Petals on The Moon || Reyna Ramirez-Arellano x Fem!OC

XXVI

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Dear Diary,

With the time different in the Labyrinth, it was hard to tell how long we'd been away from camp.

To us, it couldn't have been any more than four hours. But last time we were in the Labyrinth, four hours had somehow turned into four days. Frankly, I wanted out as soon as possible, but I knew that our quest was nowhere near finished.

"We've been walking for a while with no monsters," Sebastian pointed out. "Is that good?"

"I guess so," I said. "Better than last time, at least."

"Maybe we should try to get some sleep," Suki suggested. "This feels like the calm before the storm."

"And I'm hungry again," Sebastian agreed.

We found a decent section of wall to hang around. It was dry, not too cold and not too warm, though it had some old hay littered around and smelled suspiciously like livestock. But, I'd definitely take livestock over the acrid vapor of Glossy, so we all sat down and decided to really have a meal. As much of a meal as possible, at least. It was just dried rations that had the same consistency as dirt.

"We should take turns keeping watch," Sebastian said. "I'll go first."

"No, I will," I said. "I'm the most alert one right now. You guys have been doing a lot today."

Nobody really objected. Jason rolled out a small sleeping mat. Suki touched his arm and he was fast asleep. Sebastian laid against the wall, signaled Suki, and she put him to sleep, too. But there was no one to put her to sleep, so she sat criss-cross in the open floor, picking at a fleck of dirt on her shoes.

"We never talked," she mumbled.

I didn't look at her. "About what?"

"About me being a lesbian." I snapped my head to look at her, and she just shook hers. "Jason and Sebastian can be trusted. Sebastian already knows I'm gay and Jason doesn't care about that stuff."

I brought my knees to my chest. "Sebastian knows?"

"Yes," she said. "He was the first person I told."

I gripped my sword. "Okay."

"Why does it have to change anything about our friendship, Reyna?" I didn't really know how to answer that. "You haven't looked at me the same since I told you."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Maybe because you can't see your face, but I can." I hated how hurt she sounded. "I thought there was nothing I could do to mess up our friendship, since you already got over my boringness and know about the therapy." She flicked something off her finger, and went back to picking at her shoe. "But I let it slip that I am not attracted to men, and you don't seem to act right."

"It's not you."

"'It's not you, it's me.'" She raised her eyebrows. "Is that right?"

I clenched my jaw. "I don't know. I just don't think you need to be blabbing about it. I don't think anyone needs to blab about... about sexual preferences, all right?"