A/N: Hey loves! If you don't know who I am - hello! My name is Tori! I've been writing Fanfiction on here forever (5 years now), but since I started writing Clexa, I've mostly switched over to Ao3. However, I'm trying to get all of my Clexa stories posted over here as well, and this is the second to last one I have to do for now! I just posted my whole story "Lift Me, Catch Me" yesterday, and I figured today was as good a day as forever to post this one, Online Lifeline! :) It's 26 chapters, and even though it's complete, I would love to have any feedback you guys have! I'll be posting Cheap Thrills on here next, hopefully soon but probably not today :P

Without further ado, enjoy! xx (Side note, some of this story takes place on Twitter, and if you don't already know, FF does not allow for the use of the at sign... so just pretend it's there in front of the usernames :P)

wellitsWells is now following you!

Clarke's eyes widened as she read the notification popping up on her phone, which was half tucked away in her backpack. Trying desperately not to fidget, she glared at the time, just a minute away from signaling the end of this ridiculous class. If only that teacher wasn't basically a hunting dog that could sniff out any electronic device being used.

Why was Wells even on his phone in the middle of the school day? What class was he in right now? How had he gotten her Twitter account?

Biting down on her lip, she stared at her phone even harder, hoping that some sort of popup would appear with a "Lol, just kidding!" from Twitter, but no such luck. How much time was left in class? Would Wells have time to scroll too far back on her Twitter account? What would he see? What was the last thing she tweeted – what was the last thing that she retweeted?

"Miss Griffin," the firm voice of Mr. Smith demanded, causing her to jump and look away from her phone, "is there something in particular that you're staring at instead of listening to my lecture, or are you just zoning out again like you must have done during the last quiz?"

There was an amused snort from one end of the classroom, and Mr. Smith didn't even try to scold whoever it had been to laugh at his comment. Clarke clenched her hand in her lap – she wasn't quite sure why Mr. Smith hated her so much, but for some reason, she was one of his favorite people to call out.

"Sorry," she managed to say through her clenched teeth.

"See me after class."

Clarke's mouth fell open to protest – she needed to go and block Wells from her Twitter before it was too late – but Mr. Smith was already talking again. It was just twenty seconds later that the bell rang, and Clarke grabbed her phone so fast.

"Miss Griffin – a word, please?"

"Actually, Mr. Smith, I really need to get to English, I have a timed writing today and –"

She was cut off by his glare, which told her that he wasn't having any of the excuses today. Clenching her teeth, she shoved her phone into her pocket and slung her backpack straps over her shoulders before going to his desk. The rest of the class was filing out, some of them flashing her amused looks, but she ignored them all.

"Yes, sir?" The bitter sarcasm was extremely evident in her voice.

"Look, Clarke, I know it's the second semester now, and you're eager for summer vacation, just like everyone else. But you did really well in my class last semester, and now you keep checking out. I expect more from you, Miss Griffin."

Clarke tapped her foot nervously. "I know, Mr. Smith, but there's… I just have a lot going on right now."

"I'm sure." He exhaled deeply. "Fine, go on to your next class. I expect better on Monday."

"Of course," she muttered in response, before swiftly turning on her heel and rushing out of class. Her phone was out of her pocket in seconds, and she scrambled to her Twitter app and blocked her friend from seeing her page. He hadn't interacted with any of her tweets or retweets, so she hoped that that meant he hadn't seen anything either.

Exhaling slowly, she pocketed her phone again and headed to English.

"Hey, Clarke, what's up? You look like you just saw a ghost." The question came from Octavia, who was looking at her with concern from the desk next to the blonde's in the back of their English class.

"Mr. Smith was just being an asshole again," she answered briefly, shaking her hand in dismissal of the issue. "I'm fine, though. Ready for the timed writing?"

"Ha, no."

Clarke sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, leaning against one of the huge trees on the back of campus. She was glad that her dumb school uniform had leggings under the skirt, because or else it would be impossible to sit on the ground at all. Her backpack was sitting at her feet, her phone cradled in her hand. She was facing mostly away from the school and the soccer field, where Octavia was practicing with the team, so that no one could catch a glimpse of the dumb smile that was usually plastered on her face as she scrolled through her Twitter timeline. It wasn't her fault that she followed a lot of funny people.

She got a text from Wells as she was scrolling, and her heart froze for half a second as she opened it, dreading whatever message it contained.

