Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter! We're getting closer to the penultimate, I promise! There may even be a hint of it in this chapter. Can you spot it?
Enjoy!
*October 1, 2020*
Bellamy chuckles lightly as he watches Clarke bound down the stairs of her house, a bit more pep in her step than usual. "What's got you so cheerful this morning? I mean, you're always pretty happy, but this is on a whole other level. Even for you."
She grins. "It's October 1st."
He nods slowly. "Yes, I'm aware. I saw the date when I got up."
She sighs. "Bellamy, it's October 1st. Which means it's officially the first day of the Halloween season."
"Ah," he says with a nod. "How could I have forgotten?"
In reality, he didn't forget. He knew exactly what day it was when he woke up and saw the date on his phone, knew exactly how excited and giddy Clarke would be when he came to pick her up. Halloween is easily one of Clarke's favorite holidays, right up there with Christmas. If he were to make a list of her favorite holidays, Christmas and Halloween would be tied for first place, and then his birthday would be next, followed by her own, and then all of their friends and Octavia (in no particular order, though, as Clarke has claimed multiple times over).
Not that he's complaining in any way about her enjoying his birthday more than her own. She always puts together great parties for him, being assisted by his mom in the early years of their friendship until she was capable enough to do all the planning on her own.
"I'm excited to see what costume you figure out for all of us this year," he remarks as they move toward the front door.
"Oh, I've got tons of ideas," she says with a smile as they head toward his car.
He just smiles back, doesn't even bother trying to guess what she has in mind. It never works out well, he can never figure out what she's thinking of. It'd started simply enough that first year they met, with just the two of them and Nate doing a costume together (Murphy had been sick so he hadn't been able to do a costume with them, though Bellamy still assumes it was on purpose).
And as their friend group grew over the years, so did their Halloween costumes. He doesn't hate it, though, he loves every idea that Clarke comes up with. It's always something fun, and she always thinks of the perfect group costume to allow everyone the perfect individual costume. Everyone usually chips in to help put the costumes together, but the idea is always from Clarke. She's always the mastermind behind it. She's always got the plan.
"Bellamy, how opposed are you to wearing leather?"
He glances at her quickly with furrowed brows and then turns back to keep his eyes on the road. "I'm sorry. What?"
She laughs. "It's for one of the ideas I had for the group costume. I need to know how comfortable you'd be in leather."
"Um...well, I can't remember ever wearing leather before, so I don't know how comfortable I feel in it."
She nods. "Okay. Well, that's good to know."
He quirks a brow at her. "Should I be worried about whatever costume you have in mind?"
"Have I ever asked you to wear something for Halloween that you weren't completely comfortable in?"
He sighs. "No."
"Okay. So then I don't know why you'd be worried. I never said your entire costume would be leather."
"Yeah, but you also never said what part, if any, of it would be leather. I'm sorry if that makes me a little concerned."
She laughs. "I promise I won't make you wear anything too crazy or uncomfortable."
"I appreciate that, thank you." He glances through the rearview mirror at his sister. "What about you, O? Have you started thinking about your Halloween costume yet?"
Octavia shakes her head. "No. Clarke, can you help me come up with something again? I want it to be awesome."
"Well, obviously," Clarke remarks with a small smile. "Being something awesome for Halloween is a given. We can brainstorm some ideas after school if you want."
"Okay."
Bellamy smiles to himself as he drives, listening absentmindedly to Clarke and Octavia's continued conversation. Those two really are like sisters at this point, and he knows they see each other that way. It certainly helps that Clarke is always willing to hang out with Octavia and look out for her whenever he can't do it himself. And she does it because she genuinely wants to, not out of any kind of obligation.
Soon enough, they're dropping Octavia at her school and then continuing down the road to their own. The radio plays softly, filling the silence between them as Clarke sketches in her notebook. How she's able to sketch so well in a moving car is completely beyond him. He figures it comes from years of practice, though.
