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Clarke was screwed. So so so soooo screwed. Royally, completely fucking screwed. She’d let her mother get to her and this was her reward. Abby had managed to get into her head and now here she was. Screwed.
While her relationship with her mother was a lot better today than it was a year ago, they still had some rocky patches. A lot of them, to be perfectly honest but they were working on it. That’s how she got in this position. Abby felt that Clarke wasn’t putting enough effort into accepting her mother’s relationship with Marcus Kane and somehow that argument had ended with Clarke agreeing to take care of Kane’s dog and watch his house while he and Abby were off on a supposedly much deserved vacation.
They were going to be gone for ten days, today being the eighth. The first week had been fine. The large German Shepherd had imitated her at first, but Max was great. It had taken him a couple of days to warm up to Clarke but as soon as he did they had gotten along just fine. He was also extremely well behaved, probably unnaturally so. Clarke admittedly didn’t have much experience with dogs, having never had one of her own, but there had to be something unnatural about a dog who would sit still for hours because he was told to stay. Clarke had discovered this mostly by accident, a few days into the whole endeavour. She’d told Max to stay because he’d been intent on following her to the bathroom. She hadn’t realised she needed to tell him he was allowed to move again until a few hours later when she walked into the kitchen to find Max in exactly the same spot she’d left him hours earlier.
Admittedly, Max hadn’t been all too happy about being left alone, forgotten in the kitchen for a few hours, but they’d gotten past that. They were cool. Buddies, even. They were fine. Or so she thought. She got up an hour earlier than she was used to every day to take Max for a walk before her classes and then went for another even longer walk once she got home in the afternoon. She’d had more exercise in the past seven days than she had in her entire life. All because her mom was convinced Clarke didn’t like her boyfriend.
Walking Max hadn’t been much trouble, aside from the whole actually having to exercise. He never pulled at the leash, didn’t bark or growl or even try to smell people or other dogs they met. In fact, Clarke wasn’t entirely convinced he wasn’t a robot. Apparently, all this had just been an act. The damn thing had taken advantage of her. He had waited, let her get comfortable and off her guard and then when she least expected he made his move. Out of nowhere he had pulled against her leash, suddenly enough to surprise Clarke and make her loose her grip. Within seconds, he’d managed to bolt away and disappear from sight. She was already exhausted after a long day of tedious classes, she would’ve skipped today’s long walk if she wasn’t so set on proving to her mom that she could and would do this properly and this is what she got for it.
She had tried running after him, but had quickly found that her lack of exercise in the past years clearly had an effect, her condition was humiliating to say the very least. She had barely even lasted down the street before being so out of breath she had to stop. That was more than half an hour ago, she had spent the past half hour walking around the neighbourhood shouting Max’s name and desperately trying not to panic. She had no idea how far Max could have run by now, he was pretty fast so she could be halfway to Mexico for all she knew. She wasn’t even sure where she was at this point.
Running through the list of people she could call to pick her up and/or help her search, Clarke absentmindedly took a turn to her right onto yet another street that looked exactly the same as the one she’d just walked down. She was just about to give up and start thinking of an excuse to tell her mom (there were dog kidnapping rings, right?) when she heard a bark. Admittedly, it was highly likely that someone who lived on this street had a dog but she decided to take it as a sign and started moving towards where she thought the sound had come from.
At the very last house down the street, Clarke saw him. She was just about ready to praise every deity she could think of, because there he was. Max was either licking or biting someone’s face, she couldn’t tell much from the distance but she could tell Max had his paws propped against a person’s shoulders and was either licking or biting their face. She was about 90% certain he was just licking them, there was bound to be more screaming if he was actually attacking the person but Clarke quickened her pace anyway.
She stopped in the driveway and stared. She couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous. She’d though she and Max got along fine but in the seven days she’d had him she had never seen him this happy. His tail seemed to be going a hundred miles an hour and the man, she could see clearly now, was covered in dog drool. She hadn’t even known Max could lick people, he certainly hadn’t tried to lick her. Though she couldn’t really blame Max, she wouldn’t mind getting her tongue all over that guy either. He was gorgeous, with his curly hair, broad shoulders and muscular arms currently moving up and down Max’s body as the stranger scratched his fur all over.
“I’m sorry, is he bothering you?” Clarke asked awkwardly. The man was laughing so clearly he didn’t seem too bothered, but she had no idea what else to say.
