Chapter Text
Here is a list of things that Clarke Griffin will happily admit to liking;
Pickles
Boys
Girls
Shitty action films with gratuitous explosions
Raspberry wine coolers
Grape wine coolers
Pretty much every flavour of wine cooler except tropical, because tropical is not a flavour, it’s an adjective used to describe the areas of the tropics, or hot and humid weather. It’s not a goddamn flavour
Eating frozen packet cookie dough
Dogs
Shitty celebrity magazines
It’s a long list, and we could go on like this for days, so it’s probably best to go onto list number two.
Here is a list of things that Clarke Griffin, under pain of being held down and tickled until she cries, and/or pees herself, will not admit to liking;
Terrible teen vampire romance novels, with dark and mysterious men, and idiotic girls who are basically as stupid and oblivious as you can get
Terrible teen vampire romance novels, with dark and mysterious men, and idiotic girls who are basically as stupid and oblivious as you can get – made into even more terrible films.
Her mother’s taste in;
a) shoes
b) boxed wine and
c) terrible teen vampire romance novels (as listed above)
And last, and perhaps, most importantly,
Bellamy Blake
Now, there are only a few reasons that Clarke can come up with (that make sense to a reasonable human being) for not admitting that she likes Bellamy Blake.
a) He’s her best mate’s brother
b) He’s her best mate’s significantly older brother
c) They live together
d) He’s seeing someone clearly more appropriate – i.e. not his sister’s best mate, and within the acceptable age bracket
e) Also did I mention that they live together
And when I say ‘like’, I mean, as in, ‘like like’. Really ‘like like’.
I feel as if there is a possibility I might have used the word like a few too many times, but you get the drift.
Clarke is a relatively intelligent person. She has reasoned out this in serious detail.
a) He’s her best mate’s brother.
It’s weird to date your friend’s sibling. What if you break up? You’re not just mangling one relationship, you’re mangling two. Octavia is the kind of friend that you know will back family. It’s not a judgement on her part, it’s how she is. You can’t fault her for that, it’s fantastic that no matter what, the Blake’s have each other’s backs. Clarke, being the sort of person that has a very distinct, relatively small circle of close friends, cannot afford to lose one of the best people in her life, because she fucked up, and dated the sibling of her best friend. She’s smart. She’s done the calculations. It’s a low chance that she and Bellamy Blake are ‘meant to be’ and this is some whacked out fairy-tale where everything ends just as you dream it. Clarke’s been to that crazy, epic level of high before. It doesn’t happen without some really high quality illegal substances.
b) He’s her best mate’s significantly older brother.
Ok, so it’s not like a ten-year age gap or something like that. It’s three and a half years. It’s forty-one months and six days. Like I said, Clarke did the calculations. Three and a half years is nothing in the big scheme of things, but it’s a hell of a difference at seventeen and a bit. It’s the difference between can’t vote, or legally purchase alcohol and actually an adult. In five years, this difference will be nothing, but right now, Clarke’s crushing on someone for whom dating her could get him arrested. So, yeah, kind of a big deal.
Also, the fact he’s the sole guardian of said best mate after their mother passed away just after Bellamy’s nineteenth birthday, means that if by all matter of miracles, Bellamy and Clarke did get together, and he did get arrested, Octavia gets put into the foster system because her brother is no longer a suitable guardian because he dated a seventeen-year-old. I know, such a great way to send off a fantastic childhood friend.
c) They live together and e) Also did I mention that they live together.
I know I said this twice, but it’s kind of critically important. Clarke lives with the Blake’s because about six months ago, Jake Griffin came home with an incredible opportunity - to lead an in depth study into the effects of climate change on large animals, and more specifically, large animal predator-prey relationships. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, the sort of thing that makes you the leader in the field, and basically lets you do whatever the hell you want, because you have enough grant money to buy a small island.
Do you know where the largest population of large animals, especially large animal predator-prey relationships is?
Africa.
Abby Griffin, at the time, was a doctor, specialising in trauma medicine, but had always wanted to look further into the medical issues that went hand in hand with abject poverty. It was a match made in heaven when she discovered a medium level research position looking at how to get cheap healthcare to rural areas in Kenya. It also included hands-on field work. Basically the position that would allow her both research and provide hands on help. It was perfect.
Clarke strongly disagreed.
The discussion (argument) went basically like this.
Clarke: I want to finish my schooling here.
Abby and Jake: But this is a great opportunity.
Clarke: My friends are here, and I don’t want to move across the world, learn and a new language while trying to get the marks I need for university.
Abby and Jake: But this is a great opportunity.
Clarke: I can drive, you aren’t selling the house, I can stay here, finish my schooling out, then come out there for university.
