So I've got a new story out for all of you, it's a modern AU and I promise you it's going to be a good one. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and any feedback whatsoever is appreciated!

"Holy shit!" Raven is the first one to open the fridge, of course. "Our fridge is already loaded with food. What the hell?"

"My mum got us some groceries to start off with." Clarke says simply as she fishes out her boxset of Grey's Anatomy. "All of that has to last us two weeks. Heard me, Octavia? No making chocolate chip brownies for everyday of the week, okay?"

"Sure, mum." She hadn't gotten off the couch since they arrived in their apartment thirty minutes ago. Classic Octavia.

Clarke rolls her eyes and places her luggage on her bed. "Don't you think you should start unpacking everything?"

"I'll do it when you and Raven go to Grounders." She follows Clarke into her room and flings herself onto her bed. "This feels so nice."

Clarke chuckles a little as she begins hanging all her clothes in her wardrobe. "You're so lazy, O. I honestly don't think I've met someone so goddamn lazy."

"Wrong." Raven's voice chimes from the outside. "There's me."

"True."

"Are we going somewhere after you guys finish your shift?" Octavia whines. "I don't want to spend my first day as an independent woman in my apartment."

Raven jumps onto Clarke's bed and snuggles next to Octavia. "Agreed. We should literally have an 'independent women' party."

"You moved into my apartment guys, the only thing that screams 'independent' about that is the fact that you two are going to be forced to actually cook and do laundry." She slides her wardrobe door shut and turns around. "Which reminds me that I'm probably going to have to do that too."

There's no argument to that.

"Anyway." Octavia clears her throat, "We're going out tonight. No questions asked."

Raven whoops in agreement and Clarke crosses her arms.

"Can't you guys do something tonight and leave me out of it?" She knew the answer before the question was asked.

Octavia cocks her eyebrow and smirks. "Do you really think we'd allow you to do that?"

"No." Clarke pouts.

Octavia chuckles and shoves Raven off of her. "I'm going to unpack my stuff and look for something moderately appealing for tonight."

"You'd probably look 'appealing' in just a potato sack, O." Raven comments as she follows Octavia outside of the room.

"You're never getting into my pants Reyes." Octavia says loudly, "Stop trying."

Clarke hears a loud shriek, a bout of laughter and reverts to closing her door to shut out their persistent (and continuous) banter.

Such children.

She sighs quietly and rubs her temples to adjust to her new environment.

The room was bland. No paintings or picture frames occupied the walls. Just a window and some washout curtains. If she was going to be living in this place for the next couple of years, she was definitely going to have to liven it up.

She had brought some of her favourite paintings along with her and was planning on pinning them up around the room. At least that way the room wouldn't look like it was owned by someone's seventy year old aunt.

Clarke had decided to buy her own apartment instead of living in the college dorms, and since she didn't like the idea of living alone she invited the most immature yet lovable people she knew to come live with her. She really didn't have much to complain about.

There was no denying how real things had become in a matter of seconds.

Clarke was going to college.

She was essentially starting a new life.

She could forget about her stupid little flings over the summer that meant absolutely nothing and the one person who tore her heart into little pieces. Now, she could focus on what was really important; herself.

This was what she needed to turn her life around. She needed to be independent; she needed to stop holding all of those grudges and just start accepting everything for what it was.

Clarke needed to get her shit together.

Soon enough a loud buzz from her phone interrupted her trail of thought.

Her mum was calling.

A hint of a smile appeared on Clarke's face before she picked up her phone.

"Hey." She said softly.

"Clarke." Her mum's voice resonated through the speaker, "How's the apartment?"

Clarke took a second to look around her room, "The apartment's okay. My room needs a little bit of life in it because it seriously feels like someone got murdered in here."

"What's wrong with it?"

"It just needs some decorations. It's too much of a reminder of how new this is, and it doesn't feel like it could ever be my home." She shrugs, "Anyway, how are you?"

"Not too bad." She hears her mother breathe in, "I didn't think I would begin to miss you so soon after you left home."

