𝑷𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒚 𝑰𝒏 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌 ꨄ

t w e l v e

"Just- just wait."

Clarisse barreled hurriedly through the door of their cabin, trying to keep up pace with a furious Luna. The rest of her siblings had remained behind, wondering around god knows where - probably to sulk, or just steering clear of them because they knew a fight was about to go down.

"You know I wouldn't just sell you out like that!" Clarisse said, throwing her spear on her bed.

Luna turned around abruptly. "Wouldn't you?"

"Of course not!"

"You knew I wouldn't be able to do it!"

Clarisse groaned in frustration- as though Luna was the one being ridiculous. "Why would I ask you to lead if I knew we'd loose??"

"Because you didn't give a damn about the flag! You only cared about getting even!" 

"Oh and so what?" The mention of Jackson only seemed to spur her on. Her eyes seemed almost red - a trick of the light, probably-  and flat with fury. "So fucking what if I wanted to go after him? He humiliated me! Why are you acting like I'm the bad guy here?"

Luna's head buzzed with barely controlled anger. Who did she think she was? "Why are you victimizing yourself!?"

"I'm not!"

"Yes, you are! And you know what's even worse? You can't even admit that what you did was wrong, you can't even apologize!" 

"Apologize for what? I didn't do anything!"

Luna let out a sharp bark of laughter. "I was stupid."

Clarisse blinked, taken back. "Wha-"

"I was such an idiot to think that you weren't terrible. But you are. I thought that I'd just misread you, that your idiotic façade about wanting glory and fame and all that bullshit was just something you put out so that people would stay away."

The Ares girl opened her mouth to speak, but Luna wasn't done. No, she was livid, bitter with maybe not only Clarisse,  but everything else too.

She wasn't stopping until she tasted blood.

"But you enjoy it, don't you?" It wasn't a question. "Revenge. You enjoyed it today when you tried to humiliate Percy. You enjoyed it when you humiliated me-"

"Of course I didn't!" Clarisse yelled over her. "Revenge is about hurting those who deserve it," The Ares girl said, running a hand through her hair. "Not you"

"Then why make me the leader!?" Luna yelled. "You could have chosen anyone, anyone else."

"That's besides the point!"

"No it's NOT! It is the point for fucks sake-"

"I don't know what you want me to say!"

"Tell me why."

The room suddenly got very quiet.

"Why." Luna asked. "It's the one question you haven't been able to answer."

The Ares girl stared at her, breathing very hard, like this entire conversation was taxing her physically. But she had nothing to say. Her face was flat so thoroughly that not even Luna could read through it, which at the current moment was endlessly irritating.

When the silence lapsed on, Luna took it upon herself to fill it. "You wanna know what I think?" She paused, breathing hard. "I think you're a liar. And not even to me. To yourself."

At that, Clarisse bristled like a cat. "How about you stop assuming every single thing about me, yeah?  You have no idea what I'm thinking."

"You have no idea what you're thinking, clearly!" Luna shook her head. "And I don't have to assume anything. It's written all over your face."