Fearless (Bellamy Blake - Book 1)

Chapter 44

I stand amongst the other kids as we watch the flares being launched into the sky. My eyes squint at the bright red sparks emitting from them, but I can't seem to look away as they shoot up into the inky night sky, leaving behind a trail of smoke.

A few kids cheer and laugh in awe, but I once I see the flares grow smaller the further they get, I turn and make my way back to my tent, stopping only when Bellamy approaches me.

"Hey." He gives me a small nod and a concerned look. "Don't worry, Raven's flares will work."

I nod slowly, "Sure." Bellamy gives me an odd look and I sigh. "Did you need something, Blake? Because I was counting on actually sleeping through the whole night."

He nods and scans my face, the sleep deprivation evident from my dark circles. "Yeah you need it, you've been pretty cranky lately." I narrow my eyes, about to reply but he chuckles at me. "I'm just kidding, Trouble, you know you're my ray of sunshine."

I roll my eyes as I go past him. "Well this ray of sunshine will see you when her friend the sun is out."

"Oh, hey wait," Bellamy places a hand on my arm, stopping me once more, "have you seen Octavia?"

I sigh slightly and look up at him. "Not since this morning and I really think you should just let her be, you guys said some pretty harsh things to each other."

"We're not like you and Finn." Bellamy tells me with a hard look. "When we fight, I actually want to patch things up with her."

My eyebrows furrow at his words, and almost as soon as they've left his mouth, Bellamy looks guilty for saying them.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean--"

"Yeah you did." I cut him off and shrug. "And you're right, Finn and I argue a lot and it's mainly my fault. But we always work through it, you just have to give it time." 

I'm surprisingly calm, but I'm blaming my lack of anger on the lack of sleep, something Bellamy easily picks up on. 

"You really do need to sleep, you're not yourself."

I roll my eyes at him, "If it bugs you that much, then look for her, but don't push her, okay?"

He nods, "Yeah, okay. Thanks, Chris." 

My eyebrows raise in slight surprise at his boldness of my first name, and his eyes widen slightly also. Bellamy opens his mouth to say something but I abruptly cut him off. 

"Goodnight Bellamy." I turn and continue my way to my tent, ignoring how peaceful and nice my name actually sounds coming from him. 

Walking through the crowd I pass Finn and Raven, the former with his arm around her as they watch the flares in the sky. They look peaceful, happy, and my heart clenches at the thought of missing their relationship blossom. As kids, I could always see the connection between them, but once I got locked up at fourteen, I wasn't around when they actually got together which saddened me when I found out about it. 

Luke, one of the guards on regular patrol of the solitary cells used to bring me some insight into the goings on of the Ark. He was rather young for a guard and for some reason didn't care about what I had done. The older we got, the closer we got, and the thought of not seeing him again actually kind of hurts, the more I think about it. But about a year ago he told me that Finn had been arrested for an illegal spacewalk, something that kind of shocked me, as it was always Raven who wanted to work as a Zero-G mechanic. 

As I pass them, I feel both of their gazes on me and my eyes flicker between the two of them. I try to keep my expression stoic, but they both look at me with what seems to be disgust or disappointment, maybe even both.

Once I'm in my tent and my boots are off I climb inside my makeshift bed, leaving my jacket on due to the slight chill in the air, and close my eyes. I initially thought that because of the events of the past few days, it would be hard to fall asleep, but luckily the exhaustion hits me hard, and my mind manages to switch off for a few hours whilst the sounds of the camp outside lull me into a dreamless sleep.