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Murphy doesn’t consider himself much of a sap.
The levels of affection in his friend group are frankly a little bit weird to him, and no matter how many times he tells Octavia that certain things are too personal for the group chat, he can’t seem to escape it. At least the stoic badass is a reputation he can hold in the group.
Which is why it’s so damn frustrating when they stalk him and Emori on dates.
Okay, so they’re not stalking him this time, they’re all getting ice cream together, but the point still stands. Emori is chatting to Lincoln, and Murphy can’t help but smile at her. This is the first time Clarke’s met Emori, and they’re hitting it off like a house on fire. Or they are at the moment. Murphy’s not sure yet how Clarke will respond when she realises that Emori has stolen her purse and room key ‘to give back later’. He thinks she’s probably having a lot of fun with a new girl who doesn’t yet know that Emori has a history of pickpocketing. She calls it her dark past, but Murphy suspects she quite enjoyed it, even if she doesn’t do it anymore.
Miller taps his shoulder and shows him a picture of him smiling at Emori like some kind of loser. Or like Jasper and Monty. Murphy hits him over the head and he retracts his phone. Ten seconds later, the table is filled with the pinging of the group chat.
Chat: octavia blake and the criminals
miller: [soft-boy.jpeg]
bellamy: that’s gonna be my wallpaper
murphy: fuck y’all
murphy: i will tell my lovely gf to steal all your keys again
raven: if she switches all the numbers again i will take off my brace and hit her with it
raven: THAT TOOK HOURS TO FIGURE OUT
jasper: it was like a riddle
clarke: GUYS it’s rude to text at the table poor emori
clarke: that photo is so cute though omg
murphy: fuck you clarke you’re not my mother
miller: she sorta is
Murphy glares halfheartedly at his phone, about to type a response, when a notification pops up reminding him about his first period Geometry quiz in the morning. He swears under his breath.
He grabs Emori and pulls her to the side. "I gotta go. I'll see you later though?"
She nods, kissing him on the cheek briefly. He tries to slip off without any of his friends noticing - they're notorious for being concerned at the slightest sign of odd behaviour - but Bellamy catches him before he's able to open the door.
"Murph? You heading back?" he asks. "Want me to walk with you?"
"It's cool, Bell. I just gotta study," he responds. "I'll see you back at the dorm."
Bellamy frowns, but nods, and jogs back over to Clarke when she yells his name. Murphy sighs. He'd love to stay out with the group, despite the state of chaos the group is usually in that often drives him up the wall, but he can't afford to flunk another test. He promised Jaha he was turning over a new leaf.
"Murphy!" It’s Monty, and he's following him down the street, arms wrapped around his middle. It's pretty cold for September.
"You should have a coat on, dweeb," Murphy notes, walking back up the path. "What are you doing out here anyways? You should be celebrating Jasper finally getting his head out of his ass."
"It was pretty far up there," Monty laughs. "Bellamy said you were heading back to study? For Geometry, right?"
"Yeah. The test in the morning."
"Need any help?"
"I'm good," Murphy tries hard not to let Monty see the uncertainty on his face. He wants him to stay with Jasper. It's not his business to save Murphy's grades. He needs to do that himself.
"You sure?"
"Monty, stop. Go back inside. I don't need your help." Murphy's voice is sharp, and he sees Monty recoil a little. "Sorry. That was unnecessary."
"It's cool," Monty shrugs. "I'll see you back at school."
Murphy nods, a little regretful, and sets off on his own. He’s barely out of sight before Clarke catches up to him. “Jesus Christ,” he groans.
“Don’t worry, I’m not here for you. My mom wants to talk to me, so I’ll be out of your hair in a minute. I just need to drop some stuff off at the dorms.”
They walk in silence for a minute before Murphy’s phone beeps. Grateful for something to do, he checks it.
Chat: emori
emori: um are you with Clarke
murphy: yeah she caught me :/
emori: damn she’s persistent i don’t even think her mom called her
emori: anywayyyy
emori: she left really quickly i still have her keys and her purse
murphy: FUCKING HELL EM
emori: this is such a bad first impression omg
murphy: run and catch us we’re not that far ahead
emori: me??? run??? lol i’m sending miller after you
murphy: ugh fine
murphy: for the record clarke and i are going to have to stop and my human interaction is being dragged out
emori: tell her you’re in a hurry then dumbass
murphy: :/ <3
“Um, Clarke?” Murphy says awkwardly. She looks surprised to see him start a conversation. “This is gonna sound weird, but we have to stop so Miller can catch up and give you your purse and keys back.”
“I left them at the cafe? That’s weird, I don’t remember taking them out of my bag.” Clarke frowns and rifles through her satchel.
“You didn’t take them out. Emori did.”
