Gilded Obsession

Chapter 14

Clarke stands there with her hand on the brunette's soft, trembling arm as Lexa stands there facing away from her still, unmoving.

"Lexa?" Clarke asks, her only distraction from what just happened being her growing concern for the other woman. However, the latter does not respond or move.

Stepping around her to look at her face, Clarke sees nothing but pure unbridled rage behind those bright green eyes. Alexandria looks like she wants to go after Mr. Pilling and murder him in the cruelest of ways – make him suffer. And anyone who gets in her way would suffer in a similar manner.

Shaking the other woman gently, Clarke tries again, "Lexa? Please say something. You're scaring me. You look like you're about to hurt someone.

"That somehow seems to snap the brunette out of whatever trance she was just in, and she blinks her eyes, rolling her shoulders, before saying, "I'm so sorry, sweetness. I didn't mean to scare you. I never would have wanted to. I would never hurt you."

Clarke knew that. She wasn't necessarily concerned that Alexandria would hurt her, just that she'd hurt somebody, namely Jason Pilling. And then she'd get in trouble for it or get hurt herself because no matter how many martial arts classes she's taken, Jason Pilling was much bigger and stronger.

"How are you doing? Are you okay, sweetness?" Alexandria finally asks, nothing but concern painting her stunning features. And with the distraction of the heiress on the verge of snapping gone, Clarke can feel the energy siphoning from her body rapidly.

She needed to be alone for a little while. She needed some time to wrap her head around the past fifteen minutes.

"Clarke?" Lexa tries again, the use of her actual name causing the blonde to realize she had yet to respond to the question.

"Yes, I am fine. I just need a moment," she finally says, pushing past Alexandria and walking towards the main space where everyone has gathered now.

She can hear clicking heels following several paces behind her, but she doesn't look back. Instead, she picks up her own pace and slips into the crowd, easily losing the brunette who's immediately pulled into conversations as she's spotted by her guests.

Clarke makes a beeline for the makeshift bar and snatches a mostly full bottle of liquor from behind it as the bartender is focused on serving several customers. Then, she makes her way through the crowd in the opposite direction, clutching the bottle in one hand, looking for a place to be alone.

Wrapping her head around what just happened hadn't taken long, and now she wanted to forget.

She should probably go home, but with twenty minutes left until the clock struck twelve, that didn't seem like the best idea. Besides, she did not have liquor at home, and taking the bottle home seemed like stealing while drinking it here did not.

Finally finding a door that leads onto the terrace overlooking the museum's sculpture garden, Clarke slips outside, the sound dying away as the glass door falls closed behind her.

It's cold outside. Much too cold for her to be out here, especially without a coat, but she doesn't care much about that. She can't. She already felt cold from the inside out, anyway, so might as well make the outside match.

Taking several large sips helps heat up her insides though, the liquor burning all the way down her throat. Taking several more sips helps slightly less since the initial burning turned into slight numbness. She gags, then she drinks more.

Staring out over the garden, lit up with fairy lights, Clarke's shoulders drop low. She should have refused to come tonight. She should have stayed home to study. Sure, her reputation as the perfect intern would have taken a hit, but a significantly smaller one than it did coming here tonight and rejecting her boss' advances, that's for sure. But soon, the alcohol would kick in. Experience told her it took about ten minutes, so she should be nearing that deadline by now. And with how quickly she drank those first many sips, the effects would be severe. Hopefully severe enough to erase the past hour from her memory permanently.