"Do you think Monty and Jasper would be annoyed if they weren't in matching costumes this year?"
Bellamy snorts. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say yes."
"I figured as much. Just wanted a second opinion." She continues sketching, her head tilting from side to side and that small, adorable crease appearing between her eyebrows just like always.
He quickly shakes the thought off and clears his throat as quietly as he can, shifting a little in his seat. He rolls up to a traffic light and stops when it turns from yellow to red, peering into the passenger seat to try and get a look at whatever Clarke is drawing.
"Hey, quit it."
He sighs when Clarke shoots him a glare and twists her notebook so it's no longer in his view. "I just want to see what you're drawing."
"Not a chance."
"You can't make an exception just this once? For me?"
She shakes her head. "You have to wait until it's finished, just like everyone else."
He sighs again, pulling forward when the light turns green. "Fine. I'll wait. I'm not happy about it, though."
"Tough." She's quiet for another moment, settling back into her seat and continuing to sketch. "You have a game tomorrow, right?"
He nods. "Yeah. You going?"
"Don't I always?" she responds, giving him an incredulous look, as if he should know better.
He gives a one-shoulder shrug. "Well, yeah. But I figured it's Friday night and it isn't a major game so you might be hanging out with Finn or something."
She shakes her head, erasing part of her sketch. "He's busy with something else. I'm gonna see if he wants to go to Josephine's party next weekend, though."
Bellamy raises an eyebrow in her direction, looking at her just long enough for his surprise to get across. "You're going to Josephine's party? Really?" He turns into the parking lot at the school, quickly finding a space and pulling in. "You never go to parties."
She rolls her eyes, putting her drawing away. "I go to some parties."
He shifts the gear into park and shuts off the engine, pulling the keys from the ignition and turning in his seat to face her. "So why this one? What's so special about it?"
She shrugs. "I don't know. I just feel like Finn and I have kind of been drifting apart lately, almost like we're out of sync. Figured this might be a nice way for us to kind of reconnect, in a sense. I know he probably won't know anyone there besides whoever of the group is going, but I was planning on hanging out with him the whole night anyway."
"Well, for what it's worth, I hope you figure out whatever's going on there." He gives her a small smile. "You're happy when you're with him and I like seeing you happy."
She smiles back. "Thanks. He is pretty great. Now come on." She grabs her backpack and climbs out of the car, closing the door behind her.
Bellamy chuckles and steps out of his car, grabbing his backpack out of the backseat and then following Clarke up to the school.
"You're gonna go to the party, right?" Clarke asks him as they get closer to the school. "I figured if you're going, and Finn can't, then I'll just grab a ride with you."
"I don't know if I'm gonna go. You know it's not really my thing."
"But it could be fun for you," she tries to convince him. "You could spread your social feathers and talk to more people, and they could all get to know you as more than just a football player."
He shrugs, reaching out to hold open the door for her. "I'm fine how I am."
She steps through the door at a slight angle so she's still looking at him. "Really? Because unless you absolutely have to, you hardly talk to anyone who's not a part of our immediate friend group. You're a junior, Bellamy, you need to broaden your social horizons."
He follows her through the door, falling into step beside her as they make their way down the hallway. "Hey, not all of us can be naturally gifted with people skills that allow them to make friends everywhere they go."
She rolls her eyes at him. "I don't make friends everywhere I go."
He snorts. "Sure you don't. But I told you, I'm fine with how things are."
She stops walking and turns to look at him, placing a gentle hand on his arm. "Promise me you'll at least think about it?"
He watches her carefully, analyzing every bit of her face; the way her beautiful blue eyes watch him back, the way her brows are perfectly knit together just the slightest bit, the way she just barely bites on the side of her bottom lip. He fully knows that she knows that it's practically impossible for him to say 'no' to her.
He sighs heavily, nodding. "Fine. I'll think about it."
