Arkadia High

Time's Running Out

(Narrator POV)
It was 4am and Clarke lay awake in her bed thinking about how much she wished she could be anywhere else. Thinking about how much she wished she could walk across the hall and tell her mother exactly what she could do with that fancy college of hers.

Her phone rang and it startled the blonde out of her depressing thoughts. She looked at the contact and saw a picture of Murphy covered in fake blood with two thumbs up and the name Roach Boy above.

It was odd that he was calling her. Normally, Murphy was a texting or video-call kind of man. He didn't like hearing people, but not seeing their faces.

He always told them that it reminded him too much of these reoccurring nightmares he used to have as a kid where faceless people would scream things at him in voices that he recognized, but could never really place. The group stopped asking him to make phone calls pretty soon after that little story-time.

If he was calling it could be an emergency or he could be crying too much to type. That had happened one or two times where he was too shaken to text, but didn't want anyone to get a glimpse at his tears.

She quickly unplugged her phone and answered before it even met the third ring.

"Murphy? Is everything alright? You never call." Worry slipped in her tone, but she wasn't too upset about it.

"Everything is peachy, Princess. I just called to ask if maybe you'd want to talk or hang out....or maybe.... I don't know.... take a little drive.... to a hospital." He sounded hesitant and a mixture of fake-calm and fake-chipper.

Clarke sat bolt upright at the mention of a hospital. Murphy was notorious for only going to a hospital when normal people would probably being calling an ambulance. Broken bones, desperate need for stitches, etc. One time it took him five days to admit that maybe his arm was broken and that maybe he should go to the hospital.

"Are you alright?! What happened?!" She asked with a bit of panic as she quickly started pulling some grey sweats on over her blue pajama shorts with one hand.

"Oh, I'm...just wonderful." There was a pause and she could tell he was wincing without having to see his face. "As for what happened, it's a long story."

"I've got time. Also why are you calling me? Not that I'm complaining, but you live with two people, your other best friend is Bellamy and you have a girlfriend. I would think that I'd be at least fourth on your list." Clarke questioned while slipping on some white sneakers and dark blue zip-up hoodie to cover the old Little Mermaid shirt that Octavia got her as a joke.

"Well, Raven is with Bellamy working on his car that broke down when he was gonna go pick up Octavia from Lincoln's at this ungodly hour. Miller is at Monty's, probably too high to drive, and Miller's dad is working a late shift at the station so he can't be here."

"All typical stuff then." The blonde rushed downstairs, scribbled a note for her mom on the fridge, and then ran into her car. "So, what happened?"

"Funny story actually. So, as I always do when I'm home alone, I cooked myself dinner and then watched a bunch of scary movies. Maybe not the best when all alone, but what can you do? Anyways, later on I heard this noise so I came downstairs with a baseball bat, as one does, and then found nothing, but I tripped in the dark and fell. Ended up breaking many glasses that are now very deep in my arm." Murphy seemed to be fairly calm even though he was probably bleeding quite a bit.

"I'm on the way now, so just try to stay calm. Not that I have to tell you since you seem pretty chill. You sure you aren't high?" She laughed.

He chuckled a bit before speaking again. "No, I'm not high. You know I have a high pain tolerance and the only reason I didn't drive myself is because moving hurts."