Clarke The smell of musty books hits me like a sudden wind. Of course when you walk into a 98 year old library, what do you expect. I love to read the old fictional stories about girls rising up against the Capitol, and going against their factions to do what they love best. I guess it sort of makes me feel as if I could do something important too...
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"Hey, Clarke!" The book in my hand drops, and so does my stomach. The voice seems to make slow, deep cuts into my skin. Murphy. "It's great to see you here too." He says sarcastically. I slowly turn around as he walks closer.
"What do you want, Murphy?" I ask, trying to stay firm. He smirks and evil smirk, one that sends the taste of bile to my mouth.
"Oh you know what I want. So what do you say, Clarke?" He gets close enough so that we are breathing the same air. Murphy twirls one of my locks of hair between his fingers as his smile widens. "Come on I know you want it too."
"I want nothing to do with you." I yell, pushing him so he falls against a bookshelf ladder. Random people begin to shush and clouds of dust from the books float into the air. "You disgust me." I expect him to stay quiet, so I begin to walk away. But he doesn't. Instead, he laughs.
"You know, you're feisty, and that's what I like about you." He stands up, brushing the dirt and dust off of his ragged clothes. He spends too much of his time getting wasted. "You may hate me now, but we both know that I always...get what I want."
I run. I run far away. I go to the only place that I've recently felt safe in...Bellamy's room.
Bellamy "I was just folding your clothes for you, and it was like my stomach was cramping, but when I placed my hand over the area that was in pain, I felt a kick!" She is crying, although I'm not sure if it's tears of joy or of worry. "If this was normal, I would have already had two checkups, Bellamy. I need to make sure everything is okay." She grips my hand and pleads. Her eyes are heavy and dark, showing an obvious lack of sleep. I sigh.
"I'll see what I can do, mom but-"
"Thank you so much, Bell! You have no idea how much this relieves me. I promise, I will make this up to you!" She says. She squeezes my hand one more time before I hear a knock on the door. "Oh, come in." Mom says, a little shaken up.
Finally. Clarke walks through the door. She told me that she would be a the library for her two hour break, so I had to find some other way to pass time then some up with excuses to press the I-need-the-nurse-right-away button.
"Good evening." She try's to muster up a happy tone...but something isn't right. "Um, Mrs. Blake, I'm afraid that it's 7:30 and I'm going to have to ask you to retire for the night." Clarke purses her lips together, looking at the ground.
"Of-of course." My mother leaves, leaving Clarke, still staring at the ground, with me. Her eyes are on the verge of tears, but somehow she holds them back, as if she can place a barrier between the everyone else and her emotions.
"Hey," I begin quietly. "You okay?" She whips her head up at me. It's at this point that I become broken; not the time I found out mom was pregnant again, not the time that I shoved a knife up my stomach, but now. Clarke's crying. Tears stream down her cheeks and she runs her lips together. All I can say is:
"Come here." And it is all she needed. She sits on the bed next to me, enveloped in my bare arms. She buries her fragile face into my neck, and her uneven breathes become heavier. I wrap an arm around her waste, and the other across her upper back, doing my best to shield her from this harmful universe.
After awhile she slowly pulls away, but I don't. Instead, I cup my hands around her face.
"What happened?" I ask defensively. She makes eye contact with me, but it's hesitant. "Clarke, it's okay. You can tell me." She bites her lip.
"Well," she whimpers, "you might think it's stupid."
"I promise you, there is nothing you could ever say that would be stupid to me." She smirks and takes a deep breath.
"There's this guy that I used to...well I guess we were 'a thing' or whatever." She pauses to process her thoughts. "Well he got...abusive and he used me." I clench my jaw. Someone used Clarke? My princess? "Anyways, I saw him in the library on my brake, and he...um...he wants me again. He wants me to be a thing with him again."
"Who is this guy?" I say in disgust. Her nose flares the smallest bit and her cheeks turn rosy.
"His name is John, but he's better known as Murphy." My heart skips a beat. John Murphy. His name and memories of him play through my head. We used to be best friends. He was on the guard with me, but he was let go because of his drinking issues. "I know. It's stupid." She shrugs away. But I grab her shoulders in reassurance.
"No Clarke, it's not stupid, it's wrong. And if not as a part of the guard, then as a friend, I will help you. I'll go talk to him."
"Bellamy you don't have to-"
"Yes I do, Princess." It's as if I'm pleading now. I'm pleading to crush the man who crushed my girl.
"But Bell, how can I repay you?" She asks clutching my wrists now, a clutch that sends electricity throughout my entire body.
