Bellarke One Shots Book 1

41) Like real People Do

She stared blankly out the window as she watched the trees pass by. Her eyes felt heavy from an extremely extensive lack of sleep. She was so nervous. She could feel her mother's worried glances but she continued to ignore them.

She was about to be a college freshman. It was terrifying.

Not to mention somewhat disappointing. She imagined getting dropped off with both of her parents; crying together, laughing together, loving together. Just being together in general. However, the nasty divorce between Abigail and Jake Griffin made it so the two couldn't even stand being in a room together for more than five minutes. Her graduation was a main indicator of this fact.

She clutched the small book between her hands as her mother hummed (off-key) to the current song on the radio.

Wasn't this supposed to be the best day of her life? She wasn't quite sure. All she knew was that almost everything she owned was packed to the brim behind her.

She rested her head against the window and sighed as she watched the sign for Ark University fly by. She could do this.

She looked down and clutched the book in her lap. Her hands were shaking.

Maybe she couldn't.

...

Standing between the walls of the decent sized room caused a fire to spark within her. She set her book-bag onto the desk as she watched her mother place a few things onto her bed. Well, she guessed it was her bed since the other remained empty.

"It's bigger than in the pictures."

She nodded toward her mother as she ran a finger against the white wood of the desk. The room was bright and all she wanted was to be alone. To cover the window and draw all the thoughts in her head onto paper.

There was silence before her mother sighed. "You could at least pretend to be excited. This is supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life."

Ah, so it was supposed to be one of the best days of her life.

She nodded her head and forced a smile. Maybe if her mother wasn't so into appearances, she would notice. "Let's get the rest of my bags."

Her mother's smile lit up the entire room.

...

She was halfway into Jane Eyre when the door opened. Her mother had been gone for four hours already. She thought about the leftover pizza in her small fridge from their weak attempt of small talk before she left.

A girl was speaking quickly in Spanish as she waved around with her hands. She laughed into the iPhone pressed against her ear as she dropped three bags onto her bed.

It wasn't until she sneezed did the girl finally look in her direction. She ended the phone call without much of a goodbye before tossing the phone onto her empty bed.

"Raven Reyes."

She sat up and tucked the book under her thigh. "Clarke Griffin."

The brunette nodded at her. "Guess we're roommates."

She found herself nodding back slowly. "Guess so."

...

She never shared a room with someone before. After helping Raven move the rest of her things in, she mostly listened as the eccentric girl talked wildly. Raven was from the city, about two hours away, and couldn't be more excited to get out of it. Her parents owned a Mexican restaurant and were on the Food Network once. She insisted that their chalupa's were one of a kind.