going on.
They hadn't talked about the Finn incident since before dinner and she was trying to avoid thinking about the whole situation.
A gust of wind gave her shivers and she realized she probably should have put on a sweatshirt, it may have been summer but she wasn't in Miami. She laid the sketch on the table next to the lounge chair she had been lying on for the past twenty minutes and stretched out as she stood up.
She was walking back towards the house when she heard the sounds of yelling. She turned direction and slowly began heading towards from the driveway to see what was going on. She felt her heart skip a beat when she turned the corner and saw Bellamy and Echo standing in the driveway arguing.
"I don't want him here end of story." Echo said firmly as she threw her purse into the car. "I have enough to deal with already. I have so many errands to run before the wedding and on top of that I'm trapped in this house with like ten people as it is."
"We're lucky they are even letting us have the wedding here." Bellamy countered looking annoyed "And he's my best friend and he's staying here."
"Bellamy you're lucky I'm even allowing him in the wedding after what he said." Echo said crossing her arms and not letting up. It seemed like her nice persona was gone now in the presence of just Bellamy.
"Look I get it okay? He shouldn't have added his input but he just wants to make sure I'm happy…"
"He announced at dinner with MY best friend that he thinks us getting married is a huge mistake!"
Bellamy put both his hands through his hair clearly frustrated. "Echo he apologized for that and I talked to him okay? He promised he'd keep his mouth shut…"
"He's your best man yet he's against your wedding?"
"He has his reasons…"
"Which are what, Bellamy?" Echo asked with her eyebrows raised clearly waiting for an answer she looked like she already knew the answer to. Bellamy looked pained and turned his head away from her and in Clarke's direction before she had a chance to leave.
"Clarke…"
Echo turned and saw Clarke who was standing their awkwardly watching their whole fight pan out. She should have left; she knew that the second she stepped over there and saw who was fighting, but it was like her feet were cemented to the ground.
Echo looked furious and she was pretty sure if looks could kill she'd be dead right now. Clarke felt like a deer in the headlights. She knew how badly this situation looked.
"Uh…sorry" Clarke sputtered out wishing she was anywhere but there. She began to ramble "I was just out drawing because I couldn't sleep in" she looked at Bellamy "you know how I can get" instantly regretted those words "anyway it was colder than I thought and I was going in to get a sweatshirt but I heard yelling and wanted to make sure everything was okay…"
"And you thought you'd stand here and have some popcorn and watch the show?" Echo snapped no longer putting on the nice façade with her either.
"Echo…" Bellamy started but Clarke shook her head.
"No she's right sorry I wasn't sure how to react and yeah I'm sorry I'm just going to go in…" She turned on her feet quickly and rushed into the house.
She opened the back door into the kitchen to see Octavia and Raven already there. Octavia was standing by the stove flipping pancakes and Raven was sitting at the kitchen island playing a game on her phone. She looked up as Clarke entered the kitchen.
"There you are I thought you were still in bed" Raven said putting down her phone. "Also Octavia and I have decided we are all going out tonight. Don't bother asking for a vote it's already 2-1."
Clarke rolled her eyes happy to see Raven back to her old self after yesterday's Finn episode. She went over to the fridge and pulled out some orange juice before taking a seat at the island with Raven.
"I was outside drawing, actually I kind of just made myself look real stupid." She admitted as Octavia walked over with plates.
"How? And by going out we mean to like a bar. So don't get any ideas about hiding out in sweats and an old t-shirt at the movies." She flipped a pancake onto one of the plates and put it in front of Clarke.
Chocolate chips. She looked up slightly surprised at the brunette. Octavia had never really been the type to cook, especially willingly making her friends breakfast when they could easily survive off one of the packaged bagels in the cabinet.
Octavia shrugged "Lincoln's been teaching me how to cook. Actually it's kind of fun. So what happened?"
Clarke sighed as she focused on pouring syrup all over her pancake. She tried not to think about how much sugar she was about to consume as she cut a piece off and plopped it into her mouth. She didn't want to look at the two of them as she said this. "Well I kinda got caught watching a fight between Echo and Bellamy…"
"Clarke we talked about this, if you're going to listen to others conversation don't make it so obvious" Raven said taking a bite of her own pancake with a slight smirk on her face.
Clarke rolled her eyes at her friend. "Funny, anyway I didn't even mean to stand there listening I just heard yelling and came over to see if everyone was okay…then I saw it was them…I'm such an ass."
Octavia played with her food. "You're not an ass. Curious though…what were they fighting about?"
Clarke looked up at her slightly surprised. Octavia had never really been the type of sister to be curious about her brother's fights with his girlfriends. Actually Bellamy hadn't had many long term girlfriends so it wasn't that surprising. Octavia was always polite to them but she had never really been friends with them or cared too much.
