She sat alone in her room as she did so many times before. Everything was as she left before she went on the mission. Bed made, shades over window adding on to the gloomy atmosphere. Nothing special about the girl's room, not much decoration other than the lonely Alice in Wonderland poster that hung on the deserted wall. Everything was always quiet and depressing in Artemis' room, yet on that one day, everything felt even lonelier. The room felt darker than it usually did, and the feeling was even more depressing than it normally was.
Artemis was seated on her bed only staring at the floor with a soft expression of sorrow on her face. She had been depressed about losing family before, about several things that took turns for the worse in her life, but none like this. The memory of his eyes filled with rage was creating an even emptier pit in her heart. But that wasn't even the worse part, not even the fact that what he believed was not true, the worse part was the look of disappointment in his eyes. That's what stung the most.
Fresh tears slipped from the silver eyed archer's eyes. He had always bickered with her, argued with her, but he had never been angry at her, or talked to her in such a shattering way. The usually jolly boy that she enjoyed talking with, coming up with bitter come backs with, was now the boy that least wanted to see her.
'What you've proved is that you're selfish and insecure.'
His words were stuck on replay, making Artemis go nearly insane. She knew it was not true, that her reasons were not because of insecurity, but the thing that mattered was that he did. He believed she's insecure. He believed she's selfish. He was who mattered most at that moment. His words were what hurt most at the moment.
Not even Roy's haunting speech about Artemis lying to the team was what kept her awake through the night, but Wally's voice. His words, they were the ones that haunted Artemis the most.
She did not focus much on why he mattered most; she only knew that for some reason his words, and how he thought of her, now meant the world.
The broken girl sobbed with her hands covering her face entirely. She could feel the cold tears press down on her hot red cheeks. Wally was the one haunting her. His voice, his actions, his looks…were endless in Artemis' brain. They tortured her all night, not allowing her to forget.
'Please tell me I'm wrong'
The look. His bright green eyes now as dark as her room. They would not leave her alone. "I'm sorry…" she sobbed. "I'm sorry" was all she could say. She was upset. She was beyond upset,
She was broken.
He grunted he sighed; he tightened his fists and beat the bed. He rolled and squirmed around his room with exasperation everywhere he went. Wally West was angry. "How could she do that? Why would she do that?" thoughts racing through the speedsters mind every two seconds, all directed at Artemis. "Is she really that paranoid? That insecure?"
He clenched his teeth tightly and grunted at his now aching head.
No matter how much he wanted to ignore what Artemis had done, he just couldn't.
"Why is all I want to know. Why did the confident and brave archer I know and love suddenly-"
Wally paused for a moment. He had his hands behind his head, and as he stopped talking he slowly landed on his bed. He sighed and took a moment to catch his breath, "why did she do it?" he whispered in to the quiet, empty room.
The only Artemis Wally knew was the great archer, the fearless girl with a quick tongue, for her to suddenly become paranoid of a new member on the team just wasn't like her. At all.
"There has to be a reason…" he murmured before laying back on is bed. "There has to be another reason why…" Wally stared up at the ceiling slightly less stressed than he was before.
He was beginning to remember the Artemis he first met. She was confident, and mischievous. When she joined the team, he never thought he would end up liking her so much.
He was always in to the nice girls, the ones that would easily fall for him by just a flick of his wrist, but Artemis? She was anything but interested in him, and neither was he.
But the more he got to know the less annoying parts of this blond haired girl, the more caught up he had gotten with her. She was so much different from other girls. He ended up falling for her without even realizing it. Falling for the silver eyed, courageous beauty. And he was perfectly ok with that.
But now?
Everything he had known about Artemis, at least, everything he thought he had known about Artemis had gone to waste. If she was really so freaked out about another archer joining the team, then she wasn't the girl Wally loved so much.
How things were going to change now for Wally and Artemis. They won't be the same. Not by a longshot.