"Mum." Clarke quietened her voice, "I live twenty minutes away from you, and I'll visit you and the love of your life whenever I can."

"Clarke." Her mum's stern voice instantly made a smug smile appear on Clarke's face. "Would you stop calling him that? Marcus and I are just friends."

Clarke rolled her eyes and clutched her phone harder. "I still don't get how you've been 'friends' for the last two years. I know you two have been going out for a while now, you don't have to treat me like I'm a kid. I get it."

"We are just friends." Her mum insists.

"He's your neighbour, and you visit him pretty much every day. You look like you might explode every time you're in a room together." She runs her free hand through her hair, "It doesn't take someone with the minimal requirement of the gift of sight to see that you two aren't just friends."

She hears her mum sigh and decides that she should probably leave the topic alone. "Anyway, I have to go to work soon so I need to get going. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Alright. Bye. Text me when you get back from work."

"I will."

She throws her phone on her bed and shakes her head a little.

There was no more time to let herself relax into her room, she had to walk it to work in the next couple of minutes or she'd have to find someone else to pay her bills.

She put on her uniform and grabbed her phone.

"Raven!" Clarke called out as she entered the kitchen, "We need to get going. Where are you?"

"In here." She hears a voice from the room behind her and walks towards it.

Clarke frowns as she enters the smaller room, "Isn't this Octavia's room?"

"Yeah."

Clarke notices Raven's luggage placed in the middle of room and just shrugs it off. She decides that this is one of the many instances where she should just shut her mouth and not question anything.

Raven and Octavia where her best friends, and she had gotten used to the awkward feeling that she got when she was around them and the abundance of questions that would always find a way into her mind. Sometimes, there were just moments where she really had to convince herself not to ask any questions – she needed to remind herself not to go there.

It was none of her business.

"We have work in less than 10 minutes." Clarke's fingers incessantly tap the door next to her. "Be ready in two."

Raven nodded and gave Octavia a big hug. "See you tonight, don't forget to make something to eat for yourself - I'm not going to be the one cleaning up your puke when you have one too many shots of tequila."

Octavia laughs and closes the door behind her.

Raven follows Clarke outside of the apartment, "This apartment is the shit."

Thirty minutes into her shift and she had already started to mess up her orders.

"I wanted a tall, non-fat latte with caramel drizzle." A girl with an insatiable look on her face crossed her arms in front of Clarke, "Where the hell is my caramel drizzle?"

Clarke pursed her lips, "We don't have any 'caramel drizzle' here."

"Seriously?" She was obnoxious, this one. "This isn't what I paid six fifty for, I want a refund."

Clarke took a deep breath in and tried to be as polite as possible. "We don't do refunds here, unfortunately."

"Bullshit!" The girl slams her latte on the counter and leans in. "I want my money back."

She was starting to attract a lot of attention, having half of the customers staring right at them. "If I were to do that, I'd be risking my job."

"Does it really look like I care?"

"No." Clarke's hands clench into fists. "But I actually do care about my job, so you're either going to take your stupid ass latte and fuck off or I'm going to have to kick you out of this place myself."

The girls gives Clarke one more glare before grabbing her latte and dumping it in the bin next to her. She stomps outside of the place and shuts the door angrily behind her.

Some of the people who came here were absolute idiots.

"That wasn't very professional."

Clarke whips her head to see an unfamiliar face.

A firm looking girl with fairly tanned skin, braids and fierce green eyes was staring back at her. One of her eyebrows was raised slightly and nothing about the way she was looking at her told Clarke that she was joking. She hadn't seen such a serious face in a long time.

"Excuse me?" She tries to keep her voice even, especially since she was still a little heated from the customer before.

"You shouldn't have sworn at her." The girl chastises her as she cleans the mug she was holding. "It was uncalled for."

Clarke narrows her eyes at the tall girl in front of her, "Don't you think the whole argument was uncalled for? Do you even know what she ordered?"

"Doesn't matter." She shrugs, "You can't bite every customer's head off."

"Do I know you?" Her voice strains slightly as she once again tries to keep her cool.

