The River (Clemerva)

Chapter Fourteen: It Takes Two

(Bonus Minnie art by meeee)

Clementine dragged her feet as she walked behind Louis and AJ into the cafeteria.
The two boys were joking around and snickering about something. Their good mood only served to highlight her lousy one.
Clem was silent as they waited in queue. She had no desire to talk right now, but thankfully nobody asked her anything.
Dinner was potatoes, since the Delta had an excess of them, assorted meat and a mug of water.
Clem poked at it with her fork, rolling the potatoes around on her plate. Under normal circumstances she would have dug in right away, but at the moment, she felt completely gutted.
She rested her cheek against her hand and stared at the food, her eyes glazing over.
Louis stopped laughing at AJ's immature jokes when he took notice of the state Clementine was in.

"Clem, what's wrong?" He asked, tapping her on the arm.

She looked up at him, but saw Violet and Brody sit down and join them at the table.
There was no way she would talk about what happened in front of Violet.
Clem had felt a little guilty crushing on Minerva on account of how recently she and Violet had broken up. In the end that was fairly innocuous, but kissing her? Clem got the feeling Violet wouldn't be too happy about that.

"Nothing, I'm fine." She dismissed.

Louis was unconvinced. He gave her a concerned look before greeting Brody and Violet.

***

On the walk back to their dorm, Clem hung back behind everyone. The less the others saw of her emotional state, the less they would ask about it.
While everyone else turned right through the doorway into the dorm, Louis stopped and intercepted Clem.

"Okay, can you tell me what's going on now?" He asked in a hushed voice.

"Louis, I already said I'm fine."

"Except you're not. I like to think I'm pretty good at reading people, and I'm reading some major sad vibes from you."

Clem shot him a glare, she was not in the mood for jokes right now.
Louis put his hands up defensively.

"Sorry. Look, I just want to help. When somethings bothering me, talking usually helps."

Clem sighed heavily and ran her fingers through her curly brown hair.

"Okay... I wasn't talking to Lilly, I was with Minnie at her apartment."

Louis' eyes widened at the revelation.

"We talked for a while, and then she kissed me."

"Woah. Go you, dude!" He yelled, quickly quieting down when he remembered that they were meant to be speaking quietly.

"Yeah, it was kind of amazing..." Clem digressed, biting her lip at the thought of it, "but then she said it was a mistake and told me to just forget it."

Louis' grin quickly turned downwards.

"Oh... shit."

"So I left. I didn't want to stick around after she said that."

"How did that make you feel?" Louis asked genuinely.

"I don't know? At first I was just, so happy that she liked me too... but then, being told it was a mistake? That hurt."

Clem paused, taking a few breaths. She could feel herself getting choked up and really didn't want to start full-on crying in front of Louis.