On Saturday, Clarke took Lexa out for dinner as promised, and Lexa went home afterward despite her urge to ask if she could stay at Clarke's place. Despite Clarke's reassurances from the weekend prior, she still felt as though she may be being too clingy. On one hand, she knew that she wasn't, but it still felt like a good idea to not get used to staying with Clarke every weekend. At the very least, she wouldn't want her mother to start getting suspicious.

It was somewhat hard for her to sleep, however, when she found herself thinking about cuddling with Clarke and how much nicer it would've felt to be wrapped up in her arms as she drifted off. She was only able to finally sleep after laying in bed for a handful of hours, and woke up late because of it.

She didn't wake up to a pleasant morning, either, because her mom had gotten up bright and early to make her breakfast and to talk.

"Lexa," her mother started, once she had Lexa sitting down and eating, "if I ask you just one question, will you answer it?"

Lexa froze, before giving in and nodding. What else was there to do, anyway? She couldn't rightly say no, and the worse case was that she lie, something that she'd already been doing so often anyway.

"Have you been... seeing someone? Is that why you've been gone so often, especially on weekends? Are you dating? I just want to know," her mom pleaded, frowning and setting down her coffee as she looked seriously to the younger brunette.

Lexa observed her mom for a moment and realized for the first time in a while how similar their appearances were. Aside from her mom's hair being slightly darker than her own, and with slightly lighter skin, they had a similar bone structure in their face. Lexa had often wondered what part of her appearance had come from her father, considering how much came from her mom.

She used to think that she was a lot like her mom, physically and otherwise, but now she preferred to think that she was different. It was always nearly impossible to deny the physical resemblance, however.

She felt weakness suddenly take over her body, and she slumped a bit. "Yeah, I am dating someone."

What harm could the admission do, really? Her mother wasn't the stalker type, so it wasn't like she'd find out who it was. Plus, she was bound to think that it was just some boy at school, in which case if she did try to figure it out, she'd be utterly misdirected. Her mom exhaled in relief, and Lexa furrowed her eyebrows. "Oh thank god."

"What?" Lexa asked, somewhat shocked and definitely confused.

"I've been so worried about you, Lexa. I talked to some of my friends from the university, and they were saying that that their kids usually became withdrawn when they were sneaking around doing something. Especially around your age. And I... well, I was scared that you'd been doing drugs or... or worse, I don't know. If it's just that you were hiding a boy from me... well, that's much less scary... I mean... unless..."

"Mom," Lexa interrupted quickly, "I'm not doing drugs. I'm just dating someone. That's it."

"You could have said something during any of the times that I've been asking you about how you've been," her mom tutted. "At least then I could've known that you were okay."

"Clearly I'm okay," Lexa insisted, shaking her head. "If I wanted to tell you that I was dating someone, I would've. Frankly, I can't see how it would matter to you other than for you to judge me and tell me that my focus should be on school and only school."

The older woman deflated suddenly, and Lexa felt guilt suddenly rising. "Do you really think that's how I would react?"

"It's how you always react, mom," Lexa snapped, ignoring the guilt she was feeling and focusing more on the anger she felt toward her mom. "You can't have a conversation with me without it being about school, or how I'm not focusing enough on school. You even said that school should be almost all of my life right now. But I'm not you, and school isn't going to me priority for the rest of my life like it is for you!"

She had barely noticed her voice rising until she finished speaking, and realized that she'd stood up.

"So excuse me," she continued, her voice quieting significantly, "if I thought that it would be any different once I openly admitted to not being entirely focused on school.

"Lexa..." her mom's voice drifted off, and Lexa just shook her head, turning and running up to her room. She locked her door just as she heard feet on the stairs behind her, and then leaned against the cold wood and exhaled deeply. "Lexa! We need to talk about this!"

"No, we don't!" Lexa shouted back, feeling tears well up into her eyes. "I don't want to talk to you!"

"I'm your mother, Lexa! You need to talk to me!"

"Are you?" Lexa demanded, hearing her words more than feeling herself ask them. "Because it doesn't feel like it!" Her tears were escaping now, running down her warm cheeks freely as her mother went silent.

"Fine," she heard the older woman mutter in defeat, "we can talk about this later." She heard footsteps making their way through the hallway and back down the stairs. Despite everything, the discussions and slight arguments they'd had, this was the first time that Lexa had ever truly fought with her mom, and even that thought made her want to cry even harder. She pushed away from her door, falling into her bed in a heap and letting herself cry it out.

Yeah, she wished she'd stayed at Clarke's place.

