Now: June 23, 2015

6:34 am

The cold dry floor was an unwelcome change from her soft bed back at the Cape house and Clarke was pretty sure the cramp in her neck from sleeping on cement was going to hurt for at least a week. There was a small green dried paint stain on her arm from rolling it into a puddle in her sleep and something that looked like pizza sauce on the ends of a couple strands of her blonde hair. There was even gunk stuck to her eyes from crying into Octavia's arms the night before.

Yet despite all of this she felt refreshed.

Because when she fell asleep the night before she knew that she was truly loved. Maybe not in the romantic way by Bellamy but in a way that was just a wonderful, from the friendship of her friends.

She looked across the room to see Jasper sleeping on top of a pizza box with his mouth drooped open and a yellow lightening bolt painted on his forehead. She laughed in spite of herself.

After she had broken down crying over the song her and her friends had decided to resume their night of cheering her up which had included her painting "tattoos" on themselves. Jasper had received the lightening bolt to accompany the new scar Finn had given him. Part of her had felt guilty when she saw it. Finn had been looking for her after all. But Jasper made a joke about getting his own owl to go along with it while Monty protested and it had made her feel much better about the whole situation.

"You okay?"

Clarke turned to the voice to see Raven wide eyed next to her. She also had a splash of green on her face which indicated the puddle of paint was closer than Clarke thought.

"Yeah I'm just thinking we should have given Jasper sound round glasses to go with his scar." Clarke added with a smirk.

Raven looked over at the sleeping figure across the room. "We still could…"

Clarke rolled her eyes but had a small smirk on her lips. "We could but then it would take him even longer to wash off and I'd like to get food before we head back."

"Did someone say food?" Octavia groaned from a couple feet to Clarke's left. "I could go for some pancakes…"

"Well it's almost seven so you're going to have to get up. We need to be back by like ten the latest." Clarke replied looking over at her phone. "Didn't you say you had to finish the last minute preparations for Echo's bridal shower tomorrow?"

"Ugh yes. This is such a pain. She should have had it like last month but the rest of her bridal party and family are flying in and arriving at the hotel tonight so it has to be tomorrow." Octavia sighed looking exhausted from the whole thing. She had had to plan most of the party since most of Echo's friend's live out of state and Clarke knew she was pretty drained from the whole ordeal.

"You could put woo-pie cushions under the seat covers to make it more interesting" Jasper contributed from across the room apparently having awoken during their conversation.

"Jasper they aren't five" Raven shot back towards the boy who was now giggling with Monty. She turned back to Octavia. "Do we all have to go to this thing?"

"It would be much appreciated" Octavia looked sheepishly between the two.

Clarke sighed but she did feel better and she knew there were more wedding festivities to come. "Okay but do we have to get her a gift?"

"I have an idea for that…" Monty suggested with another small laugh exchanged with Jasper.

Raven and Clarke rolled their eyes in union knowing where this was going.

"No."

…...

Raven drove up to a small diner on one of the long store strips in the center of her hometown. It was still early but there was already a morning bustle on the streets and traffic was beginning to form. Still it was less crowded and quieter than the city and reminded Clarke of her own home town and the days she spent roaming the stores of the mall strip with her friends.

"Finn used to take me here when we were still in high school" Raven explained as they got out of the car to the cool crisp air of the summer morning and met with Jasper and Monty at the door.

They took a seat a one of the booths by the street window and ordered their food while Raven went to say hello to the owner who was apparently one of the parent's of a friend of hers from high school.

She came back over to the table with a disgusted look on her face. "Ugh they hired this guy Finn is friend's with and he actually had the nerve to talk to me and say we should 'grab a bite' sometime."

"I'm sure you told him what you thought of that" Clarke said with a smirk.

"Obviously" She replied then turned to tell Monty something.

Clarke turned to look out into the damp streets still wet from yesterdays rain. She knew that she wanted to talk to Bellamy when she got back to the house but she wasn't sure exactly what she was going to say. But spending time with her friends made her realize that despite the one-sided romantic feelings there was a real friendship between her and Bellamy and she didn't want to lose that just because she was hurting now.

She wanted to be able to laugh with him again. She wanted to watch movies with him, even if they were documentaries that bored her and Bellamy felt the need to add information they left out and go to Baseball games together. She missed his stupid jokes and his ridiculous work stories about how nobody appreciated the importance of history in the high school class he taught.

Mostly she just missed her best friend.