Abby and Jake: But this is a great opportunity.
You can see where this is going? Good. Pretty much any argument Clarke made, her parents countered with ‘but this is a great opportunity’. It gets repetitive very quickly.
Finally, in a fit of anger, Clarke yelled, “If you don’t trust me, then let me move in with Octavia. Bellamy’s got his shit together. If it doesn’t work after the first three months, I’ll move to the middle-of-fucking-no-where-Kenya, ok?”
Her parents, rather than responding with, ‘but this is a great opportunity’, fell silent, and looked at each other.
“Let us talk this over, and we’ll think about it.”
That was all the hope Clarke needed. She bolted up the stairs, into her bedroom, and immediately dialled the Blake household.
“Hi, this is Octavia.”
“Octavia, it’s Clarke. My parents want me to move to Africa. I somehow suggested that I move in with you. Don’t ask me how, I honestly don’t know.”
“Great to speak with you too Clarke. I’m well, thanks for asking.” Octavia paused. “Africa? Why?”
“My dad got some great research position. Mum found herself the dream job. Apparently it’s the opportunity of lifetime, and that’s great and all, but we’re just about to hit the last year of school, and I really want to stick it out here. My parents somehow believe your brother has his shit sorted enough to want to take on a second teenage girl. It was a stupid suggestion.”
“Nah mate, Bell is literally the least put together person in the universe. He fell getting into the shower this morning, smacked his face on the shampoo bottle and gave himself a black eye. The floor was completely dry. He’s an idiot, but he’s my idiot, so together, we go ok.”
“Could you, like, hint somehow that my parents are going to ask him if I can move in with you guys? I feel like that’s a thing he should probably have prior warning of. Also, so I know if it’s an outright no, and I should be packing my shit to head off to the land of lions and elephants.”
“OI BELL!” Octavia covers the phone speaker as she yells, but Clarke can hear the echo of it through their small apartment. “I NEED TO ASK YOU ABOUT A THING!”
“You don’t need to do it now!” Clarke’s hiss is drowned out by the answering Blake yell.
“GIMME LIKE A MINUTE O. LET A MAN PEE IN PEACE FOR GOD’S SAKE!”
“I’m going to put you on speaker now.”
“Oh my god, Octavia, don’t. just. forget about it, jeez.” Despite the fact that she’s alone, Clarke is relatively sure her cheeks are so red, they can be seen from space.
“So what did you want to ask me, O?”Bellamy’s voice was much clearer now. “Who’son the phone?”
“Clarke. She has a thing she needs to ask you.” Octavia wasn’t, wheedling, exactly, but her tone of voice was the one she used whenever she needed Bellamy to pick her up late from a party, or cook pancakes for her and Clarke after a sleepover.
“What did you want me to do for you, Clarke? I will be the protective older pseudo-brother and pick you up from whatever party you need me to at whatever ridiculous time of night.” Clarke knew the exact facial expression that Bellamy would have on. Slight smile, full of fond exasperation.
“Well,I had an argument with my parents about moving to Africa, and in the heat of the moment, I threw out the idea that insteadofmovingtoAfricaImoveinwithyouguys.” The end of the sentence was so rushed; Bellamy didn’t catch it.
“Slow down and repeat that again, and then tell me why your parents are moving to Africa.”
“Ok. So my dad got this incredible thing for work, running his own research team, but it’s in Africa, on big animals. Then mum found a job that she would love to have as well, and then there’s just me, and I don’t want to move. So, like I said, in the heat of the moment, I kind of, accidently, insinuated to my parents that instead of moving to Africa, that you were some kind of reasonably competent adult, and that I could move in with you and Octavia.” Clarke’s voice trailed off at the end. There was an inevitable ‘no’ coming. She knew this, and that’s why she hadn’t wanted to ask, and instead have Octavia do it, then she could cry alone about it, instead of trying to muffle her sniffles over the phone.
Of course Bellamy didn’t want to have to take care of yet another seventeen-year-old. She shouldn’t have even suggested it, and now he was going to feel guilty, and Octavia was going to feel guilty, and the whole thing would be a shemozzle.
Bellamy took a deep breath. This was bad. “Look, Clarke, I wouldn’t mind, honest, you’re a way more stable person than O.”
“Dickhead.”
Clarke heard the siblings tussle for a minute, before Bellamy continued.
“But we live in a tiny apartment, and it’s only got two bedrooms, and while I’m surprised and overjoyed that your parents consider me a competent adult, it just wouldn’t work.”
At this point, Clarke was sure her sniffles could be heard over the phone.
