𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗜𝗚𝗢, monty green

Chapter Seventeen

Avery and Octavia were no longer the only ones watching the strange scenes of the high Delinquents. Raven and Finn had emerged from their tent and were now each swamped with either crying teenagers or Connor, who seemed to need reassurance that he was the most beautiful broom in a broom closet of brooms.

Avery could see Finn lingering outside the Dropship, watching everyone in their deluded state. The girl realised then that although she had seen Finn since Clarke saved his life, she hadn't actually talked to him about the fact he was still alive.

She redirected Connor back over to Raven - who looked less than grateful to have to handle the boy for much longer - and approached Finn with an awkward shoulder nudge. The boy stared back at her in mild confusion, intrigued to say the least. 

"I'm glad you're not dead." She said bluntly.

Truthfully, Avery and Finn didn't know each other all that well, but she had seen too many Delinquents die for her liking. So even Finn surviving - who she was currently disliking for stringing along Clarke and Raven - was a positive.

"Thanks." He replied, the undertones of his voice indicating amusement. 

"You still haven't talked to Raven about Clarke though, huh?"

Finn exhaled a heavy sigh, exasperated and frustrated with the topic he never intended to get so out of hand. He never thought he'd see Raven again. But that didn't justify how he treated them both.

"Avery, I-"

The boy's sentence was cut clean off by a figure darting from the Dropship and stumbling towards the two of them. The man had a red hood casting shadow over his face and obscuring his features, but he clearly had a larger, stronger build than any of the Delinquents.

It was the Grounder.

Octavia did it.

Neither Finn nor Avery could find the words to say at that moment, instead just staring him dead in the eyes as he began to size them up as potential threats. When Finn tilted his head ever so slightly to the side, pointing out the exit route in the most perfectly subtle way, the Grounder's eyes flashed with confusion, but also relief.

"That way." Avery confirmed, her voice hushed in fear she'd attract the attention of someone nearby. "Go as far as you can."

He didn't need to voice his gratefulness, just nodding rigidly, and turning away with his shoulders hunched in a jacket that Avery was sure Octavia nicked from someone else in camp. The girl couldn't help but think of the young Blake then, how she told Avery that the Grounder saved her life.

"Wait!" She called out, startling the man as he whipped back to look her in the eyes. "Thank you for saving Octavia." 

She said it so simply, and she couldn't miss the way his face softened at the mention of Octavia's name. She didn't know of the extent to which he had a soft spot for the girl - not yet, at least. He nodded once again, more firmly this time, as if to say of course.

And when he disappeared out of sight, Finn and Avery only shared one look that said they wouldn't be speaking of that moment to anyone - excluding Octavia. 

Octavia!

Avery let her feet take her into the Dropship, and stopped directly in front of the girl. Her eyes looked wild with something Avery didn't know, and her hand shot down from where her fingertips had just skimmed over her lips as if in awe. She blinked up at the girl who immediately begin to gush about how glad she was the Grounder escaped.

Octavia only seemed to be half listening, humming as a gentle indicator she was picking up Avery's barely strung together sentences. Her glazed eyes suggested she was much more preoccupied with whatever had happened before the girl appeared. And then it became too much to keep inside.