On Monday, Clarke was slightly worried about her girlfriend. She'd texted Lexa the previous day a few times, and received no reply throughout it. She'd chalked it up to homework, or a dead phone or something , but it worried her all the same. But luckily, Monday morning while she was walking into work, she got a reassuring text from the brunette.

From Lexa – I'm so sorry I didn't see these yesterday. I fought with my mom after waking up, and I accidentally left my phone downstairs before I locked myself in my room. I didn't realize until I was going to sleep, and I was exhausted so I just crashed.

Clarke sent Lexa a text in return saying that it was alright, but a frown appeared on her face from knowing that Lexa had been fighting with her mom. She didn't like that Lexa didn't like her mom, even though she thought that it was understandable for her to feel that way. Personally, she thought that Lexa's mother was far better than either of her own parents, but to Lexa, it must feel terrible. After all, didn't lots of people go through a 'I hate my parents' phase before they were in college?

She just had a feeling that eventually Lexa would be over the anger she felt for her mom, and would want to rekindle the relationship. Clarke didn't know how to tell that to Lexa without sounding like she was trying to patronize her, so she kept it to herself. She just wished that it could be at least a little easier for her girlfriend.

On Tuesday, Lexa seemed completely back to her normal self, and she and Clarke texted actively throughout the day despite their classes. Clarke kept insisting that Lexa should pay attention, and Lexa kept insisting right back that she was fine. The blonde really hoped that that was true, because if she was ever the reason that Lexa didn't do amazing at something, she would definitely kick herself for it, and probably pretty hard.

Wednesday was uneventful, despite the stress of classes topped off with work. Clarke managed to get out for lunch, which she had with Bellamy, and he brought up Lexa's party that Clarke had actually been thinking quite a bit about.

"So, we're all going?" he asked, and she nodded. "Do you think it'll be weird at all? What if Lexa wouldn't want us there?"

Clarke shook her head. "I don't think she'd care. I mean, she likes that you guys like her. Frankly, I think she deserves a fun party. She's turning eighteen, anyway."

"I guess we all already know that she likes parties," Bellamy reasoned, shrugging. "Who all got invited?"

"Ah, you and Octavia, Raven, Jasper and Monty... me, obviously. Lincoln, since he's Anya's brother, and that girl Echo from Murphy's party. It's not a huge thing. I think Luna wanted to play it kind of safe with the guest list," Clarke answered. "I'm just glad that she didn't invite Murphy or something."

Bellamy raised an eyebrow. "So, Finn wasn't invited?" Clarke had barely even realized that Finn hadn't been one of the people that Luna invited, but even as she raised her own eyebrows, she was hardly surprised.

"Well, the invite went out in the middle of last week, and that was before Finn apologized to Lexa. I'm pretty sure that both Luna and Anya know all of the drama behind that, so I don't really blame them for not inviting him," Clarke offered as explanation. "I don't think it would necessarily matter either way, but if he wasn't invited, he wasn't invited. We can't do anything about it. It's Lexa's party."

"Lexa didn't write the guest list," Bellamy reminded her, but Clarke didn't really have time to say much else after that, because he had to go off to his creative writing class, and Clarke had her three dimensional arts class.

Thursday went much like Tuesday, a day full of texting Lexa during class and then ending the day with work. When she finally hit her pillow that night, all she could think of was that there were two days until Lexa's birthday, and she needed to think up something to do for her date with Lexa on Saturday.

Waking up on Friday morning was a relief, because Lexa knew that not only was it her last day of school for the week, but her surprise party was also that night. She'd been doing her best to talk about her plans for the week without letting on to Luna that she knew, and every time Friday evening was brought up, she and Anya would share a knowing look as Luna lied about what she would be doing.

It was nice, though, to know that Luna was going through so much effort to plan a party for her. In fact, it almost made Lexa wish that she didn't know that it was coming.

Halfway through the school day, Luna bombarded Lexa in the hallway.

"Hey, Lexa! My plans to go out to the movies tonight canceled," she announced dejectedly. "Anya said maybe the three of us could do a movie tonight instead. You up for it? My parents are out anyway, so we can make popcorn and have candy and maybe drink some beer and watch movies?"

Lexa smiled at her friend. "Yeah, sure. What time should I come over?"

"Seven," Luna answered, grinning. "Great! I figured it's better that we hang out tonight anyway... don't you have plans with Clarke for your birthday tomorrow?"

Flushing a little, Lexa nodded. "Yeah, she's taking me out... I think. I'm not exactly sure."

"Taking you out to her bed?" Luna asked, smirking and looping her arm through Lexa's. "You must be pretty excited."