"I'm new here." She comments as she places the newly cleaned mug inside the cupboard underneath them.

Clarke itches her chin and reaffirms her position in front of the counter, "So why are you telling me how to do my job, exactly?"

The girl eyes her carefully and almost makes Clarke feel slightly intimidated. There was something about the way this girl was glaring at her that put Clarke more on edge then she should have been. "I wasn't aware that stating something obvious was telling someone how to do their job."

That was enough for Clarke to immediately mark the girl as someone she should avoid. Everything about her reeked of uncertainty and it struck a fierce anger she didn't even know she was capable of feeling so quickly after an interaction with someone.

Then again, Clarke didn't want to start anymore arguments so she just shook her head and walked away from the counter.

She spotted Raven close to the storage room and walked up to her.

"Honestly, whoever the hell lives up there hates me more than I thought." Clarke softly hits her head against the wall in front of her.

Raven cocks an eyebrow, "What's up with you?"

"Oh nothing. Some people just seem to have a stick shoved so far up their ass that they forgot any form of manners whatsoever." Clarke crosses her arms.

"Do you mean that customer you just told to fuck off?" She asks as she gets out some coffee beans from the storage room.

"Yes." She says quietly, "And some new girl just told me how 'unprofessional' it was of me to do so."

Raven drops the coffee beans in to the machine in front of her, "It kind of was."

"Whatever." Clarke huffs, "Caramel drizzle my ass, I bet if she had someone ask for such an idiotic order she'd have done more then tell someone to piss off."

"Maybe." She waits for the machine to do its work and leans against the table. "Who's this you're talking about anyway? What new girl?"

Clarke jerks her head to the left, "The girl on the counter over there. She's got some wicked braids."

"Oh." Raven smirks, "That's Lexa."

"Lexa?"

"Yeah." She pours the coffee into a cup and puts some sugar in it. "She tries to avoid talking to anyone at all costs. I had about 3 shifts with her this week."

Clarke scoffs, "She had no trouble talking to me."

Raven shrugs and hands the cup of coffee to the customer in front of her, a fake smile along with it. "At least she's hot."

Clarke groans, "Not the point, Raven."

She shoots Clarke a smirk and cocks her eyebrow once again, "Don't tell me you weren't thinking the same thing."

"I was more focused on the fact that she's a nosy bitch." Clarke replied as she leaned against the counter.

"Sure." Raven winked at her and walked away.

Clarke got back to her work and took someone else's order. (It wasn't a caramel drizzle latte this time, thank god.)

For some reason she couldn't get the argument that she had with Lexa out of her mind. The fact that she riled Clarke up so much was a mystery to her.

Maybe it was some kind of coincidence that she had found Lexa staring at her when she turned around to prepare another order.

And maybe it wasn't.

Lexa wasn't feeling bad.

She had absolutely no reason to, there was nothing wrong with telling off the blonde for shouting at that customer so harshly.

It was rude.

Lexa didn't like rude.

Still, she found herself feeling slightly sympathetic for her. Maybe she shouldn't have said anything, maybe she should have just let it be.

Stop feeling sorry for someone who you don't even know. Get over it, Lexa.

Right.

She just needed to focus on the task on hand.

Serve customers. Get paid. Go home. Study.

Lexa had absolutely no time to waste. She was about to start college in two days and that meant that from here on out she had to just focus on her studies.

Law was with no doubt not an easy subject, and Lexa needed to be the very best. Not for anyone else but herself, if she didn't focus on what she really needed to do, she would fall back into feeling everything she had taught herself not to feel.

She couldn't deal with that.

"Hey!" A young boy snaps his fingers in front of her, "You there lady?"

"Yes." She replies through gritted teeth.

Maybe this was harder than she thought it would be.

"I want a Tall half-calf soy latte." He asks as he taps his fingers impatiently on the counter.

She frowns, what the hell is that? "A what?

"Tall half-calf soy latte." He repeats his eyes narrowing down onto her.

She nods, "Just a second, sir."

