Almost Unreal | Violentine One-Shots

Longing for Love | Fluff

A/N – Song recommendation - Too Afraid by MARINA

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Clementine sits on the roof of her apartment building, watching the orange sunset as it breaks over the horizon. She'd lit a cigarette but can't bring herself to smoke it. Gabe used to smoke, and while he caused her nothing but heartache, the sickly smell of the burning tobacco reminds her of a time when she wasn't alone. He'd always have a cigarette in his mouth and Clementine by his side.

That is until he decided he'd rather have a nineteen-year-old fake platinum blonde on his arm instead.

The brunette stubs out the cigarette and wraps her arms over her knees. Her oversized jumper providing little shelter from the cold breeze that blows through the city. She sighs and twists the ring on her index finger round and round in circles.

Gabe hurt her, he cheated and lied and toyed with Clementine's feelings for months. He probably enjoyed it, the thrill of seeing two women at once, lying at one to be with the other, telling his friends how naïve silly old Clementine was, for not suspecting anything sooner.

Clementine hates him, yet somehow, a very small part of her still misses him. And that makes her almost loathe herself as well.

She whirls her apartment keys around her finger. It's the apartment that she had bought with Gabe when she'd moved to this city. She'd never liked it here but Clementine had thought that at least with Gabe by her side that wouldn't matter.

Now she's alone and she hates it here.

Gabe moved in with the woman he was cheating on his girlfriend with, which left Clementine alone in the one-bedroom apartment in a city she hates, barely able to cover the bills.

Clementine rolls her neck and looks out over the city below. Even at 5:23 am lights illuminate the high-rise buildings and streets, this city is always so alive, heaving and crowded. The air is thick with pollution and silence is hard to find. It's so different from the house she grew up in and Clementine has never adjusted to the change in scenery, even two years later.

"Oh."

Clementine turns at the sound, not expecting to see someone else on the roof this early in the morning. Standing awkwardly by the door to the stairwell is a young woman, a blanket stuffed beneath one arm and a flask in the other. She's got short flaxen blonde hair and prominent features, high cheekbones, defined jaw, plump lips. Clementine holds her breath before swivelling around to fully face the other woman.

"Sorry for staring, it's just that I never normally see people up here," says the woman as she takes a step closer. Clementine vaguely recognises her as another resident of the building. Someone she's spotted in the laundry room, someone she's seen collecting letters in the foyer, and someone Gabe was once rude to; Clementine hopes that this woman doesn't hold a grudge against her because of the actions of her ex.

"No, it's fine," says Clementine with a smile. She watches as the blonde picks her way across the rooftops and sits a few meters away from her. The brunette turns to face the city below but finds herself casting glances at the other woman from the corner of her eye.

"So," says the blonde woman, "I've never seen you up here, normally I get the whole rooftop to myself."

Clementine watches an ambulance race down the street, light's flashing and sirens blaring. The noise echoes around the looming buildings, bouncing off the walls. "I... uh, I'd had a bad day. I couldn't sleep and the only thing that's nice about this place is feeling like I'm high above it," she says as she turns to the blonde, "hence the rooftop."