Kier @ Jo: “All my choices led me to you.”
kier says to jo, “all my choices led me to you.”
fights were rare. normally they were over matters the two had agreed long ago to ignore. normally, they would spawn over something trivial they were too stubborn to agree about, but by the time night came, they always agreed to table it.
there was one fight that always stuck out in her head, however. one fight that lasted longer than the others, and caused more pain than the others.
of course, what jo did wasn’t right, and she knew it. she’d even admitted it, but for once, it didn’t seem to be enough. and of course, the girl wouldn’t apologize for it. she never apologized when it came to this subject.
which is perhaps why they fought the most about it.
he ignored her for two days after she came back... which she deserved.
no answered texts, no answered calls... which she deserved.
it was only until the one day chiron let rain into the camp’s boundaries did she give up. tugging on her rainboots, she marched over to the morpheus cabin, rain and siblings be damned. she couldn’t handle the radio silence anymore.
but of course, it was gabe who answered the door. his eyes briefly lit up when he saw the daughter of hecate, before falling again, glancing back into his cabin.
“i know, gabe. please. i need to talk to him.”
gabe pursed his lips, holding the door firmly.
gabe glanced at her once more, perhaps with a sad gaze, before giving up with a sigh, letting the soaking wet girl stand in the doorway. ben came toddling out of his room, giving her a wide, toothy grin. she tried hard to return it, though her heart wasn’t in it.
gabe ushered the toddler back to their half of the cabin. he tried to give her a reassuring glance, but all it did was cause her stomach to churn with ice.
she did knock. to be fair. she knocked once, twice, and then three times before she got a begrudging answer from the other side. her heart skipped a beat, but she ignored it. not waiting to say who it was, jo pushed open the door to his room.
she shouldn’t hurt when she saw him. it should be the opposite. he always erased the hurt, made it go away... but now, just seeing the messy hair and the too-cool stature set a vice around her heart. not helping the fact was the steely gaze, and the book she’d loaned him sitting open on his bed.
she swallowed down the immense guilt, and shut the door behind her.
there was no yelling. no command to get out.
she almost wished he’d yell. she at least knew how to deal with that.
instead, she stood for a moment or two, half hoping he would say something (but really, knowing he wouldn’t).
“i know what i did was wrong.” she started, crossing her arms. gently, she waited to see if he would say anything. he didn’t, merely mirroring her movements, leaning back.
she swallowed, and continued. “and i really, really am sorry for breaking our promise. i just —” she rocked back and forth on her heels, hearing the water drip off of her and onto the carpet. “i lost myself for a minute. i panicked. i didn’t know what to do.” her eyes darted anywhere but him, even though his stance didn’t change.
the floor. the plush carpet of the morpheus cabin was always something she envied.
the bed. very nights spent there, but a first kiss shared and maybe stolen after that.
the book. betrayal. in the back of her heard, she wondered if he was reading it for that reason.
the walls. not much, but the photos are what made it hurt. she tried not to focus on them.
“i’m just not used to having someone else that cares and it just didn’t compute in my brain... i’m not saying i forgot i’m just...” she lost her trail, digging herself into a deeper grave, emotion threatening to take over her voice. she took a breath, calming down enough to get her eyes to stop burning.
“i can’t say i’m sorry for going, okay? i can’t. but i am sorry i didn’t tell you. i’m sorry i left in the middle of the night and didn’t answer you. i’m sorry i waited until i came back to try and find you, okay? it wasn’t fair and it wasn’t right.”
there it was. all out there. angrily, she wiped at the wetness on her cheeks she knew wasn’t the rain, and waited for a reaction.
it took a while, several minutes of silence with just the dull pound of rain on the roof. several minutes of shared stares... but it wasn’t the same, loving ones. a trust had been broken. pain had been struck, and not just the physical.
“all my choices led me to you.” he said, simply, once jo finally thought she was going to lose it from the silence. “and this is how you repay that.”
if she was shaking before, it was nothing compared to now. her whole body trembled as the weight of his words crashed over her.
he was right. he was always right. maybe that is why it hurt the most.
from the moment she stepped out of the magical barriers of camp she knew this would happen. she knew there was no going back.
and yet she couldn’t stop herself.
maybe that was where she started crying. she didn’t remember. all she remembered what the guilt and shame that came with it. refusing to let any sobs through, she grit her teeth and managed one small, meager sentence.
it was a whisper. hardly heard over the rain, hardly heard over the clenching of her jaw and fists, hardly heard over the soft footsteps of the son of morpheus, coming closer to the girl.
it was hardly heard when he finally wrapped her arms around her, and she finally let herself break.