Wells – Hey, I followed you on Twitter earlier, but I just went to your page again and it says you blocked me?

Clarke – I don't have a Twitter…?

It was worth a shot, right?

Wells – It was the saved Twitter login on your laptop – I saw yesterday when we were doing that online math assignment. Remember? Twitter pulled up on your computer and you switched tabs – but I saw the default login and assumed it was yours...

Clarke – It's not, someone else logged in on their Twitter yesterday morning on my laptop to check some poll. If they blocked you, it's probably a personal account or something.

Wells – Really? Who was it?

Clarke – Just someone from my first period, you don't know them.

Wells – Okay. You should get a Twitter, though, it's fun.

Clarke – Maybe one day lol. See you later Wells.

Clarke exhaled slowly, because although she wasn't sure that Wells was entirely convinced, she was sure that he hadn't seen anything on her timeline that made him suspicious of anything. Switching back to the Twitter app, she checked her default display information on her page. Thankfully, nothing was indicative of the account belonging to her. Her icon was a picture of Octavia's new kitten – but the adorable little thing was as common looking as any other kitten on the internet. Her header was a cheesy quote – it was probably the reason that her follower count was still under two hundred – and her bio was basic enough that any angst-ridden teenage girl could have thought it up. Her location was listed as California, so true but not too specific. Her name was "C" followed by the cat emoji, so someone could argue that the C stood for Clarke – which it did, but she wouldn't admit that to anyone at this school, let alone Wells. Her username was also not a giveaway, which was entirely intentional. princess_blondie could easily be applied to her, yes, but it wasn't an alias she had ever used anywhere else.

She sighed in relief again, and then returned to her incessant scrolling.

Half an hour later, she heard her Octavia laugh brightly as she approached. "You might as well be sucked into some other universe when you're on your phone." Clarke pulled her gaze away from the bright screen and locked her phone, swallowing thickly.

"Yeah well, not all of us have the ability to kick around a ball for hours – we have to find our entertainment some other way," Clarke teased, grabbing her backpack as she stood up. "How was practice?"

"It was fine – Monroe was kind of being an asshole, though. What's new, though, right? You wanna get pizza?"

"How about we go back to my place, you shower, and then we order pizza? I'm not sitting down in public with you smelling like you do right now."

Octavia smirked. "Alright, fine. I'm using your shampoo, though."

"Obviously, I didn't expect you to pull shampoo out of your ass."

"I can't believe that people think you're all quiet and innocent, you're such a prick," Octavia exclaimed, all in good fun of course, with a wide smile across her face. "You buying the pizza?"

"I think my dad's home, so he'll probably pay for it."

"Awesome!"

Clarke drove them back to her place, listening to Octavia chatter about Monroe for the whole ride, and upon arrival, she practically shoved her stinky friend into her shower. Only then did she greet Jake Griffin and ask if he would order pizza for her and Octavia. As per usual, he smiled and nodded. Her dad already knew their regular order, so Clarke let him be and went upstairs to her room, waiting for Octavia to be done showering.

As she flopped onto her bed, her default first thing to do was open Twitter on her phone, and that's exactly what she did.

raeraebae is now following you!

Clarke clicked on the username curiously, finding the page of another girl tagged to be living in California. She didn't recognize the face in the icon, nor did she know anyone with the listed name – Raven.

When Clarke got the occasional new follower, the first thing she did was try to figure out what had drawn them to her account, so she began stalking this Raven girl's account to figure out what would have brought her there. They had a couple of mutual following accounts, but it seemed like Raven's Twitter was used to talk a lot more about her personal life and… there it was. She was dating a girl.

Clarke swallowed somewhat nervously when she found herself looking at pictures of Raven and her apparent girlfriend – a pretty blonde. They looked giggly and fun in all their pictures, and Clarke couldn't help but smile at them. Raven didn't have many more followers than Clarke did, but the girl seemed to be a lot more active on the site.

Taking in a breath, she hit the follow button on the girl's account. Why not? This was her coping method, or whatever, anyway. Why not try to actually get some use out of this Twitter account?

Clarke had realized that she might be somewhat gay – or at least not straight – over the holiday break. Octavia had gone on vacation with her family, and Wells went on his annual family ski trip, so Clarke had been left to hang out with just herself over break. She spent an ungodly amount of time on the internet, and had somehow ended up on some fan site where people wrote stories about fictional couples. It had been entertaining to read some of the stories written for characters she'd seen on a couple of shows, but then she had somehow ended up on what she referred to as the gay side of the site. Despite her default judgment, she couldn't help but read some of what came up.

