single moms are ugly... and other lies | clexa AU

twenty two

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Lexa isn't punctual on Wednesday for Madi's lesson, which is highly unusual.

It's not five minutes though. It's not ten minutes. It's not fifteen.

After thirty minutes, Clarke calls.

Lexa doesn't pick up.

After an hour and dozens of missed calls and texts, she grabs her car keys, but before she can leave, her phone buzzes.

hey. can't make it today.

That's all. Clarke huffs frustrated. Lexa can cancel the lesson of course, but not afterwards with this little explanation. Five minutes later, she gets another notification from Instagram.

lexawoods has shared a post

Okay, cool that she has time to share a post on Instagram but not to text Clarke properly. Clarke checks it out and almost drops her phone.

It's Lexa on a beach, with a girl in her arms, kissing her. A woman younger than Clarke. Probably no kids. There's another photo to the post, a planeticket with a lipstick kiss and a scribbled number and 'call me'.

What the fuck?

She asks Lexa the exact same question, but Lexa doesn't answer. She's online, though. Clarke can't believe that this would be the way Lexa tells her she's not interested after all, especially not after last weekend.

She thought they had something. She thought Lexa wanted to try. She thought Lexa was her girlfriend.

Her girlfriend, kissing other girls in some pretty paradise she has spontaneously travelled to instead of doing her job. Clarke is angry, but mostly she wants to cry.

One boyfriend leaving with all the furniture and one girlfriend leaving with her heart to kiss other girls.

Then, she notices the caption and has to restrain herself from throwing her phone out of the window. It says 'eat, sleep, fuck, repeat' and it's the cheapest break-up line Clarke could have ever imagined.

She does cry. And she tells Lexa she's fired.

-

Her mom is supposed to come for dinner but Clarke's a single mess. She can rip open a frozen pizza and shove it in the oven, but that's it.

Abby is even more of a mess visiting though, and she doesn't even seem surprised about Clarke's swollen face.

"Long shift at the hospital?" Clarke asks and Abby nods mutely, staring ahead into an empty nothing.

"And you? Are you okay?"

"Not really."

Abby hums, like she knows, although she can't. "I'm sorry."

"I made pizza. Kind of."

"I'm not really hungry."

"You probably haven't had a meal today."

"Okay."

So they sit down and eat their pizza and Clarke asks, "Are you just tired or did someone not make it?"

"I don't know if she'll make it. She's a fighter, she made it to the hospital, which is practically a wonder. She's mostly stable now, but we can't be sure."

"Who's 'she'?" Clarke asks in an attempt to get her mother to talk at least a little about it, but doesn't expect Abby to stare at her as incredulously as she does.

"What- you don't- you don't know?"

"I don't know what?"

"Wait, why were you crying?"