Happy birthday Elizabeth! I saw Clara's story for you and decided on a whim to write something in thirty minutes.

And you can definitely tell that it was written in 30 minutes but whatever because I feel like I need to branch out more and try speed-writing :)

I hope you enjoy it.

love story ('cause I really couldn't think of a title for this odd little thing)

pairing: clam

Your love story starts at 7/11. Well, really you should say it picks up at 7/11 on January 5th, because you did know each other in junior high, but you'd really like to forget that whole experience and pretend it never happened. It didn't exactly end well for either of you (especially you), and no you don't like to talk about it.

Anyway, it's January 5th and it's about 8 PM at night and you're still on holiday from UNC and you're waiting in line at 7/11 on A Street in downtown Westchester. Your hand is grasping a pack of mint MM's, while the other mindlessly scrolls through Facebook. Your eyes roll as you see yet another one of Massie Block's pictures with her new college PC, posing outside of Bloomingdale's in NYC. She goes to NYU now, double majoring in Fashion and Business (what a huge surprise, even though it's not). Really the PC's all spread out now, if you could even still call them a group. Kristen, last you heard is pre-med at Stanford, while Dylan went AWOL on the whole college thing and is currently somewhere in the Maldives shooting an indie movie. You'd like to pretend the other member of your group has been totally forgotten by you, but it's not true. She by some cruel hand of fate ended up not only at the same exact college as you, but next door in the dorms. Luckily though, she pretends like you don't exist and you're perfectly happy with that. You think.

It's right then that a sharp intake of breath causes you to break off your thoughts and you turn around and there he is.

"Claire. Claire Lyons." It's the boy next to him that speaks, you know him too.

"Hey Josh." You breathe deeply. "Hi Cam." Inwardly you're cursing yourself and your choice of dress and your choice of purchase. This is the first time you see him in a year and you're dressed in your ratty old UNC sweatshirt (it's your mom's, actually) that's wet from the rain and you have MM's in your hand. You bet she has never even touched sugar since 8th grade. But then your thoughts take a mad U-turn and suddenly you're standing up straight, pissed off that those thoughts even crossed your mind. Cam doesn't deserve internal panic, and she especially doesn't.

"Fancy seeing you here." Josh's smile is wry and you really just want to slap the expression off of his face. Why is he there with Cam? (Last time you checked the boy was still pissed off because she chose Cam over him in 9th grade)

"Yeah, fancy it." Cam echoes and suddenly your thoughts take another crazy U-turn and you're looking at Cam's face and you're seeing his eyes and you're going crazy you're sure of it.

There are more words exchanged in that conversation, but your love story skips over those. All that matters is that four nights from then she's gone and your love story truly begins.

AHHHHHHH

*screams some more*

sorry elizabeth

that probably made your birthday worse :)

AND THIS IS SO NOT 500 words sorry, I went over

SP