And well, it brought up a few questions.

It also led her to the gay side of YouTube, which got her invested in a couple of YouTube channels. She found herself wanting to follow them on other social media platforms, and Twitter seemed like the easiest one to get and make without having people she knew in real life find it. And now here she was, with 178 – 179 now – followers on Twitter. It felt like the only place that she could even acknowledge homosexual things without being judged.

It was nice, having this space, but sometimes it still stressed her out when she realized that if anyone got on her phone and clicked on this app, the entire hidden part of her life would be revealed. The earlier incident with Wells was already a close enough call – Clarke wasn't going to let anyoneever see her phone, nor would she allow anyone to go on her computer. She'd make up some other reason to be so protective later, but for now, all she knew was that she couldn't risk it. What if people at school found out – or what if her parents found out? She had no idea how they would react. They did live in California, but even people in a liberal state could be not so liberal, especially in the neighborhood Clarke unfortunately lived in. She went to the most conservative private school in the whole surrounding area – and honestly, she was just thankful that it wasn't a Catholic school or something.

Her parents were definitely a concern, but the school itself was also a major issue. Being a private school, they could basically kick her out for any "worthy" reason, and this school had a history of inventing reasons when they ran into a bad student. If word got out that she was gay to some extent, and she became a major gossiped about student, it was very possible that that would happen to her. Then her parents' money would have been wasted, and she could already see her mom getting so worked up over that. Not to mention that Clarke already wasn't the most popular at school – and even that's an understatement. Wells was her childhood friend, mostly just because their parents were friends, and Octavia had been friends with her since middle school. They were an unlikely pair, too, since Octavia was into sports and had lots of friends. Clarke was mostly known for getting called out by Mr. Smith and being a bit of a recluse.

Sighing, she refocused her gaze on her phone, the screen of which had dimmed in the brief moment. Tapping it lightly, she realize that she had a new mention.

raeraebae: princess_blondie yo is that cat in ur icon urs? If so – gimme ur address so I can come steal it!

Clarke crinkled her nose in amusement as she replied.

princess_blondie: raeraebae no, it's my friend's. also, I know better than to give out my address on here – you could be a crazy murderer.

raeraebae: princess_blondie that's ok, just give me ur friend's address :-)

princess_blondie: raeraebae haha you wish!

"Clarke, can you grab me a towel?" Clarke jumped at the call from her friend, locking her phone and dropping it on her bed.

"Yup!"

"Ugh, I can't believe this guy," Octavia muttered, drawing a confused look from the blonde. It was nearing three in the morning, and Clarke and Octavia were sprawled across Clarke's bed, on their phones. Clarke was on Twitter, perfectly angled so that Octavia couldn't see her phone screen, and Octavia was… well, Clarke wasn't exactly sure.

"What guy?"

"This guy on the boys' soccer team started texting me last week – remember I mentioned that? He's been nice to talk to and like, kinda sweet and flirty, and we made plans for tomorrow night. Apparently, however, he has something better to do all the sudden, but he won't tell me what it is," Octavia huffed out. "Fuck this, we haven't even hung out in person since we started texting, I deserve better. If he doesn't want to go out, we won't get out. I don't fucking care."

Clarke tried not to snicker at the comment, looking back down at her phone. "Yeah, fuck him."

"Where the fuck are all the good guys at this dumb prep school?" Octavia growled. "Is it like a rule that all the guys at private schools have to be assholes?"

Clarke laughed at her friend now, and though Octavia flashed her a halfhearted glare, she knew that her friend wouldn't be mad. "You're crazy, Octavia, and you're awesome. Any guy would be lucky to date you, and that's why you're picky – because you know that a guy like that does notdeserve you."

Octavia smiled sweetly, the anger disappearing from her face. "Aww, what a sweet bestie you are. What are you doing over there?"

Clarke quickly double tapped the home button on her phone, switching apps over to her backup plan. "Reading these dumb news articles that are total bullshit."

"Like what?"

"'Man Claims That Aliens Are Abducting Him Biweekly For Regular Biological Tests,'" Clarke read aloud, rolling her eyes.