Lexa bit down on her lower lip. "Ah, I mean, yeah. I haven't really... thought about it too much."

"Sure you have! You must be? I mean, how could you not? Wouldn't you have already been on your knees for that girl if it weren't for your age?"

"Luna!" Lexa exclaimed, appalled. "Seriously?"

"What's the problem, Lex?"

"I'm just... kinda terrified. Clarke's done this before. I've never... had sex with a girl before. I've only even had sex with one person, and it went terribly," Lexa muttered, shaking her head. "I'm scared that I'll do something stupid."

"Lexa, you're probably lucky that your first time with a girl is with someone who's done it before. I mean, imagine if both of you were clueless during it. I mean, you might feel calmer about it, but you wouldn't feel as satisfied, I bet," Luna reasoned. "Plus, it's your birthday tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised if you became a temporary pillow princess all night."

"A what?" Lexa asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

Luna shook her head. "Never mind. Don't stress about it, Lexa. You've got another day to calm yourself down about it, and honestly, if you're really that freaked out, talk to Clarke. I'm sure that she'll understand. No one said that you have to have sex with her tomorrow."

Lexa frowned. "Well, yeah I guess you're right. But I want to..."

"Then don't stress about it. It's going to go just fine. Clarke doesn't seem like the type to be impatient anyway," Luna said. "I mean, at least not when it comes to you. She'd probably wait ages for you."

"Why do you think that?" Lexa asked, her eyebrows shooting up.

Luna smirked. "Have you seen her face around you? She's whipped as fuck. I mean, you're pretty whipped, too, but yeah. Quit worrying about it. I'll see you tonight."

Half an hour before Lexa was supposed to be at Luna's house, she'd just changed into a nice outfit. She wondered why Luna had gone with a movie night as her fake hangout plan, since that would imply that Lexa should wear lazy clothes. There was no way she was going to show up at her birthday party in anything less than what she would wear out, especially if Clarke was going to be there.

As she sat on the edge of her bed, ready to twiddle her thumbs until she should leave, her phone vibrated with a new text message.

From Clarke – Hope you're ready to get plastered. Jasper and Octavia put themselves in charge of supplying drinks for this party.

Lexa couldn't help but smile.

To Clarke – Who's all there?

From Clarke – Everyone who Luna invited came, but I'm not telling you that. Shouldn't you be at least a little surprised?

To Clarke – Hardly. I already know that you, Octavia and Jasper are there. If Octavia is there, Raven probably is too, same with Bellamy. I know that Anya and Luna are there, and Anya would've invited Lincoln. Luna would've invited Echo. Oh, and if Jasper's there, Monty would be too. The only person in question is Finn, really.

From Clarke – Fuck, you're good. Finn's not here. Invite went out before he apologized, and I wasn't about to say anything to your friend about it. Here's the question – when are you gonna get here? :(

To Clarke – Luna told me seven.

From Clarke – Can't you show up early? Octavia and Raven are fighting over which one of them will be able to yell happy birthday the loudest. Jasper and Monty are starting bets. We're just waiting on Anya and you.

To Clarke – Well I definitely can't show up if Anya isn't there, duh. I will be there at seven. You can wait ;)

From Clarke – A whole half hour? Maybe not. :(

To Clarke – Twenty-five minutes babe.

From Clarke – Oh my bad, the five minutes makes all the difference. Since when do you call me babe, though? Not that I'm complaining. X

To Clarke – Since I decided that I would. And you better not be complaining, because then I might not show up at all.

From Clarke – Your threats are so obviously empty. Like you wouldn't show up for free booze and me :^)

To Clarke – So modest I see.

From Clarke – Yes :D

From Clarke – OKAY Anya's here! You can come early now!

To Clarke – So needy xx

Lexa was hardly aware of the grin spread across her face as she slid her phone into her pocket and stood up. She slid on her shoes and grabbed her keys, before starting downstairs. Her mom was in the kitchen, she knew, but she heard no call of curiosity from her. In fact, her mom hadn't spoken to her all week, and Lexa was starting to feel really guilty about it.

She'd talk to her later, though, once the excitement of her birthday had passed.

Taking a breath, she left her house and went out to her car. Ten minutes later, she was pulling up to Luna's house. She saw four cars parked sporadically along the street, not collectively in front of one house. Lexa thought that Luna was clever to make sure that everyone did that, but she recognized three of the cars easily. She saw Clarke's and Bellamy's and Lincoln's.

As she parked her car in front of Luna's house, she forced herself to keep a straight face. She knew that she'd appear surprised no matter what, because she was pretty easily startled when it came to loud noises anyway, so she wasn't too worried about pretending.

