The Decision

Chapter 2

Clarke was crumpled to the floor in a small room of the opposite side of the restaurant. "What the hell is she doing here?" She sobbed into Octavia's neck.

Seeing Lexa again had opened a floodgate and now Clarke's emotions we're just spilling out freely, her body just shaking uncontrollably and her lungs burned with every breath. Pain, anger and heartbreak were coursing through her, however and quite unexpectedly, so was a sense of longing. The weight of the waves pouring over her were just too much, she was drowning in them.

"What exactly was that?" Wells asked loudly as he entered the room, clearly embarrassed.
"That, would be Lexa," Lincoln answered sternly, then realizing that Wells might not know about Clarke and Lexa's history, he elaborated cautiously. "Um, all of us were very close in college, but then there was a, er...falling out."
"I can't do this, O. Last time..." Clarke sobbed quietly. "I barely got..."
Bellamy knelt down beside her and rubbed her back. "Easy," he said softly, "just breathe."
"Well, this is certainly not how I foresaw our night going," Wells said with an annoyingly arrogant tone as he crossed his arms.
"And you think that any of us did?" Octavia's eyes snapped up, burning with fury. "None of us have heard from Lexa since college and in case you can't tell from your hysterical fiancé here, it didn't end well! So, how about you just back off and give us some space?"
Wells dropped his arms to his side as his eyes shifted among the group. He looked completely insulted, but submitted with a scoff and quietly left the room.

A few minutes passed before Abby and Raven entered the room and Abby immediately scooped up Clarke.

"Mom..." Clarke cried as she wrapped her arms around her mother's neck. "I can't..."
"Shhh," Abby whispered as she patted her back for several minutes.

This wasn't right and it wasn't fair. Lexa said that she wasn't coming back. Why the hell was she here? And why did it have to be tonight? Of all nights!

"What the hell happened to your hand?" Octavia's voice suddenly broke the silence.

Pulling her head up from her mother's shoulder, Clarke let her eyes follow the path of Octavia's gaze until the landed on Raven's hand, which was wrapped in what appeared to be a napkin, a napkin that was already heavily stained with red.
"Oh... Um...it might have gotten a little up close and personal," Raven said shyly under Abby's gaze, "with Lexa's face."
"Raven!" Clarke exclaimed loudly, but Octavia smirked approvingly.
"I already heard it!" Raven said throwing up her hands and looking at Abby. "But, at least I didn't call her Alexandria," she added under her breath, earning her a hard side glare from Abby.

Clarke knew that she would be lying if she said that she didn't appreciated what Raven had done, because the truth was, on some level, she absolutely did appreciated it.

"She has no right to just show up here!" Clarke finally spat as she stepped away from her mother and walked over to a mirror, attempting to compose herself. "I'll be damned if I let her ..." she paused and shook her head.
"Clarke," Abby said as she walked up behind her. "Listen to me, this isn't about you. She didn't come here to hurt you."
"You don't know that," Clarke said shaking her head stubbornly.

It was true. How could she possibly know that? Like Octavia just said, no one had heard from Lexa since college.

"Actually, I do know it," Abby stated firmly, before pausing and clearing her throat. "You see, that um...dinner party across the hall," she jerked her head to the right.
Clarke glanced out the door and into the room across the hall. All that she could see were the backs of several people in what appeared to be dark suits. She nodded.
"Sweetheart, it's a repast dinner," Abby explained softly, "for Lexa's parents."
Clarke's jaw slacked a bit as a sudden twinge of emotion went off in her chest.