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

XCI

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Hello again.

In the bathroom, I spent a good time crying to myself because I was ashamed of what I had done. I beat Reyna's knuckles, I said nasty things to the people I love, and then I got in a fight with Jason. I also had a big bruise on my forehead and my leg was all funked up, and I was covered in mud and smelled an awful big bit like sewage, so then I just broke into straight sobs on the pot.

A knock at the door deterred me, and I heard it pop open. "Suki?" Reyna's voice was soft. "You good?"

"Yep. Just pooping." I was not. I was doing something much much worse; breaking down.

"...okay." The door closed again and I returned to my sobbing.

So, that sucked. I have never felt so very weak. I sucked in Yuma, then I was nothing short of average in Nashville, then I couldn't drive at all, then I got hit with an arrow and was needlessly mean to my friends, then my leg got all banged up. I mean, that's a pretty sucky demigod, I must say. I'm supposed to vanquish beasts and bring glory to Rome. Instead, an alligator almost got me and I have done absolutely nothing this whole quest. But, I figured three minutes of violent sobbing was enough for me, so I cut myself off and got up.

I cleaned myself as best I could in a gas station bathroom. I had changed my clothes again and wiped myself aggressively with wet paper towels. I used the last of the hand sanitizer. But there was no saving my hair. I had to suffer that, so I just pulled it up to try to conceal the mess and marched back out there.

Reyna was leaning against the wall, under the dim light of an orange bulb. Sebastian and Jason were nowhere to be found. She had cleaned most of the mud off herself, too, but was in about the same boat as me; dirty and quite tired. She glanced at me, and turned back to staring at her shoes. "Are you okay?"

I wiped the snot from my nose and leaned against the wall on the other side of the door. "Big poop."

"Okay." I am pretty sure she knew I was lying. I'm not a very good liar. I shivered a little bit in the cold as I thought about that. Maybe if I take acting classes or something, I can learn how to lie. It's not something I like to do, but it comes in handy against enemies, or making myself look a little bit better, or trying to hide my embarrassing big fat crush on her. I couldn't believe I had just told Jason how much I like her and that I sometimes think about kissing her, and then I went and beat her knuckles like she was some sort of rodent I couldn't wait to be rid of. I just left her in the bayou with the gators and the gar. She could have been eaten.

Usually, being quiet around Reyna doesn't bother me. I just like being around her. Yet again, this was a bad form of silence. "I'm sorry for beating your knuckles."

"It'll be fine."

"Well, no." I stuck my hands in my pockets and breathed out. "How did you fall out of the boat?"

"What?"

"I think you were shot before I was shot," I said, "but you seemed okay." She didn't answer me. "I know I didn't hit you, so, I mean..."

"Maybe she did shoot me," Reyna suggested. "Maybe she shot me twice."

Well, Reyna is also not a super great liar. Better than the rest of us, but really still not that great. To a stranger, she is an average liar, which is different than her poker face. She has a killer poker face. But her thing is the poker face and staying silent. When she opens her mouth around someone who really knows her, we know. I always know. So, I was wondering why she would be lying about something like that, though I remember what had happened between us before she flew from the boat.