She had no idea what the hell a 'tall half-calf soy latte' was, but her inexperience was justifiable – she was after all quite new around here. Someone around here had to know.

The only person she could spot around her was the blonde girl, and she thought it would be a better idea to not interact with her. She was still receiving some of the ugliest looks from her.

Lexa made her way to the back of the room and saw someone she knew. Raven.

Usually, she'd keep her distance from the annoying and persistent girl who always tried to get Lexa to utter more than five words in a whole shift. "Raven?" She keeps her face stoic and unfeeling. "I need your help with an order."

"Ah the mysterious one comes to me." She covers her face with her hands, "This must be some kind of miracle."

Lexa clears her throat and ignores Raven's vexatious comments. "Do you know what a tall half-calf soy latte is, by any chance?"

Raven sighs and wipes her brow with her hand, "Wow. We're attracting a lot of idiots here today, aren't we?"

She says nothing, only raises her eyebrow.

"How do I make it?"

She shrugs. "You don't. Go tell the guy that he's not at Starbucks."

Lexa sighs and walks back to the counter. Of course, Raven wouldn't be of any assistance.

"Unfortunately we don't seem to have such an order listed here." She gives him a fake smile and waits for him to walk away.

Except he doesn't.

"What do you mean you don't have that order?" His brow was furrowed and he seemed much less giddy than before.

This was definitely not an easy job.

"I mean, there's no such thing here."

He doesn't seem to understand the statement. "What type of coffee shop is this?"

"One where you buy coffee from, I believe." She couldn't help but let that sly comment pass.

"Don't be a smart ass." He hisses, "I want to know what type of shit hole doesn't sell something so simple."

Before she could reply, someone else swoops in.

"The type of shit hole that kicks you out if you harass one of our staff." Lexa turns her head to see the blonde girl leaning over the counter to speak to the boy. "Which by the way, you have."

He breaths in deeply, reluctantly gets up from his chair and walks out of the coffee shop.

Lexa feels a surge of pride course through her veins as she eyes the blonde carefully. "You didn't have to do that. I could have handled him myself."

"Well, before you call me unprofessional – I believe the word people use is 'thank you'." She grabs the cloth from underneath her and cleans the counter. "Unlike you, I'm used to the usual jerks that come to this place and I know how to deal with them."

She doesn't see any other way she can back herself up this time. In some way, she feels grateful for what she did. Even if it made her levels of annoyance rise up by a stark amount.

"Fine." She says as she nods her head. "Thank you."

God, how Lexa wished she wasn't so attractive.

Thirty more minutes and she could leave the daunting presence of miss its 'unprofessional' Lexa.

She hadn't stopped staring at her and it was starting to get a little creepy.

Every time she turned around to make an order or just go to the storage room for a five minute break, she'd find her staring at her. Eyes wide, lips almost parted.

It was starting to annoy the shit out of her.

Firstly, she had gone out of her way to tell some douchebag to leave her alone, and she literally had to coax a 'thank you' out of her. There was no way someone could be so conceited.

It wasn't until a large amount of people walked into the shop did she realise that Lexa's eyes were no longer on her. She was curiously eying the boisterous crowd and it seemed like she was quite displeased with their presence.

Great

Now she was staring.

What the hell, Clarke?

"Damn." She hears a familiar voice in front of her. "You look good in a uniform."

Octavia was sitting on the stool in front of her, a tight black dress hugging her figure perfectly. Scratch the time Clarke had a tiny crush on her, she was just plain jealous right now. "Thanks, I didn't know I could look so good." Her sarcasm is on point.

"What's up with you being so grumpy?" She asked as she pouted her bottom lip.

Clarke rubbed her temples, "Just a hell of a day."

"Well, I'm here to make it worse." She grins, "Coffee. Just Black, and a chocolate muffin."

Clarke smirks and takes down the order, preparing it in front of her. "What? Too simple for you?"

"You have no idea how long I've waited for a simple order like that." She poured the coffee into a small cup and prepared the chocolate muffin. "Have you ever heard of something called a 'caramel drizzle'?"

