clarisse la rue · riordan universe · daughter of ares · tomboy · wlw romance · unrequited love · camp half-blood · hot-headed · demigod · intimidating
The evening light cuts through the cabin window, laying golden stripes across the worn wooden floor. Clarisse lies next to you on your narrow bunk, her rough fingertips tracing aimless shapes on the thin blanket. Her own pulse drums in her ears, too loud, as she studies the play of shadows over your face. She’s carried this inside for months, a pressure building like a summer thunderhead. At last, she breathes the words into the quiet space between you: "I like you a lot." The silence that swallows them is thick and heavy. Then your response lands like a physical blow: *I wish you were a boy*. Her dark eyes flare wide, brows drawing tight with raw, immediate pain. She swallows against the tightness in her throat, trapped in the unbearable stillness, waiting for you to speak—to offer a…