She beams. "Great." She squeezes his arm and then turns to continue down the hall toward the cafeteria where the rest of their friends are probably already waiting for them.
He simply follows behind her, doing his best to push back that image of Clarke in his head. He cannot be letting his thoughts wander. He can't risk losing focus and acting on impulse and completely ruining everything they've built over their years of friendship. He already told her that everything is platonic between them. He can't make her think he was lying. Even though he was most definitely lying.
.
.
.
"Please?"
"No."
"Please, Clarke?"
"Monty, I said no."
Bellamy smiles in amusement as he approaches the lunch table, setting his food down and falling into the chair beside Clarke. "So what's going on over here?" he asks, dropping his bag at his feet and scooting his chair closer to the table.
"She's being stubborn," Monty complains, pointing at Clarke.
Bellamy snorts. "And this is news to you?"
Clarke, on her part, simply huffs and shoots Jasper a glare. Then she turns to him and her face softens just the slightest. "He keeps trying to suggest group costumes."
Bellamy sucks in a breath. "Ooh, Monty, bad move. You know how Clarke gets."
"But…"
Bellamy shakes his head. "Nope. End of discussion. Clarke's never steered us wrong yet with a group costume, she's not gonna start now. Once she's picked something out, she'll tell us, and we'll all pitch in to help put everything together. Just like we do every year."
Monty sighs heavily, his shoulders slumping. "Fine. But my idea was awesome."
Bellamy narrows his eyes. "Monty."
The boy in question holds his hands up momentarily, shooting an apologetic look at him, and then turns back to his food and his conversation with Harper.
Clarke lets out another heavy breath. "Thanks for backing me up."
He looks at her and smiles. "Anytime, you know that. I'm surprised Monty was getting to you, though. He usually doesn't."
She shakes her head. "It's not him. Not really. It hasn't been an easy morning."
He frowns. "What happened between this morning when you were all chipper and now?"
"Finn. I know I can't force him to go to the party next weekend, but I really want him to. I think it'll be good for us, and it'll also give everyone else a chance to get to know him better too. I just really want things to work out." She frowns. "It was probably stupid to jump into another relationship so soon."
Bellamy's frown deepens, remembering all too well the brief relationship she was in at the beginning of her freshman year that had started that summer. It was a couple of months after she came out as bisexual, and she started dating a girl from the nearby private school. He doesn't remember the girl's name; he pushed everything specific he knew about her out of his mind after the breakup as a gesture of solidarity for Clarke. All he really remembers is that Clarke fell hard for the girl, and the other girl completely broke her heart. He doesn't know the intimate details of what happened (Harper had been the confidant for that situation), just that Clarke had been absolutely devastated and slept at his place for a week straight.
And then a few weeks later she started dating Finn. He doesn't want to call it a rebound, and he doesn't know exactly what happened for Clarke to agree to date Finn so soon after her other relationship ended, but he just wants her to be safe. He wants her heart to be protected, to not be broken so badly again. But he knows there's only so much he can do.
"Hey, do you want me to talk to him for you?" he offers. "Maybe I can convince him to go to the party."
Clarke looks up and smiles softly at him. "Thanks. But you don't have to do that. I can figure this out. If he doesn't want to go to the party, it doesn't mean I can't still go and have an awesome time without him."
He smiles. "That's the spirit."
"And maybe I'll try a beer for the first time, too. It's a Josephine Lightbourne party, she's bound to have loads of it there."
"Why don't we figure it out one thing at a time? You figure out if Finn's gonna go to the party too, and then we'll figure out the beer thing. Which, personally, I don't think is a good idea, but I know if you want to have a drink or two, I can't stop you from doing so."
"Other than picking me up and carrying me away," she remarks offhandedly.
He chuckles, remembering the first and only time he did that. "Which I know you don't like, so I won't do it."
"I appreciate that, thanks."
"That's what friends are for."
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Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!