“Your girlfriend? Why?”
“It’s just a thing she does. She was gonna give them back, I promise, you just left really fast.”
Clarke still looks perplexed but seems to accept this. “Did she steal any of your stuff? Aside from your heart?” She’s wearing a shit-eating grin now, and he rolls his eyes.
“Clarke, I know you think I secretly have a heart of gold, but I will push you in front of a car.”
She laughs at him in response, folding her arms in what Murphy assumes is an attempt to keep warm. He rolls his eyes.
"Why are none of you wearing appropriate clothing?" he scowls.
"It's summer!"
"It's September. Here," he takes off his jacket and drapes it over her shoulders.
She looks at him, eyes narrowed, and he feels self-conscious all of a sudden. "What?"
"You're not so bad, are you, Murphy?" she replies, letting her mouth curl up in a smile.
"Whatever you want, Clarke," he sighs, but he can't help the grin fighting its way onto his face.
They don't have to wait long before Miller rounds the corner, beanie haphazardly placed on his head. He's clutching Clarke's stuff in his hands.
"Emori's weird, man. She just handed these to me and said 'say nothing' and told me to find you," Miller says, falling into step beside them. "I'm a little scarred."
"She's so great," Murphy says proudly. Clarke snorts.
They enter into compatible silence for the rest of the walk back. Once they've signed in, Murphy bids the other two goodbye and heads upstairs, flicking the light switch as he enters the room. He grimaces when he notices that Sammy has fallen over, and vows to fix him when he gets up in the morning. If he remembers.
He walks reluctantly over to his desk, flicking open his textbook and grabbing his notebook out of his backpack. He loaths math, and the only thing that usually makes it bearable is Monty, but he's back at the cafe with his boyfriend and there's nothing Murphy can do about that.
An hour and a half later, he’s made it through a couple of chapters they covered in class fairly easily, but the third one has him thrown. With a groan, he snaps a picture of the questions and sends it to Monty.
Chat: monty
murphy: [hell.jpeg]
murphy: what the fuck is this
monty: lol good question
monty: monty went to the bathroom this is jasper
murphy: you saw his phone password?
monty: i also saw him naked it’s nbd
murphy: ew jasper
monty: my bad i’m back
monty: the real monty not that faker
monty: shit that’s a hard one but basically
Monty starts to type out long detailed instructions that make a lot less sense without his arm waving and enthusiastic voice.
Chat: monty
monty: ok that’s it i think
murphy: thanks but i think i’ll just poke my eyes out
monty: :(
monty: i'll be over as soon as we're done here
murphy: jaha says i probably have dyscalculia
murphy: also stop wasting your time with me go sleep with your bf
monty: first of all- not a waste of time! You are TOO HARD on yourself
monty: second of all- i can totally do both
murphy: ugh fine it’s your funeral
monty: <3
Murphy gives up on the worksheet for the time being and sets about trying to fix Sammy. Miller had broken two of the skeleton’s toes last year when he had slammed him into a wall as a threat. The toes were currently held together with sellotape and Raven had lent them a glue gun to reattach his foot. He had slightly mis-aimed the whole thing, and Miller had to ‘bravely volunteer’ to take him to the nurse’s office where Abby detached his hand from his trouser leg and Miller shamelessly flirted with Jackson in the waiting room.
By the time he's done fixing Sammy, he hears Monty's telltale knock on his door.
"Come in," he yells.
Monty opens the door, sheepishly dragging Jasper by the hand.
"I'm sorry, he's being clingy," Monty says, an apologetic expression on his face. Jasper squawks in indignantly in response.
"It's cool," Murphy replies, walking back over to his desk. "As long as you can help me with these damn problems, I don't care."
"Can do." Monty drags Bellamy's desk chair up to Murphy's desk and sits down. Jasper throws himself onto Miller's bed, already engrossed in some episode of something on his phone. Murphy can't help but glance fondly over at him, and he sort of hates himself for it.
Jasper may be ridiculous, but he's clever, especially when it comes to Chemistry. He's crap at emotions but everyone knows how much he loves Monty, the math genius and engineering god. Raven's pretty much the smartest girl in the school, and Bellamy is Kane's favourite. Even Clarke has managed to impress half the teachers in the school and she's only been at Ark for a week.
He could be doing so much better.
Monty gets halfway into explaining the first problem when he notices something is wrong.
"Murphy?" he asks. "Everything okay?"
"All good, Green," he manages to say, attempting to push back his worries about failing out at the end of the year. He'll cross that bridge when he comes to it.
Monty scrunches his nose up, and Jasper shouts “Cute!” from Miller’s bed. He’s taken his headphones off and looks a little concerned. “You sure you’re okay, Murphy?”