“Please don’t cry. Please. I feel really bad, but you just wouldn’t fit, unless we moved to a bigger place, and then there’s rent and it gets complicated.”
“Are you one hundred percent serious about it being fine except for housing?” Her parent’s weren’t going to sell the house, just rent it out while they were in Africa, at least for the first year. “And if so... How much longer is your rental agreement?”
“Yeah, I’m serious. What’s another teenage girl? I clearly haven’t fucked up too badly yet.” One of the Blake’s smothered a laugh. Probably Octavia. “Rental agreement is up in about two months. I’d planned to speak to the agency about it next week. Why?”
“What if we all lived in my house?”
And eventually, after various dinners/planning sessions, and speaking with Clarke’s school, and only a small amount of legalese, both Octavia and Bellamy Blake were set to move into 76 Alpha Crescent the week after both adult Griffins spread their wings and flew to Africa.
It’s been four months, and everything works relatively smoothly. The Blake’s don’t pay any rent, and Clarke receives two hundred dollars a week that goes mainly towards food and fuel for the secondhand jeep she drives to and from school. She skypes her parents at least once a week, and they seem to be really enjoying their time, exploring the new culture and their dream jobs. It’s like a second honeymoon, only there’s work, but apparently, they both have some sort of ‘new lease on life’.
Barring the whole, ’I want to date my best friend’s brother, who is also currently functioning as the adult in my life’ thing, Clarke is having a great time. She lives with her best friend, no ‘real’ adults, and a hot guy who makes her breakfast and watches history documentaries in his spare time.
This pretty much shuts down any miniscule dating chances Clarke had, because if she fucks this whole situation up, she has to move to Africa. Which, would, ya know, really suck after spending all this time convincing her parents to let her stay. Plus, she really doesn’t want to move to Africa. Clarke is sure it’s great and everything, but she really, really doesn’t want to go.
And this brings us to reason;
d) He’s seeing someone clearly more appropriate – i.e. not his sister’s best mate, and within the acceptable age bracket
So, unawares to Clarke, in the two months prior to the whole ‘Africa’ and ‘moving in’ debacles, Bellamy has been, well, dating is probably a little too much of a label, so we’ll go with, ‘hanging out with’ a girl by the name of Echo Reynolds. She’s willowy and dark haired, with eyes that can probably see into your soul. She’s twenty-one, and recently hired at the bar that Bellamy works at while he studies part-time. The first time Clarke sees her is helping to move Bellamy and Octavia’s belongings out of their apartment. She’s not the only person giving them a hand, so Clarke assumes she’s a friend of Bellamy or Miller’s (brought along to help with the heavy lifting, with the promise of a six pack of craft beer and the next football game on the massive flat-screen at the Blake-Griffin house), doing what friends do, lending a hand.
However, later that night, after everything has been dumped on the floor of the various rooms it belongs in, and everyone has gone home, Bellamy asks her if she met Echo.
“Yeah? The tall girl in the ‘scuba diver’s do it deeper’ shirt. Seems nice. Why do you ask?” The three now roommates are spread out on the couches that Clarke’s parents left behind, Bellamy with a beer, and two open packets of taco chips on the floor, in lieu of a coffee table that was now in Africa.
“Well, Octavia likes her, and I just though you should know who she was, because she might be over here, sometimes,” Bellamy pulls at the label on his beer bottle, “You, know, like, in the mornings, sometimes, and stuff.”
“You two are dating?”
“Kind of? Echo’s not really into labels and stuff, so I’m chill, but I just wanted to let you know. Your parents said I was ok to have people here, and just to give them a heads up if anything serious changed, but we’ve only been seeing each other for a couple of months, and it’s pretty casual, but I wanted to give you a heads up.” Bellamy looks up at her, and bites his lip. He doesn’t look awkward or anything, just trying to gauge how she feels about the whole thing. He knows it’s gonna be a little weird for a while, because it’s always been BellamyandOctavia, and Clarke’s only ever lived with her parents, so he’s trying to be as open and chill as he can.
“It’s fine. It doesn’t bother me. Thanks for the heads up though.” Clarke smiles and nods in a way that she hopes is encouraging.
“Shhhh.” Octavia waves a hand at them, from where she is draped sideways over a lounge chair. “They’re announcing the next challenge. I hope it’s something stupid, like that time with the naked modelling on the beach for jeans. Please involve hot male models, I’ve got my fingers crossed.”
Bellamy rolls his eyes, takes a pull from his beer and he and Clarke both re-focus on the most recent episode of ‘America’s Next Top Model’.
So there you have it. Every really good reason Clarke has for never ever admitting that she likes Bellamy Blake. Everything is, thus far, working out just fine.
You know exactly where this is going, right?