"Clarke what do you say?"

"Huh?" She looked towards her expectant friends realizing she had been spacing out. "Sorry what did you say?"

"We were talking about planning a road trip at the end of the summer. You in?" Raven asked as she swirled her straw in her water.

"Oh" Clarke added not knowing she had missed so much of the conversation while consumed with her own thoughts. "Yeah that would be cool. Where to?"

"Well while you were day dreaming we suggested maybe going cross country to California. If you're going to do a road trip you mine as well go all the way across the country" Octavia said with a smirk as the waitress arrived placing a plate of pancakes before her.

"Would it just be the five of us?" Clarke asked looking around the table.

"Well maybe if Lincoln is free…" Octavia hinted.

"Unless you have someone else you want to bring." Monty added as he stole a couple of home fries off Jasper's plate when he thought he wasn't looking. Jasper noticed and returned the favor by breaking off a piece of Monty's french toast and plopping it in his mouth.

Clarke played with her scrambled eggs not looking up up to see their faces, "Well we could invite Bellamy and Echo." She kept her eyes down but she was pretty sure she heard someone spit out their drink.

"Why?" Raven's voice was dry and skeptical.

Clarke looked up with a sigh and noticed Monty wiping off his shirt and glaring at Jasper who had in face spit his orange juice out on his friend. Octavia and Raven kept their eyes locked on Clarke making her feel like she had suggested something crazy.

"Stop giving me that look. I only suggested it as a token of friendship towards them. I've turned over a new leaf. I've realized it's better to save my friendship with Bellamy than mope around." Clarke stated feeling pretty proud of herself.

"Well I think that's good but having them come would probably still be awkward." Octavia shrugged with another bite. "Plus Echo will be pretty big by then…you know pregnancy wise" she made a motion with her arms as if to mimic the size of Echo's future stomach.

"Right" Clarke shook her head, for a moment she had forgotten about the pregnancy. "Well then just us and Lincoln" She shot a smile towards Octavia to let her know she was happy for her.

She looked back out towards the window wishing she hadn't said anything but her thoughts were cut off from the sight of a familiar face approaching the diner door. A face she had hoped she wouldn't ever have to encounter again.

There wasn't even time for her to say anything to her friends before he opened the door and the bell at the top chimed to let the waitress know that someone had just entered.

The waitress went over to greet him but he seemed to ignore her as he walked towards the silenced table with a slightly awkward nervous smile on his face as he casually greeted them with a "Hey guys".

"Get. Out." There was not room for sympathy in Raven's voice and while Clarke felt speechless Raven seemed to be able to speak for the both of them. "We don't care what you have to say nor do we want to hear it."

He took in a breath but then turned his glance towards Clarke. Stuffing his hands into his jean jacket pockets he looked down ignoring the fact that his long hair fell in front of his face face as he spoke "Clarke I was just wondering if we could talk…"

"You can't" Raven growled but Clarke put her hand on Raven's shoulder to let her know she could handle it.

"I don't want to talk to you Finn. Especially not after what you did to Jasper." She glanced towards her friend seeing the slightly exposed scar under his hair and feeling a twinge of guilt for being the reason he had it.

Finn shot a look at Jasper before turning his eyes back towards Clarke. "It was an accident and I'm so sorry about that but please can we talk" he motioned his head towards the door. He didn't want to talk with the rest of them around.

But Clarke didn't have anything she wanted to say or wanted to hear from him. She shook her head, "No Finn."

With another huff his nervous demeanor seemed to change into a slightly irritated one. He rocked on his feet with his hands still stuffed in his pockets not meeting her eyes when he spoke with a new edge to his voice "Listen I don't know what they told you but I want to explain what really happened."

"You threw a vase at my head that's what really happened" Jasper snapped his normal joking and happy self vanishing with his words. He looked genuinely angry and Monty's glare matched his from across the table.

"I told you it was an accident" Finn gritted through his teeth. "Maybe if you had listened to me instead of butting into me and Clarke's relationship I wouldn't have gotten mad…"

"We don't have a relationship Finn!" Clarke interrupted a little more loudly than she would have like. The customers outside her group of friends went silent and she could feel the eyes of everyone in the small room on her and Finn.

"Well we should!" He shouted back then hurried over to her reach for her hands. Clarke pulled away just as quickly. "Damn it Clarke I know you still love me!"

"I don't." She said coldly all to aware of how close he was to her.