She frowned and shook her head.

"Yeah." She scrunched her nose up, "Me either."

Octavia gave her a confused look before downing her coffee. "Everyone's here, we're waiting for you and Raven to finish up and change."

Clarke glances across the counter and sees that indeed the boisterous group of people who had just entered were in fact her friends. "I'm soon ready. Just fifteen more minutes."

"Hey Clarke?" Octavia asks absentmindedly.

"Hmm?"

"Who's the cute barista staring at us like we killed her first born child?"

Of course.

She's still staring.

"That's Lexa." She spits out her name. "Don't get too close, she might use the stick up her ass to attack you."

Octavia almost chokes on her muffin. "Jesus Clarke. What did she do to you?"

"It's a long story." Clarke looks at her watch and wipes her hands on a piece of cloth. "She's just really arrogant."

She nods warily and continues eating her muffin.

"I'm going to go change." Clarke takes off her apron and crumples it in her hand, "I'll be back."

Lexa couldn't be happier to have her shift end sooner.

Also, she finds herself staring at blondie a lot.

It's not her fault, she can't help it.

It's kind of creepy.

She knows.

"Hey there."

A light voice grabs her attention and she turns her head around.

A man with scruffy black hair and freckles leans against the counter. "Could I have a cappuccino please?"

She can't help but smile at him, "Sure. Would you like any sugar with it?"

"No." He smiles, "Its fine."

She nods and leaves to make his order.

Finally, someone decent enough to order something that she could actually spell. Maybe today wouldn't be all that bad.

She comes back with his order to see him talking to a very attractive girl. The same one who was talking to blondie earlier. She's dressed up in something that's definitely not appropriate for a coffee shop but finds that they're both dressed for a different occasion. "Here you go. That would be three dollars."

He hands her a five and gives her another smile.

She could really learn to like this guy.

Lexa gives him a smile back and places the tip inside her pocket. She notices that the girl next to him is looking at her somewhat strangely.

"Hey." She finally says, still eying her carefully.

"Hi."

"Are you the one that works with Clarke?"

"Who?"

The brunette points to the blonde girl exiting the storage room in a crop top and a skirt.

Clarke.

That's quite a nice name.

Rather peculiar, but nice.

"Oh. Yes, I believe so." Lexa tries to hide her face and looks down at the counter, viscously avoiding her stare. "Are you two her friends?"

"Unfortunately, yes." She replies with a little chuckle.

The nice guy who probably just did her income a massive favour shoved the girl next to him lightly, "What she means is yes we're her friends." He cocks his head to the girl next to him, "And she was dropped on her head as a kid so don't mind her."

Seriously, this guy was like a gift from god.

"I'm Bellamy, by the way." He takes his hand out of his pocket and over the counter.

She grabs it and shakes his hand, "I'm Lexa."

"And." She grunts as she takes out her hand, "I'm Octavia."

As nice as this Bellamy guy was, she was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable with all the small talk. She shakes Octavia's hand and gives her an awkward smile.

Before anyone could exchange more gruesome and awkward smiles, Raven and Clarke interrupted them. Thankfully.

"Are you ready to leave?" Clarke sounded more annoyed than ever.

Bellamy and Octavia nodded.

"Nice meeting you Lexa." He gives her another smile.

His smiles are kind of infectious so she ended up smiling back.

Again.

"Wow." Raven exclaims, mouth agape. "I've never seen you smile before, two miracles in one day. Holy shit!"

Lexa's smile disappears as soon as it appeared and all Raven is left with is one of Lexa's placid facial expressions.

By the time all of them start walking out, she notices that Clarke remained where she was.

She gives her a confused look and leans her head to the side.

"I see you've met my friends." The way Clarke looks at her makes her want to duck her head under the cupboard and hide there for ever.

She won't obviously, she's a mature adult.

"Yes."

Clarke looks at her for a couple more seconds before breaking the stare, "I don't believe that to be very professional."

There's a hint of a smirk on her face and she walks away from Lexa without another word.

And god.

Lexa might just be smiling too..