mythiicsims

[mythiicsims]

“I’m fucked up in a thousand ways and you love me,” Harlow reminded her. “You’re fucked up a thousand ways and I love you. It’s not the end of the world for us to all be fucked up together, alright?”

[mythiicsims]

Harlow didn’t let up. “They are not perfect. Vincent destroyed a quarter of the city. Glen—I don’t know what happened to him, but it’s clear something did. And both of them eat people. You still love them so much it almost destroyed you.”

[mythiicsims]

“Proof that you are 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭,” Harlow insisted, “that you make mistakes, that people get the better of you sometimes—once they had that, things improved. Did they or did they not?”

“Yes,” Elian whispered, curling into a ball.

[mythiicsims]

“That’s not what I said. But if I 𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘯’𝘵 given Vincent the USB, if he 𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘯’𝘵 known you weren’t a piece of shit, he might’ve killed you in his rampage. Glen wouldn’t have passed notes with you. Come down to comfort you. Met with you today. Do you not get that?”

[mythiicsims]

“I know it’s my fault,” Elian said hollowly. “I never said it wasn’t.”

[mythiicsims]

“Gods have that stuck up reputation because they’re so focused on not letting anyone know anything is wrong with them,” Harlow murmured. “All it does is make you look worse. Like you think you’re above having flaws. Do you understand that?”

[mythiicsims]

In the silence that followed, the only sound coming from either of them was Elian’s labored, stuttered breathing.

[mythiicsims]

“But you 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 want to be so 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵—sometimes it’s like you forget everything you told me about why you left Olympus. And no, it’s not your fault Ezra showed up, and it’s not your fault that your brain works the way it does, but self preservation is also always an option. A necessary one, for you.”

[mythiicsims]

“If you had told Glen literally 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 that’s on there, it might have saved you,” Harlow snapped. “He might have realized what was happening and by the time you pulled it together, he would’ve still been here!”

[mythiicsims]

“𝘞𝘏𝘠 𝘕𝘖𝘛?!” Harlow screamed back. “What the fuck do you think love is, Elian?! You can’t hide half of who you are and expect to live like that forever! They can’t love you if they don’t know you!”

[mythiicsims]

“Did you or did you not,” Harlow said slowly, “want them back in your life?”

“𝘐 𝘋𝘐𝘋𝘕’𝘛 𝘞𝘈𝘕𝘛 𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘔 𝘛𝘖 𝘒𝘕𝘖𝘞 𝘏𝘖𝘞 𝘍𝘜𝘊𝘒𝘌𝘋 𝘜𝘗 𝘐 𝘈𝘔!” Elian screamed.

[mythiicsims]

Harlow rolled her eyes and thunder boomed in answer. Elian couldn’t stop crying—couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, could barely stand. She was surprised she was able to have this argument effectively.

[mythiicsims]

“I don’t understand why you’re being like this,” she heard Harlow say. “I was trying to help—”

“You gave them a laundry list of everything that’s wrong with me!” Elian shrieked. “It’s like if I handed out Doctor Lindsey’s file on you!”

[mythiicsims]

She couldn’t manage anymore words. Her voice abandoned her, the sobs leaving her unlike anything Elian had heard from herself in months.

[mythiicsims]

“You gave it to me for situations 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴—”

“For 𝘺𝘰𝘶! I gave it to you for 𝘺𝘰𝘶 to read! And my dad! Not…”

[mythiicsims]

Elian pressed her lips together. She should’ve known. She’d heard enough talking around it that she probably could’ve guessed if she’d tried.

“See you around,” she said through her teeth.

Glen chuckled knowingly. “𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘺, Elian.”

[mythiicsims]

“Yeah,” he said, standing alongside her. “But listen—go easy on Harlow, okay? If she hadn’t given Vincent the USB, we wouldn’t be standing here.”