“Fine.” he says irritably, tapping the desk with his pen. “Math. Help.”
He must be gripping the pen a bit too hard because Monty sighs and takes away the geometry book.
“Well, that’s not gonna help,” he deadpans. “I don’t know the answers, I should at least know the questions.”
Monty and Jasper are clearly having none of this. Monty jiggles the back of his chair. “Get up. We’re going to our room.”
“I’m not having sex with you. That’s not stress relief.” Murphy says, but gets up to follow them anyway. “Seriously, guys.”
“Obviously not,” Jasper tells him. “You’re gonna sit on the bed with a Spongebob toy surrounded by lava lamps, because we’re not allowed candles anymore, and you’re gonna chill the fuck out.”
“We’re here to help.” Monty fiddles with the key to their room. “If we have to lock you in here, we will.”
“Oh God, please don’t.” Murphy feels like he’s stepped into some weird seance. Probably to talk to that stupid fucking gorilla they got so obsessed with. “This is terrifying enough as it is.”
Somehow, entering Jasper and Monty's room calms him down immediately. Considering their room is both messy and lit solely by lava lamps, he's not sure how it creates that effect, but maybe it's the carefree attitude of the room's owners that seems to be helping.
"Now, sit down," Jasper orders. "Tell dad what's wrong."
Murphy shoots Jasper a glare as he makes himself comfortable on Monty's bed. "Never say that again. Jesus."
Monty and Jasper make themselves comfortable on Jasper's bed opposite him. Murphy tries not to let the weird, sappy feeling he gets as Monty curls himself into Jasper's side show on his face, but it proves a difficult task.
"Alright," he groans, collapsing facefirst onto Monty's pillow. "I'll admit it. You guys are cute."
Jasper grins. "Thanks for that, but we really just want to make sure you're okay. You've seemed grumpy recently, but like, more so than usual.”
“Mm hmm,” he grunts, not moving his face, “School. I know you lot are geniuses and it’s super easy for you, but not everyone has that.”
He can’t see them, but he knows that Jasper and Monty are probably frowning at each other, the way his parents used to do when he threw a tantrum. Much like then, he still feels inferior, and like he’s ruining their day.
Something soft hits him gently in the shoulder, and he moves his head slightly to see the cuddly Pikachu that had been on the floor. Jasper gives him a dorky shrug.
“Murphy,” Monty says. “Talk to us.”
“I literally hate that idea. Please, anything but therapy with you two.”
“I really wish the school let us have a Wii in here,” Jasper says mournfully. “We could have played Mario Kart.”
“Shame, now we really are gonna have to talk about your feelings.” Monty shifts so he’s not sitting on Jasper anymore, and leans forward. “I know you complain about us to Emori all the time. Just pretend we’re Emori.”
“I am not pretending you two are my girlfriend.” Murphy raises his hands. “That would be weird, even for this friend group.”
“Murphy!”
“Ugh, fine.” Murphy rolls his eyes. “I’m basically the odd one out here. I’m mean and stupid and-”
“Oh jeez, Murphy, hang on-” Jasper tries to interject.
“Let me finish!” he snaps, and Jasper looks helplessly at Monty, who just shakes his head.
"Sometimes I think you all just tolerate me. Monty only started talking to me properly because Jaha said that he had to tutor me. It's probably me being stupid, but whatever." He sighs into Monty's pillow. "Now I'm done."
There's silence for a few seconds. He's careful to avoid looking at the two of them, instead burying his head further into the pillow.
"Please leave my pillow alone," Monty jokes weakly.
"Murph," Jasper starts, but Murphy interjects.
"It's okay, Jas. I think I'd rather just lie here, if that's all the same to you."
"Okay," Monty gets up to grab his phone. "But just so you know, I may have only started talking to you because of Jaha, sure, but I've enjoyed getting to know you. I think the rest of the group would say the same."
Jasper picks up a comic book from the bedside table to flick through, chucking a couple at Murphy.
"Read those if you want," he offers, and turns to Monty. "Who are you texting?"
"Nobody important," he says, and Jasper frowns. When Murphy is distracted by the comic books, he shows him the screen.
Chat: bellamy, miller
monty: operation do something nice for ur roommate is ago
bellamy: ?????
monty: hes sad and hes worried abt failure and idk about you but i dont want him to feel like that
miller: what do you suggest????
monty: idk? we all help him? pick a subject and offer support. jasper can do chemistry, i can take math, bell history, shit like that
bellamy: i had no idea he was so worried about his grades
monty: yeah, poor guy
miller: where is he anyway???
monty: in our room reading comics
Murphy is unaware of exactly what Jasper and Monty are doing, but he knows they’re probably scheming to cheer him up. He wants to be annoyed with them for meddling, but they look so worried and earnest, and probably want him out of their room so they can get back to making out.