"People are weird, but so are you. Why do you read that shit? You could be doing literally anything else." Clarke just shrugged, switching back to Twitter as Octavia looked back at her phone. "Well, I'm gonna call it a night. Be right back, I'm gonna pee."

Clarke nodded and Octavia scrambled up off the bed. Blue eyes stayed trained on her Twitter feed. It was getting pretty slow, probably because it was so late, but a few of the people she followed were still tweeting and retweeting things.

raeraebae: In desperate need for a cat to replace my bitch of an ex-girlfriend, pls and thx

Clarke furrowed her eyebrows, clicking on Raven's profile again and scrolling down her page. All the pictures of two couple were still up, but the last one was from a few days ago, so she supposed it went bad sometime in between now and then. Probably before Raven even followed Clarke.

She felt like she should reply to the tweet – she wasn't sure why, but she felt like she should.

princess_blondie: raeraebae go visit some dark alleyways – there are always cats to rescue hiding in dark alleyways

raeraebae: princess_blondie uh I'm not looking to get shanked, but thx, I'm still bitter u won't gimme ur friend's cat

princess_blondie: raeraebae sorry, she'd kill me if I gave her away, even if it is to as good a cause as yours

raeraebae: princess_blondie at least you can recognize the validity of my need, lol, the struggle is real

"You going to be on your phone all night? And if so, can I turn the light out anyway?" Octavia mumbled as she abruptly exited the bathroom, causing Clarke to jump slightly.

"No, I'm gonna sleep," Clarke assured her friend, locking her phone and plugging it in on her nightstand.

Octavia hit the light switch and then climbed back into Clarke's bed, where the blonde was already making herself comfortable. "You okay today, C? You seem a little quieter than normal – like you are around people who aren't your best friend."

The smile that appeared on Clarke's face was definitely forced, but if Octavia noticed, she didn't comment. "I'm fine, just tired I guess. Goodnight, O."

"Yeah, goodnight."

"You know, we could go get drunk instead of stuffing ourselves with this shit. At least that results in pretty much just one night and day of feeling like shit instead of fifteen extra pounds," Lexa huffed, looking down at the tub of ice cream that she was embarrassingly far into. Her best friend Raven, however, was even further into hers.

"But anywhere we go to get drunk, she'll be there," Raven groaned.

Lexa released a long sigh – she was about ready to hunt down Rachel and give the girl a piece of her mind. Not just for the ice cream issue, but for breaking Raven's heart. Raven would never let her do that, though, not even if she was hurting so badly. "Can we at least watch something less depressing than this? You know that this movie isn't making you feel better."

"It's not about feeling better, it's about wallowing for a couple of days before I attempt to make myself feel better," Raven explained in annoyance. "Come on, Lexa, you haven't been dumped before, so you can't understand."

"Whatever."

Lexa tried to focus her gaze on whatever movie was playing over Raven's TV, but then her friend's phone made the obnoxious tweet noise. Her green eyes refocused on Raven's face as she checked the notification. "It's not Rachel, is it?"

"Oh fuck no, I already unfollowed her," Raven muttered. "You should at least be proud of me for that, by the way."

Smiling despite herself, Lexa watched her friend curiously as she typed out a response to whatever tweet she'd gotten. "So who's that?"

"Just some girl I followed today," Raven replied. "Her account's really surface level – I don't even know her name – but her icon is a picture of an adorable cat and I threatened to steal it."

Lexa snorted. "You have an interesting way of making online friends, Rae."

"How do you make friends on Twitter, Lexa?"

"I don't – I gain followers. There is a difference."

"Well yes, but you can't not be friends with all of your followers. Not all of them have to be your friend, but why wouldn't you at least try to make some? It's not like you have a lot in real life."

"Bitch, I have friends," Lexa snapped.

Raven grinned at her. "Dude, chill out, I'm messing with you. Can't help but notice, though, that it's a bit of a sensitive topic…"

"Raven, we literally have all of the same friends!"

"Yes, except I also have internet friends. And since we're both short on one friend now, I decided to go make a new one," Raven said firmly. "Plus, she retweets a lot of funny stuff."

"I still think you're weird, Raven."

Raven shrugged. "Think what you want." She finally set her phone down and looked at her best friend. "Alright, fine, we can turn off the movie – but you owe me a drunk night tomorrow to replace the second night of ice cream eating that we were going to have."

"Deal!"