One and Only
GUISE GUYS GUISE. IT'S TOMORROW. O_O
Artemis inhaled the fresh sea air, sighing in content. She thought her mom deserved a small vacation, so Artemis had saved up enough money to pay for a nice week-long trip for her. The archer was staying in Happy Harbor for now.
As she walked along the sand, Artemis saw a familiar red head sitting at a picnic table not too far from herself. He was sitting with some girl she didn't know, and Artemis— curious— dodged behind a nearby tree and strained her ears to hear what he was saying.
"Oh yea, I'm a total bad boy," Wally spoke suavely to the pretty, green-eyed brunette. "There was this one time when the teacher gave me detention for replacing the soap in their bathroom with rubber cement. I glued him to his chair with rubber cement during that detention," he fibbed, putting his feet onto the table and leaning back into his chair. The girl giggled and batted her eyelashes at him, impossibly enchanted by his obviousy fake tales.
Artemis scowled as she heard him spinning off more ridiculous stories. Then, her scowl grew into a smirk as an idea hit her. She walked over to the two.
"Hey Wallace, where's that homework I told you to do for me?" she asked roughly.
Wally's eyes widened slightly at Artemis' sudden appearance, and the brunette noticed.
"Do you- like- know her, Ace?" she asked in a snotty rich girl accent, nose wrinkled daintily in disgust at Artemis.
"No, I swear, babe; never seen her before in my life!" Wally exclaimed, glaring at Artemis.
"Uh, that's not what you said when you promised to do my friend's homework," Artemis replied snappily.
"What are you, some kind of nerd?" the girl asked Wally disgustedly. She got up, leaving Wally alone. "That's so not cool!"
"Wait, babe—!"
"Don't talk to me anymore, nerd," she snapped, briskly walking away. When she left, Wally turned to glare daggers at Artemis.
"What the hell was that for?" he exclaimed hotly. "Couldn't you see she was totally into me?"
Artemis wrinkled her nose in disgust, not looking anything like the snotty girl that was just there.
"I don't even know how you'd like someone like her."
"Um— she's pretty, loves my jokes, hot, and likes me."
"And that's all?"
"She was nice until you came and ruined it!" he added.
"Please! She was just like that because she thought you were some kind of rebellious bad boy— which you aren't, Baywatch."
"Well, I could've been one," he argued.
"But you aren't!"
"Who are you to tell me who I am?" he shouted, leaping out of his seat. "You don't know who I am."
"Well, I know you're not some stupid bad boy who gets detentions all the time!"
"Oh yea, well if you're so all-knowing, then tell me something I don't know, Artemis," he spat challengingly.
"You want me to go there? Because I have a whole damn list of what you are, Wallace West."
"Go on, Artemis," he growled, crossing his arms before him. "I dare you."
"For starters, aren't a bad boy. You're Wally West, science geek of our group. You're a chemistry nerd, AP trigonometry student, destroyer of classic poems, and definitely not modest about any of that." She counted on her fingers as she rattled off her list.
"You're annoying, immature, your mouth runs faster that you can— which is quite a feat— and if anyone would put their money where their mouth is in regards to video games, it'd be you."
Wally seemed the slightest bit surprised of what Artemis had to say, but apparently she wasn't done just yet. Artemis was on a roll and wasn't going to stop anytime soon.
"You're shallow, close-minded, you don't believe in magic and wouldn't know it if it ran smack into your face at 500 miles an hour. But wait, there's more! You'd a hopeless flirt. You say you like this one girl but then you go flirt with a bunch of other random girls you don't even know! You pine after someone who obviously doesn't feel the same way and you're just so damn oblivious to this one girl who happens to like you and is right in your face! And..."
Artemis trailed off to a stop, breathing deeply from her yelling and just realizing what she had said. Before Wally barely finished processing what she had said, Artemis was already racing away, disappearing from his view. He tried to run after her but found that she had simply disappeared.
Wally went back to the beach to see if the blonde was still there; she wasn't. He sat by himself on that same picnic bench for a while just going over what she said in his head. It had been about one hour when Wally decided he should be getting back to the Cave. He opted to slowly walk there and just think instead of speeding or using the zeta.
When Wally arrived at Mount Justice, Artemis wasn't in there, either. Robin was there, and evidently excited for the movie marathon the two boys had planned that night, but Wally didn't really register what his friend had said. He just nodded and proceeded to drag himself to the beach.
Outside, the sun was setting. Wally silently gasped when he saw the silhouette of a certain feisty archer sitting on the beach, staring at the horizon. A million things to say or do or what would happen if he did ran through his mind, but Wally just stood there.
"I see you there, Baywatch. I'm not drowning, so you can feel free leave."
Wally was startled out of his thoughts by her voice, but he stayed silent.
"Well?" she asked, not turning around.
Wally steeled his resolve and sat down next to her on the sand. She peered at him curiously, eyes still steeled in a half-glare before turning back to gaze at the setting sun. They sat in silence for a bit until Wally could take it no more.
"Did you mean everything that you said?" he asked suddenly.
"If by that you mean, do I think you're an annoying, close-minded, overly flirtatious geek?— then yes," she replied bluntly.
"No, Artemis, you know what I mean."
She glanced at him quickly before her eyes darted away as if they never even looked his direction.
"What?"
"You know... The whole part about that thing and... um..." Wally trailed off, not entirely sure if he wanted to mention it, but already halfway there. An awkward silence loomed as he collected his thoughts.
"Am I really that oblivious?" he asked finally.
The corners of Artemis' mouth twitched up the slightest bit. "Of course. You wouldn't be Wally West if you weren't."
"I'm going to take that as a compliment."
"As you should."
"Did you really mean it, Arty?"
She sighed. "I think I meant it, but I— I don't know. I was just talking so much and just so frustrated at you and it just felt so good to get all these feelings out and—"
"I think you're doing it again," Wally pointed out. "This whole ranting thing. Are you prone to word vomit or something?" he teased lightly.
She rolled her eyes. "Maybe it's only around you— after all, I usually tend to associate you with vomiting," she riposted, not missing a beat.
He laughed. "So, the one and only Wallace West has found away to affect the great and mighty Artemis Crock now, huh?" he quipped.
"If you count making me want to vomit as affecting me, then all leave you to your odd fantasies."
"Who ever said I just made you want to vomit?" he whispered lowly, leaning closer to the archer. She mirrored his movements until they were barely inches apart.
"I did," she whispered in the same tone as his. Then she swiftly pulled back with a devious smirk on her face.
"And, yea... I mean it."
Oh my gosh, what a crappy ending. Ugh, this is my word vomit, I swear. —_—"