The Search

Clarke walks down the dangerous streets of The Mountain, the hood she's called home for the past two years. Where she's lived with her boyfriend Finn... ex-boyfriend now because she broke up with him after finding him with another woman- not that it was the first time- it always goes down like this, she finds him fucking a random girl in their bed, she yells at him, he beats her up, she cries, he apologizes and says it will never happen again, she believes him and it repeats.

This time though, Clarke's had enough. Enough of cheating, enough of beating, enough of being treated like shit. She doesn't have any friends of her own who could let her stay the night at their place. The only people she knows are the junkies and drunk friends of Finn's and that is not an option so she opts for sleeping on the streets.

It's not the first time she has to. After her father's death, the streets where her home due to her broken mother who started using drugs, lost her job as a doctor because she stole pills from work, she started blaming Clarke for her husband's death from time to time and spent the nights with different men. Abby (her mother) stopped paying for her private school so Clarke had to enroll in a public one and get a job so that she could have food in her stomach.

As Clarke settles under a bridge, she makes plans for the next day, she gets payed tomorrow from one of her jobs so she'll go collect the check and search for an apartment she can afford.

She uses her bag of clothes as a pillow and holds her pocket knife in her hands like she used to do when she was a teenager in case someone came to bother her... she remembers having to use that knife a few times before... she pushes those horrible memories out of her head, pulls her sweater tight to her body and goes to sleep.

~

She woke up a few times during the night because she heard a few noises that put her in alert mode, but nothing really happened and she was glad for it.

She walks inside the coffee shop -Green's Café- where she's been working for a year now. It's located in the beautiful city of Arkadia, the atmosphere in here is nice and it always makes Clarke forget about her shitty life.

"Hey, Clarke!" Niylah greets her with a smile.

Niylah is the only true friend she has and they have fooled around a few times, but Clarke decided to stop doing it when the bruises on her body couldn't be hidden with make-up anymore. They have remained good friends, but Clarke wasn't going to abuse of that friendship and ask her if she could stay at her place while she got to her feet. She knew Niylah wouldn't hesitate to say yes, but she doesn't want to explain the reason for asking.

"Hey, Niylah." She returns the smile. "Busy morning?"

Niylah sighs. "It's Friday so it's very busy."

"I won't keep you long then, I just came for my paycheck."

"Ah, yes, Mr. Green came by earlier and left them in the office."

"Okay, thanks." Clarke walks to the back of the cafe and into the employees office. As expected Mr. Green is nowhere in sight, to be honest she's only seen him five times during the year she's been working here and from those few times she can tell he's a nice guy, very friendly and cares about his employees.

The first time she saw him he introduced himself as Monty Green the owner of the cafe and asked her her name and when she told him he said, "It's nice to meet you Clarke. I'm glad you are working here if you need anything don't hesitate to let me know." He smiled, greeted the others and left.

She grabs her check and goes back to the front. "See you tomorrow, Niylah." She hugs her friend.

"Take care, beautiful." Her friend tells her.

Before going out the door, a flyer caughts her eye on the board that's on the right wall of the entrance. It says that someone is looking for a roommate and that the rent is cheap, it has a number and says to ask for Bellamy Blake. She takes the paper with her and dials the number, but it goes to voicemail.

She spends all day looking for apartments and calling people who have left flyers saying they're looking for a roommate, but couldn't find anything within her price range which isn't much. It's late in the afternoon and the sun is starting to go down so she decides to give Bellamy Blake a call for the tenth time, but again it goes straight to voicemail.

She stares at the address on the flyer debating whether to go or not... she has nothing to lose so she makes her way to the apartments. When she gets there it's dark, but she can see that there are three buildings of glass, big and beautiful in a nice place of the city so she doesn't know what that man Bellmay thinks cheap means, but since she has no other place to go she thought she'd give it a shot and hope that she could afford it.

She goes into the building in the middle and takes the elevator to the tenth floor, when she gets out she looks for the number 101. She knocks on the door and is glad she grabbed her most decent clothes before leaving Finn.

When no one opens the door she sits on the floor to wait for the man to show up. It's either waiting or going out to find a place on the streets to sleep and she doesn't want to do that yet.