Still she thought it was odd that she was asking.
"I think it was about Miller actually." Clarke said scrunching her face up as she thought about the scene she had stumbled upon. They hadn't mentioned Miller by name but Echo had said it was Bellamy's best man so that pretty much said it all.
Octavia looked up at her still having not eaten any of her food yet. "Right he's coming today. He and Echo don't really get along." She shrugged like it was no big deal but Clarke thought it was odd since Miller got along with most people.
"I heard her say he didn't approve of their wedding…" Clarke said softly and now Raven looked quite interested.
"Wait the best man doesn't approve? That can't be good." She gave Clarke a slight smirk and Clarke rolled her eyes again. She knew Raven was just trying to make her feel better but she also knew that if Bellamy and Echo didn't work out it wouldn't be because he loved Clarke. He had made his feelings clear when he watched her walk away.
Octavia was biting her lip now and looked slightly anxious.
"Why would he say that?" Clarke asked her but Octavia's curiosity seemed to shut down and she just shrugged in return.
Raven eyed Clarke suspiciously but Clarke ignored her. They thought she was going to have false hope but that wasn't the case, she just thought it was weird.
At least that's what she kept telling herself.
…
"No" Clarke said looking at the dress Raven and Octavia had picked out for her. They seemed to have teamed up while Clarke was out drawing in the morning and decided that she needed the tightest dress possible to go to the bar in.
"Why the hell not?!" Raven asked putting her hands on her hips and looking almost insulted. "You always say this dress looks great on me!"
"It does" Clarke admitted "On you. So you wear it. I have curves. One french fry and that thing pops off."
Raven rolled her eyes. "Come on Clarke it will look great on you and it will not. Besides it's time to you know put yourself out there."
Clarke gave her a death stare. They had definitely teamed up that morning and discussed how not only did Clarke need to wear this dress but she apparently also needed a night out to help her move on from Bellamy.
"I am out there!" Clarke countered. "Oh my god I'm so tired of everyone thinking I'm so pathetic girl just mopping around because Bellamy doesn't love me. I'm not!"
"No one thinks you are" Raven said putting her hands out in front of her in defense.
"Yeah we just wanted to go out and have some fun!" Octavia said looking guilty.
Clarke eyed them both suspiciously but felt maybe there was some truth to it all. She hadn't gone on a date since Bellamy rejected her and now that he was getting married in a couple of days maybe it was time for her to move on. She grabbed the pink dress out of Raven's hands and sighed. "I guess I could try it on".
Raven smiled widely and Octavia looked relieved as well. "This will be so much fun."
"Is Lincoln going to stop by?" Clarke asked as she began looking through her stuff for her black strappy shoes that would go well with the dress. "I'd love to meet him and I'm sure if were going out dancing he'll want to grab one with you".
Octavia looked at the ground "Uh no he'll be at Bellamy's bachelor party…." She pretended to look through Clarke's jewelry.
"Oh is that tonight?" Clarke asked trying to keep her voice neutral. It made sense now why Miller was coming today and why they wanted to get her out of the house so bad.
"Yeah so Lincoln will be there. But you'll meet him soon." She picked out some earrings "Wear these."
They spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready while watching cheesy romantic comedies that Octavia complained through. She said ridiculous storylines like this were why she hated watching movies. But apparently Echo's best friend had arrived in town, luckily she was staying at a hotel, and she was going to do wedding prep with her during the day freeing Octavia from the duty.
Clarke had showered, put on the dress, and was now waiting for Octavia to decide what she wanted to do with her hair. In all honesty she was pretty excited; it had been a long time since she had had a girl's night out. Usually her and Raven would hang out by themselves eating junk food and watching movies or they'd go over to Monty and Jasper's and hang out with them. She wasn't even sure the last time she had been to a bar or gone dancing.
Octavia seemed to have finally decided on something and began braiding a small strand of her hair. She pined in back and then began putting Clarke's hair up into a semi put-together semi messy bun with a few loose hairs around her face.
She put a natural look of make up on Clarke while complaining about how Clarke didn't need much make up to look pretty.
Clarke stared into the mirror watching her friend work and vaguely listening to the conversation between Octavia and Raven about some new type of eye liner look. She dropped in a word or two for input here and there but she was mostly in her own mind.
She couldn't stop thinking about the fight she had overheard between Bellamy and Echo. She didn't want to think about it because she knew all it did was give her false hope that she felt guilty for even having…but Miller wasn't a hard guy to get along with so she couldn't understand what had happened between him and Echo.