He looked hurt. Angry. He he pulled away with a look in his eyes that honestly terrified Clarke. "Fine." He said all to calmly before turning to leave, but then he stopped, turned and grabbed the salt shaker off the table swinging it into the floor with all his might.

A couple people screamed, others gasped and then Finn turned and left the diner without another word.

…

"He's out of his mind". Octavia said seriously on the ride back to the cape. They had finished up breakfast quickly after Finn left but not before Raven went to the back room and screamed at Finn's old friend for telling him where they were.

Monty and Jasper had returned home telling them they would call them if they heard anything else from Finn. Clarke couldn't help but feel worried about Finn showing up at their apartment and begged them to lock their doors and call the cops at the first sign of him. They had agreed to do so but it hadn't done much to ease her nerves.

"Octavia let's not talk about this," Clarke sighed seeing Raven's face from the drivers seat. She hadn't said a word since they left the diner and Clarke knew that seeing Finn fall this far down the rabbit hole was hard for her even after all he had put them through.

"Fine." Octavia huffed falling back into her seat. She was clearly not done with the subject.

They rode in silence for another forty minutes when the house finally came into view. Clarke actually felt relieved to see it. While having the wedding in her face at the house wasn't exactly the ideal situation she couldn't help but feel grateful that at least there she didn't have to worry about her ex boyfriend endangering her or her friends.

Raven went straight up to the guest room saying she was "tired" as Octavia and Clarke headed into the kitchen not fighting her on it. Clarke knew she needed her space.

Miller, Bellamy and a dark tanned man with a black neck tattoo and shaved were sitting at the island drinking coffee and looking pretty hungover.

"Lincoln!" Octavia squealed running towards the man and hugging him tightly. "How was the bachelor party? Did you have fun? Oh this is Clarke!" She pulled away before he could even answer one her questions to drag Clarke over to him.

"Nice to meet you" Clarke said with a smile.

"I've heard so much about you." He smiled in return as he wrapped his arm around Octavia. Just from one look at him and his interactions with Octavia she could tell she was going to like him. He was calm, quiet and respectful which she hoped could give some balance to Octavia and her more energetic and strong-willed side.

"Hopefully only good" she joked before turning to Bellamy and Miller. "Have fun?" She hoped her casual tone would indicate that she was over the events of the day before. Plus they looked like crap and she couldn't help but want to give them some shit after all the times they had done the same to her.

Miller gave her a dark look but Bellamy stood up from the stool moving around the counter to get closer to Clarke.

"Uh kinda listen can we talk now?" He asked but before Clarke could respond Echo walked into the kitchen.

"Oh thank god your back. What were you guys thinking taking off all night? Octavia I need you to help my best friend Sydney with the party favors. Miller I need you to go down to the reception hall and make sure the drinks are all finalized for the open bar. I have a list on the table, please don't mess it up. Oh and Bellamy we need to get you suit back from the cleaners lets go." She clapped her hands together to let them all know she wasn't wasting any time.

Bellamy looked over sheepishly at Clarke. "Maybe later?"

She nodded and watched as they walked away before turning to Miller. "I need to talk to you."

"You want to sabotage their drink list? I heard she only likes fruity stuff. What if we tell them we only want beer and rum and coke…" He looked practically giddy as he started crossing things off the list and replacing the items with his own messy handwriting.

"No." Clarke said putting her hand over the list thought the idea was tempting. "This isn't about the wedding or sabotaging it."

"Is this about you telling Bellamy you love him?"

"What? He told you? No…" She waved off her hand.

"Oh." He said looking slightly disappointed. She wasn't sure what had happened between Miller and Echo but there was some clear dislike brewing between the two. She made a slight note to self to remind her to ask later what the hell had happened.

"This isn't about any of that…it's actually a problem I'm having." She stumbled over her words not exactly sure how to explain the situation. She had never told Bellamy the truth about the Finn situation partially out of embarrassment but mainly because she didn't want anyone pitying her for it so Miller certainly didn't know. In truth it had only come out to Octavia after a few too many drinks one night. She had wanted people to think the break up was amicable and the two just felt they were better off as friends.

It was easier for her to get over it if she didn't have everyone crowding her about all the real drama that had gone down. But now…

Now Finn was becoming…unpredictable to say the least and she was going to need help.

"What kind of problem?" His tone became serious erasing his usual joking demeanor.

"I need you to help me get a restraining order."