Walk this way

[Irredeemable]

"Oh, it's not? You could've fooled me." He scoffed, blood rising to his cheeks now. Who the hell was she to come in and start giving him D.A.R.E. era bullshit lectures? He had been having a perfectly nice afternoon, not bothering anyone, listening to his music and enjoying his ice cream, and then... His lips twisted into a scowl as he rose to his feet.

"Oh yeah? There is? That's really damn weird Juanita, because as far as I know, Adderall is just a weaker meth, codeine is a weaker morphine and Valium’s the modern version of the shit that killed Marilyn Monroe. It's all drugs." And I've sold all of them, were the words that didn't come to his mouth. She didn't know the half of it of course, but he refused to let minor facts like the fact he delt drugs get in the way of his righteous indignation. Angrily, he spread his arms out. "God doesn't decide if something's a drug or a medicine, some big pharma exec handing out bribes does."

"And no thank-fucking you Juanita, I haven't screwed shit up. It's a way for me to relax. Unwind. Forget about this shit, and that shit, and most specifically, the shit you're giving me right now. Don't like it, you can fuck off." He breathed heavily for a few moments, then, slowly, the often-ignored part of his brain that dedicated itself to maintaining friendships fired.

"Wait, no, that's... No, J, I..."

[Gundham]

Juanita's ears had been burning all the way through Max's tirade. His furious salvo of arguments and accusations clubbed her over the head, sending a white-hot humiliation boiling out of the base of her skull and flooding down her spine. She clutched her knees, gritting her teeth. He loomed over her, arms outstretched, making her feel dumb and small and insignificant, like she was a kid getting mocked for still believing in Santa Claus even after everybody else had figured things out.

"Don't like it, you can fuck off."

She didn't like it. She didn't like him, not in this moment. She didn't like anything about this angry, nasty guy dismissing her and telling her that it didn't matter what God said, it didn't matter what the priests said, and it didn't matter what she said. It wasn't enough to tell her he was wrong, he had to make it personal, make her feel small and dumb important. Well, screw him.

"Fine!" She slammed her hands down onto the bench and stood up. The movement was just a hair too fast, sending a spike of pain shooting through her leg. The sensation grounded her, put a keen edge on her anger. "You want to forget it, Max? Just forget it, then! Forget this whole stupid thing! Do whatever you want!"

She jammed her fists into her sweater pocket and stormed off, his stammered protests falling on deaf ears as she left.

[Irredeemable]

Shit shit shitting shit! SHIT! Max wanted to kick himself, hard. As insular as he was, as hardened as his shell had become, something about Juanita's acidic tone had eaten away at that outer layer and gotten him to actually give a damn about her, and now he had fucked it all up. A small voice politely informed him that that was what usually happened with him, but he kicked that back down rather than himself.

As Juanita vanished around a corner, he growled to himself. The tension that had built up from their argument was still bottled inside him, and the pleasant funk he had had going prior to their conversation was gone, replaced by a slightly disorienting haze. Tossing the almost-empty can into a nearby bin, he set his headphones back into his ear and stormed off, changing his music from Alanis to something more fitting for his mood. Amon Amarth, maybe.

"You're a fucking asshole," he muttered to himself under his breath.

[[Max McCormick, Continued Elsewhere]]