She walked up to the front door, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door. She'd only been to Luna's house a couple of times, so she wasn't sure that she was on a walk in uninvited basis yet. Plus, she was a little early, so it was fair enough that she gave Luna a moment to freak out about the fact that she wasn't supposed to be there for ten more minutes.

She waited at the door for nearly a full minute as well, until it finally opened to reveal her best friend. "You better be ready to act surprised," Anya muttered, narrowing her eyes pointedly. Lexa bit on the inside of her lower lip.

"Of course," she replied, and Anya pulled the door open all the way, stepping backwards. Just as Lexa stepped in, people jumped out from the study and the dining room, which were on either side of the entrance hall, and yelled all at once.

"Happy birthday Lexa!"

Lexa knew that she jumped a little, but mostly she just grinned.

The party was actually perfect. Lexa had never imagined what it would be like to have a whole party dedicated to her, because parties hadn't really been something she'd liked a lot until recently anyway. Clarke greeted her rather nicely with a kiss, and Lexa mumbled something about her managing to wait after all.

Clarke had also not understated how much alcohol their was, because it seemed like Octavia and Jasper had provided a pretty huge variety of options. At first, Lexa was apprehensive about drinking too much, because she didn't want to get drunk again while Clarke was hardly drinking.

Clarke seemed to feel bad when Lexa said it that way, so the blonde suggested that they both just not worry about it. Lexa agreed, mostly because everyone else seemed to want to get her hammered.

There was pizza – a lot of pizza – which kicked off the party. Once their bellies were fall full, the drinking started in full swing. Lexa hadn't had enough different kinds of alcohol to know what she was drinking half of the time, she just knew that it all tasted like shit and made her feel incredibly buzzed, and then tipsy, and quickly coming onto drunk.

It was easy to do, too, when Echo suggested that they play drinking games. Anya and Lexa had both been hesitant to agree at first, but eventually did. Lexa had never played any drinking games before, since her party experience was pretty much limited to standing around on a lakeside, drinking and listening to crappy music.

First up was Never Have I Ever, which Lexa definitely did know how to play. It became rather frustrating, however, when it seemed that she and Anya were the two who had done the least. Clarke insisted that it wasn't a bad thing, and Lexa knew that, but it still felt somewhat disappointing.

Bellamy tossed out the, "Never have I ever had sex with a guy," however, and Lexa had to drink to that, cringing as she did.

"Ooh, Lexa you've slept with a guy before?" Raven asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Are you surprised?" she asked, leaning against Clarke a little, already feeling drunk.

Jasper nudged Raven. "She did almost sleep with Finn, remember?" As Raven nodded in understanding, Clarke feigned a gag.

"Could we please not talk about that? Thanks."

"Aw, you jealous, C?" Octavia teased, grinning widely. Before Clarke could say anything, Lexa grabbed her face gently and brought their lips together, and their kiss quickly heated up despite the people around them. They only broke apart when Anya came and clapped loudly next to their faces, at which point they separated each with a smirk on their face.

Clarke looked pointedly at Octavia. "I don't think I have anything to be jealous over, O."

After Never Have I Ever, Echo suggested Truth Or Dare, which Lexa immediately vetoed. The last thing she needed was to be dared to do some crazy shit. She could already imagine the things that Clarke's friends might dare each other to do, and she didn't want that kind of experience.

That's when Monty suggested Kings, which Luna, Lexa and Anya had never heard of. After a run down of the rules, they agreed, and by the end of the game, Lexa was definitely drunk. Clarke, however, seemed pretty put together, and Lexa wondered if she'd stopped drinking alcohol. When she asked the blonde about it, while everyone was scrambling into the kitchen for a second round of pizza, Clarke just smirked and shook her head. "Sorry, babe, I don't do the black out drunk thing."

"But I don't want you to have to take care of me again just because I'm drunk," Lexa whined, frowning.

"This is your birthday celebration, Lexa," Clarke said, nudging her, "and you should have fun. So if you wanna drink, you should drink. I'm not going to let you kill yourself. I already watered down four of your drinks."

Lexa furrowed her eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yeah, you weirdo," Clarke answered, smiling softly. "Enjoy your party. You're almost an adult."

"Mm," Lexa glanced between Clarke's eyes and then down at her lips, leaning forward and grabbing them in a kiss. Clarke's hands fell securely on her waist, holding her up as she leaning into the blonde. The kiss ended after a few seconds, though, and Lexa pouted at her girlfriend.

"You really are a horny drunk," Clarke murmured teasingly. "Come on, we have plenty of time for making out later. Let's go get some more food in your belly."