It was the Wednesday before Valentine’s Day when as she was scrubbing out of a six hour surgery when Myles, on of the nurses who had assisted, asked her. “I was wondering if you were doing anything this Saturday.”
Before she had even thought about it she said, “Sorry, but I am.” She gave him an apologetic smile and finished scrubbing out and walked out of the room as if nothing had happened.
Every Valentine’s Day Bellamy came over to Clarke’s house to grade papers while she watched a movie. They weren’t dating, they just spent the holiday together because they were both single and there was nothing worse than being by yourself on Valentine’s Day and waiting for all your friends to tell you what happened on their most romantic day of the year.
So Bellamy came over and they watched a movie and ignored the fact that it was any different from any other day until Finn called, because he always did, and Bellamy would answer and tell him to fuck off before he found him and gave him what the bastard had coming.
It was hours later in her car driving home that Clarke realized that she had just turned down a perfectly nice boy who wanted to spend Valentine’s Day with her in favor of a platonic evening watching horror movies and eating pizza on her couch with Bellamy.
“That’s not good,” she mumbled to herself though she couldn’t bring herself to regret turning him down. He was a nice guy. And she liked Myles a lot, but he was not the kind of person who would answer the phone when Finn inevitably called and tell him to fuck off and she needed that for a little while longer.
That’s why she turned Myles down. That was all it was. That was what she told herself anyway.
It was three days to Valentine’s Day and Bellamy was thinking about where he could buy chocolates for him and Clarke to gorge themselves on while watching whatever horror movie she picked. Their tradition was something that bloomed out of a need for each of them to do something with their Valentine’s Day that wasn’t moping because Bellamy didn’t have time to date between the classes he taught and trying to finish his dissertation.
One year he needed a place to stay because Monty and Miller were being very loud and he couldn’t focus on the twenty papers on the Iliad that he had to grade. He had gone to Clarke because she had just broken up with her boyfriend (who had cheated on her, the bastard) and he knew that she wouldn’t be having anyone over so he went and took a chance. She opened the door in a pair of sweatpants and The Hills Have Eyes playing the background.
“I just need a place to grade papers,” he had said and she had let him in and there was a tradition born. Three years in a row he had spent Valentine’s Day on Clarke’s couch and he was perfectly happy with that.
On his way off campus a girl stopped him with a shy smile. “Can I help you?” he asked as politely as he could manage.
“I was wondering if you wanted to do something with me on Saturday,” she asked, a small blush covering her face.
“Sorry. I already have plans,” he answered simply.
Her blush spread over her whole face and she mumbled something before hurrying away.
He threw his bag into the back of his car and started the car. He got all the way home before he realized what he had done.
When Saturday finally rolled around, Bellamy gathered all of the chocolate up in his arms along with some of the papers he needed to grade and went to the car. He found himself nervous which was odd because he was never nervous around Clarke. She was one of two people that he trusted with everything he had and there was nothing for him to be nervous about.
He knocked on the door of her apartment and she opened the door with a smile.
“I’ve already called for pizza,” she said, walking back into her apartment with Bellamy in tow.
“Is the popcorn popped too?” he asked with a grin.
“No, because you’re almost always late for everything,” she answered, rolling her eyes and putting the popcorn in the microwave. She was forcing herself to act as normal as possible. In the past three days she had done little but think about Bellamy while she tired to sort out how exactly she felt about him. Still hadn’t figured it out, but it did something to your head not knowing how you felt about someone and now she felt like blushing any time he looked at her. Like he could tell that she couldn’t decide if she wanted to be the best man at her wedding or the bride.
“Am not,” he argued. He went to her couch and sat down with the candies and papers as she turned on the movie. She settled herself close to him, wrapped up in a blanket she kept on the back of her couch.
He propped his feet up on the coffee table with a paper on his lap.
As the movie went on and Bellamy worked his way through the stack of essays they each mumbled things to themselves, Bellamy about poorly constructed sentences and obvious inaccuracies while Clarke ranted about how “That’s not how stab wounds to the abdomen work, you morons.”
Bellamy laughed at her long explanation about wounds to the liver.
When she finished she noticed him smiling down at her. “What?” she asked, looking back up at him.
He stared at her for a moment, his eyes flickering to her lips before shaking his head. “Nothing, princess.” He went back to his grading but she kept staring at him. She had seen the fondness for her there and she’d seen it before and she decided she needed to take a chance.
“Princess?”
“Would you like to go on a date with me?” she asked, not taking her eyes off him for a second.
“Dinner on Tuesday?” he asked with a smile.
“How about breakfast? I don’t get off shift until 6 Tuesday morning,” she said with an apologetic shrug.
“Pancakes or waffles?”
She broke out in a grin that he couldn’t help but return. He moved his arm to wrap around her shoulders and she tucked her head on his chest and went back to watching her movie and he to his papers. And when the phone rang neither of them answered.