A/N: For Lucy. Happy Belated Birthday!
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"...think you're all about me, but I'm all about you..."
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I.
She'd see him walk by every day, 7am on the dot, always. He'd be carrying the same black briefcase and wearing the same black spectacles and with a coffee cup in hand that she was sure he got off the place in 5th avenue she thought bitterly. He never looked to be in a hurry as he walked with a sense of purpose, he was so sure of himself unlike her and that made her envy him at first. She was sure once or twice his gaze would flicker into the quaint little coffee shop she worked in and sometimes she was sure that he was trying to catch her eye but he never once entered so she chalked it up of her mind playing tricks on her and she went back to serving her customers coffee wondering what it would have felt like for him to have come in and to have said, "Hi."
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II.
The first time she bumped into him it was an accident, she had gone out to give a customer her bag, she must have forgotten it and returning it seemed like the polite thing to do, and she had Jasper man the counter while she was out so everything should have been okay. Only that she was in such a hurry to get it back to Raven, one of the few people who actually engaged in conversion with her while waiting for order that she hadn't looked where she was going and somehow she had managed to knock into him so hard that the coffee he was holding in his hand managed to go everywhere.
"Oh God, I'm so sorry, please come inside, you can clean yourself up and I'll get you a one on the house. Oh God I'm incredibly sorry!" Fantastic, she thought to herself, the only thing she
had accomplished was ruining someone's morning and she was pretty sure that Raven was long gone now.
"You idiot." She cursed.
"Hey, relax, it didn't hit me too much, it's totally fine. I'm Bellamy."
Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, she responded, "Hi, I'm Clarke."
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III.
The next time she sees him, she's surprised because he hasn't gone to that place off 5th, he's come to her café for coffee, with the briefcase in hand and his black spectacles pushed up. He's on the phone (it's the first time she's seen him on his phone.) and he looks stressed, not worried stressed but stressed as he just wants to hang up but he can't. His eyebrows are creased and his spectacles are beginning to side down, causing him to irritably push them back and she can clearly see little bead of sweat visibly forming on his forehead. And before he can even open his mouth to order she says, "Hi."
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IV.
The next time, he bumps into her. She barely has time to register what was going on, she went shopping because she had just landed a place on a particular coveted government and politics course so she had decided to splash out, on pens and pencils and quality paper (she loved to draw) because c'mon, why not? And let's face it; Raven would probably get her the sandals from Etsy that she had her eyes on. Now Clarke praised herself on being independent, on not being one of those annoying teenage girls whose life revolved around some boy. Not that now she didn't think she was strong and independent because she thought of Bellamy so often, but she did think about him too much for her own liking. She tended to avoid boys growing up, Jasper was an exception, a rare exception, most boys were tenacious and annoying but Jasper was sweet and he knew what it felt like to lose a parent, so he knew what things to not bring up. Bellamy just fascinated her, they was so much that she still didn't know about him despite their lengthy morning chats when he came in for coffee, regularly now. Until now, they hadn't had excursion like when they had when they first spoke.
"I'm incredib-"
"Hi."
"Clarke? Oh god I'm sorry." Bellamy responded in shock, mouth agape.
"Bellamy it's fine, although we probably shouldn't make a habit of this." She answered, whilst separating her things from his.
"Here," she said passing his stuff back to him.
"Who's the perfume for?" She asked, unable to hold back her curiosity.
"My sister Octavia, she owns the coffee shop off 5th."
"You never told me you had a sister!" She gasped out.
"You never asked."
"Well then, do you have mysterious siblings that I don't know about?" She questioned playfully.
"No, it's just her." He responded.
"Well, I don't have any siblings."
"Seriously, you're lucky. Octavia's a pain in the ass."
Slapping him on the arm, Clarke retorted; "She's your sister, be nice!"
"Whatever." He responded, albeit with a small grin on his face.
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V.
The next time she sees him, she stops counting because the next time she sees him they're on a date, in an actual restaurant which serves drinks other coffee and food that not just variations of chocolate pastry. But she doesn't quite recognize that it's a date at first, Bellamy had just told her to dress 'fancy,' and she had no idea why but she went along with. Maybe it was because she wanted him to be stunned at the sight of her or maybe she just wanted a night free of contemplating political decisions that leaders had made occur in America over the past 100 years. She'd picked out a little black lace dress that Raven had gotten her a few months back, according to her; she needed more dresses which almost made me laugh since Raven is not known for having dresses. Either way she didn't realise it was a date until he showed up at her doorstep at 8 o'clock at night, in full back tie, carrying a bouquet of flowers and had said, "Hi."