“Not at all. Is he yours?” The man pushed Max gently down from his face to sit on the ground, directing a blinding smile at her as he scratched the dog’s ears.
“Sort of. I’m dog-sitting for a friend of my mothers. We were just on a walk and he just took off. He’s never done that before, I don’t know what got into him.” Clarke stopped herself before she managed to embarrass herself anymore with the rambling. She was usually cooler than this, but hot damn the guy was just so pretty. He couldn’t be much older than her and now that she could she his face she could see freckles splattered across his face. “I’m Clarke, by the way.”
“Bellamy,” he said as he stood up, keeping one hand on Max while offering her the other with another gorgeous smile directed at her, his eyes roaming from her legs up her body before meeting her eyes. “Nice to meet you. What’s his name?” he emphasised his question by patting Max on the head a couple of times, smiling when he wagged his tail happily in response.
“It’s Max. Again, I’m really sorry if he bothered you, I swear he’s never gotten away from me like that before.”
“It’s really no problem. He’s a sweet dog,” Bellamy smiled again, making Clarke feel fluttering in her stomach. It really wasn’t fair that he looked like that and seemed this stupidly in love with this dog. “Do you live nearby?”
“I’m actually not sure, I don’t even know where I am right now,” she looked around as if she’d magically find a sign pointing towards home in Bellamy’s front yard. “I didn’t really pay attention to where I was going, I mostly just wandered around looking for Max. I’m staying down on Ark.”
“That’s a pretty long walk back and I mean this in the nicest possible way, you look like another five minute walk could kill you.” Clarke tried to pat her hair into some form of order as inconspicuously as possible, his words making her hyperaware of the sweat and general grossness her run had caused, but the little smirk on Bellamy’s face meant he’d noticed. “I mean don’t get me wrong, you’re gorgeous either way, but I could give you a ride home, if you like.” He said, gesturing to the car sitting in the driveway next to them.
“Oh no, I couldn’t. Thank you, but it’s fine.” It was a really tempting offer, but she’d never been in the habit of accepting rides from strangers, no matter how pretty they were.
“It’s no bother, I’m heading that way anyway for work so it’s no problem,” Bellamy shrugged, looking at her with a soft smile as she thought it over.
“Well if you’re sure…” It probably wasn’t a good idea to get in the car with him, if for no other reason than the fact that she was smelly and sweaty and she really did not want to be in close quarters to the most attractive man she had met in years like that but she was exhausted.
“Really, it’s fine. The car’s open so you can go ahead and put Max in the backseat. I’ve just got to get my keys and then we can go.” Bellamy gestured towards the car before running into the house. He didn’t take long and was back by the car by the time Clarke had gotten Max into the car.
It was a twenty minute drive at least, but Clarke could have sworn she’d just sat down when Bellamy stopped the car right in front of Kane’s house. Bellamy seemed nice and he made her laugh. They spent the ride chatting about whatever came to mind, starting with Max and how he came into her care but by the time they arrived at Kane’s placed they’d covered college and jobs as well as quite a few anecdotes of their friends and family. She was fairly certain he’d been flirting with her, too but she wasn’t sure she dared make a move looking like she did.
“So I guess this is it,” Bellamy said softly as he put the car in park, looking towards Kane’s modest house. Come to think of it, Clarke couldn’t believe her mother was dating someone who lived in a one story house. Kane had never shared her mother’s need for extravagance, which honestly made her like him more but she wouldn’t tell her mother that.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Clarke replied as she took off her seatbelt. She really didn’t want to leave just yet, she was having a lot of fun talking to Bellamy. “Thanks again, for the ride and for taking care of Max.” She slowly got out of the car and was just about to close the door to move back to let Max out when Bellamy spoke again.
“When does Max’s owner come back?”
“The day after tomorrow, why?” It was an odd question, but Clarke was happy to have an excuse to keep talking to him.
“I’d like to take you out on a date, but if today’s any indication I don’t think taking your attention off Max is a good idea.” He seemed confident with a playful grin on his face but the way he glanced down as he waited for her answer betrayed his nerves. “So how about it?”
“You know, you haven’t actually asked properly yet,” Clarke said with a smile before tossing her phone to him, indicating that he should put in his number while she got Max out of the care. “But I’d like that.”
Max survived the next two days without another attempted escape and Clarke made the executive decision to not tell Kane his dog had been lost for over an hour. And when Clarke volunteered to watch Max again while Kane was away on business six months later, Bellamy stayed with her to make sure they wouldn’t have another incident.