That last point in mind, he puts the comics down on the bed - they were rubbish anyway - and nods awkwardly at Jasper and Monty.
“Thanks, guys.” He starts to make for the door, but Jasper gets up quickly, and Murphy fears he may start blocking the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To my room, Jordan. Bell and Miller are gonna start getting antsy if I don’t show up, you know what they’re like, and then I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“He’s right.” Monty speaks up from the bed. “Once, I was supposed to meet Bellamy somewhere and I was half an hour late and he called my dad. They thought I’d been run over or abducted or something.”
“Had you?”
“Nah, I overslept.”
“See!” Murphy points at Monty. “Classic Bellamy! He came looking for you two when you were banging in the library.” They both look suitably embarrassed at that.
“Okay, fine. Talk to them, though. Don’t just mope about, I know what you three are like.” Monty pats his back. “See ya, Murph.”
Murphy mumbles a goodbye and heads out the door and down the hall to his room. He's half expecting it to be empty, but it doesn't surprise him too much when he sees Bellamy lying on his bed scrolling through his phone.
"Hey," he says, as Murphy shuts the door. "You missed the end of ice cream. Clarke mixed everyone's together and tried it. It was gross."
Murphy sighs. "I'm glad you had fun with your girlfriend, Bell."
"She's not my-" Bellamy begins to splutter, but Murphy waves him off.
"Save it, dude," he grumbles, falling face down onto his bed.
"Wow, Monty was right, you are upset," Bellamy's voice grows concerned. "Everything okay?"
"You've been talking to Monty about me? Why am I not surprised," Murphy drawls. "Where's Miller?"
"Snacks run," he says. "Don't change the subject. Is there anything I can do?"
"Unless you can give me your magical History powers, then no," he sighs, then continues. "I need to pass all my classes this year, that's all."
"You will!" Bellamy protests. "You're doing fine in everything aren't you?"
"I barely passed last year," Murphy retorts. "And this year's content is already causing my brain to hurt."
Sammy chooses this moment to topple over again, and Murphy groans. "That's the second time today. Fucks sake, Sammy."
"Leave the skeleton alone for a minute, Murphy.”
“That skeleton has a name, you know.” Murphy replies, dodging the topic again.
“Murphy! For God’s sake, just let us help you!” Bellamy looks a little frustrated now, and Murphy is thankful for Miller as he enters the room and throws some sweets onto his bed. He nods gratefully and takes a seat with a groan. There’s no avoiding this conversation with Bellamy and Miller. He should have stayed on Monty’s bed.
“Okay, so we have an idea. We’re all gonna tutor you.” Bellamy looks a little less worried and a little more proud of himself now.
“Um,” Murphy says. “You’re gonna do what?”
“Clarke’s drawing up a timetable.” Of course she is. “We’re all helping you in the subjects we’re best at. Monty will carry on teaching you math, I’ll take History, Jasper can do Chemistry, and so on.”
“You really don’t have to do that. What is this, some kind of charity?”
“If it was a charity, we’d have funding.” Miller throws a sweet into the air and catches it in his mouth. “This is out of the goodness of our hearts.”
“Everyone’s agreed. Raven even said she’ll stick strictly to the syllabus for Physics. Leave the explosions for her and Monty.”
“Great,” he says faintly. He wants to be sarcastic, or maybe just shout at them for being all sympathetic and irritating, but these are people he lives with and he can’t afford to mess with them right now.
He feels uncomfortable with the attention he's getting. It's not what he's used to. Most people's gazes skirt over him, focusing on his friends. He's not particularly good at anything, and so it feels weird to suddenly be in the spotlight.
"Don't worry, Murph," Bellamy says, reaching over to grab one of Miller's candy bars. "We're not gonna let you fall behind."
That's when it hits him that he's somewhere where people actually care. He takes his friends for granted and he really, really shouldn't.
Not wanting them to see the tears threatening to escape his eyes, he focuses on fixing Sammy, tuning out the argument Miller has started with Bellamy about the homework for Kane.
Once he feels safe enough to turn around, he smiles a little at the two of them.
"It's been a while since we changed Sammy up," he comments slyly. "It might be time."
Bellamy's eyes light up and Miller grins back wickedly.
"I'll text the group," he says.
The process of dressing Sammy is an activity that the group pretends they've all been dragged into by Murphy but secretly love. He is definitely is no stranger to the fights that occur when Jasper and Raven disagree about what hat he should wear for the next six months.
Whilst Miller texts the group, Murphy catches Bellamy's eye.
"Thank you," he murmurs.
Bellamy smiles, getting up and falling down on Murphy's bed next to him.
"No problem," he says, quietly. "We've got you."