~

Bellamy's had a rough day dealing with his people, reminding them what to do and what not to do, he had glanced at Murphy as he said that last part. He rubs his temple with his thumb and forefinger as he gets off the elevator and turns right for his apartment.

He stops when he sees a small figure laying on his doorstep, he walks closer and furrows his brow as he stares at the sleeping woman. She looks in her early twenties, blonde hair, creamy skin, long lashes and thin, she is so thin as if she hasn't been eating well. She was resting her head on a bag, that didn't look comfortable.

He kneels down and whispers, "Hey." But she doesn't stir.

He places his hand on her shoulder and gently shakes her, "Hey."

Her eyes dart open and in a blink of an eye she has him pinned down on the floor, straddling his waist and with a knife at his throat. He tenses and meets her eyes, blue like the deep blue sea, she is young and beautiful but those eyes... those eyes are of a person who has lived many things and even though she is trying to be intimidating he can still see some kind of fear in her eyes.

He slowly raises his hands so she can see them and says, "I'm not going to hurt you."

She glances at his hands then back at him, but doesn't say anything. She doesn't trust him.

"Can you please take the knife away from my neck?" He asks her softly.

"What do you want from me?" Her voice is a whisper.

"I just want to get to my apartment." He points to his door.

She furrows her brows, then her eyes open wide and she quickly gets off him. "Oh my God!" She exclaims. "Oh, crap!" She runs her fingers through her hair and looks at him. "I-I am so sorry-Oh my God. I'm sorry."

He stands up and watch her pace and keep on rambling.

"I-I must have fallen asleep while I was waiting for you to show up and-" she stops pacing. "Shit! Now you will definitely not let me rent the other room and I spent the whole day looking for something but nothing came up. Ugh! I'm so stupid. I am so sorry, please-"

Bellamy carefully stands in front of her because she still has the knife in her left hand. "Hey, it's okay." He tells her. "Breath."

She looks up at him and she takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry." She says.

He doesn't know why but he chuckles. "It's okay, really."
She puts the pocket knife away and he asks her. "So you were waiting for me?"

She nods once. "I saw your flyer that you're looking for a roommate." She grabs her bag from the floor ready to leave.

"Come in." He says surprising her.

"Y-you want me to come in after I attacked you?"

He chuckles again. "Only if you promise not to stab me in the back."

Her eyes widen. "No, I would never." She says alarmed.

He smirks, "I was teasing you, Princess." And opens the door.

~

Clarke acted out of instinct. She was surprised the guy invited her in after what she did. He is tall, has bronze skin, black curly hair, sharp jawline, brown eyes and freckles adorn his chiseled face. He is good looking to say the least and young, she thought he'd be older, but he looks like he's in his twenty-four or twenty-five.

Clarke follows him inside the apartment and her mouth almost drops to the floor. It is big, she can only see the living room and kitchen but that is enough to tell her that she can't afford to live here. She knew it was a long shot and now she feels stupid and embarrassed as she turns around and finds the man Bellamy staring at her.

"I'm sorry to have caused you trouble and for wasting your time, but I think I should go." She gives him a small smile and walks towards the door.

Stupid. Stupid. She was so stupid for coming here.

"Wait." His voice is rough but soft at the same time.
She turns and locks eyes with him. "Don't you like it?" He asks her.

She swallows. "No, I love it. It's beautiful, but I can't afford it."

He keeps his eyes locked on hers. "How much do you have?"

She's embarrassed to say how little she has, but his eyes are so hypnotizing. "I only have five-hudred today from my paycheck."

He smiles at her, a genuine smile that makes her heart skip a beat. "I know this looks expensive, but it's really cheap."

She raises her eyebrow at him, like saying What does cheap mean to you?

He chuckles as if he understood. "Really, the rent is only eight-hundred and fifty which surprised me at first too because this place is huge. You can pay four-hundred and I could pay four-hundred and fifty, how does that sound?"

Clarke stares at him baffled. "You're kidding, right?" This place could not be eight-hundred and fifty.

"I'm as serious as a heart attack." He tells her.

She bites her lip, if she only has to pay four-hundred then she can afford it. "Okay." She hears herself say.

Bellamy grins, "Okay then, it's settled." He walks up to her and extends his hand she takes it and her hand is so small compared to his. "We're roommates now." He winks at her.

Oh, boy! What did I get myself into. She thought to herself.