She let her thoughts drift away from him and back to the calming scene she had witnessed this morning with the squirrels. The easygoing animals that didn't have to worry about overhearing fights between the one they love and their fiancé.
That's when she remembered she left her sketchbook outside.
"Crap!" Clarke said jumping up and Octavia yelled at her for messing up the eyeliner she had been putting on her. "Sorry" Clarke added grabbing a makeup wipe out of Octavia's makeup bag and beginning to wipe the stray line off her face. "I forgot my sketchbook outside this morning and it looks like it may rain. I need to get it…"
"Ugh fine but hurry up since now I have to redo your eye makeup" Octavia said turning to Raven for help to pick out makeup to use for herself while Clarke got her sketchbook.
She hurried down the stairs not wanting to keep Octavia waiting and wanting to make sure she got her sketchbook before it started to rain. She had seen the sky darken from her bedroom window but hadn't thought twice about how she had left her book out there this morning. She had been planning on going back out after getting her sweatshirt before running into Bellamy and Echo.
"I'm just saying it's a bad idea…"
She stopped short entering the kitchen and stumbling upon Bellamy and Miller. Miller was sitting at the kitchen island when and turned instantly when Bellamy eyes had shot up to her from the other side.
"Clarke!" He put down his beer and jumped off the stool rushing over to give her a hug. "It's been too long".
She smiled hugging her old friend back. Miller had been Bellamy's best friend since before she could remember. While the two boys were a year older than her they never made her feel like a tag along on their adventures as kids. She had grown close to him as well and while she had pulled away the last few months due to the Bellamy drama seeing him again made her realize how much she had missed their friendship.
He pulled away looking her over. "Well your dressed up are you coming with us for Bellamy's bachelor party."
Clarke gave a small laugh looking over at Bellamy was staring at her as well looking almost sad. When she actually thought about it the truth was it was sad that she wasn't invited to Bellamy's bachelor party. She had been his best friend, besides Miller, forever. Yet she was completely disconnected now from not only his wedding but his whole life.
She had told herself she was doing it to protect herself but was that the best was to do it? She'd been heartbroken for the past couple of months but it wasn't from just being rejected by him but also from losing her best friend.
She kept her eyes on his feeling her own sadness rush over her. She missed him.
"You look beautiful"
Her eyes widened slightly at Bellamy's declaration and she broke their eye contact when she felt a blush rising up on her face. He was just being nice. It didn't mean anything. He had rejected her after all and he was marrying Echo.
She glanced at Miller who looked uncomfortable yet intrigued by the whole situation at the same time.
"Thanks…" She said softly biting her lip nervously. "And no Miller actually Octavia, my friend Raven, and I are going out for a girl's night. I just came down because I realize I left my sketchbook outside this morning" she glanced awkwardly at Bellamy who was staring at the beer in his hand now.
"Where you guys going?" Miller asked casually taking a sip of his own beer.
Clarke figured he was trying to move away from the awkward tension after Bellamy's remark. "Uh some place called Ark? It's apparently this new bar that's taken off. Octavia picked it I don't know…crap it's starting to rain" She mentioned looking out the back door.
"I'll get it" Bellamy said without giving her a chance to respond before he put his beer done and hurried out the door.
"…okay" Clarke said after he had rushed out looking back over at Miller whose whole facial expression had changed now that Bellamy had left the room.
"He's being an idiot." Miller said taking another swig of his beer before putting it down and crossing his arms.
"What?" Clarke asked in slight confusion.
"The wedding, marrying Echo, it's all a bad idea and I've told him that several times but he doesn't listen to me. He's going to regret it though, he thinks he's doing the right thing but is it the right thing?" He seemed to be rambling more to himself with one of his arms moving around as he talked.
"Miller what are you talking about?" Clarke asked thinking about the conversation she had heard earlier that day about Miller being against the wedding. "If he loves her then how is it not the right thing?" It hurt to say it but it was the truth.
Miller looked over at her confused "What? He doesn't love her…"
"What?" Clarke asked again but this time more slowly. Her brows were furred and her heart began to race. What did Miller mean that Bellamy didn't love Echo? Of course he loved Echo. That's why he was marrying her.
Some sort of realization seemed to sink onto Miller's face as he said "You don't know…" before the back door opened.
"Okay there are some drops on it but I think you're picture will be okay…" Bellamy said entering the room from the back door "It's still only drizzling so it's not that bad…what?" He asked looking at Miller and Clarke who were staring at him.
"You didn't tell her…" Miller said almost accusingly at Bellamy whose face seemed to drop as he looked over at Clarke.
"Tell me what…" Clarke asked feeling like she was going to vomit from anticipation.
Bellamy looked at her sadly like he knew he was about to make thing worse for her. "Echo's pregnant."