Survival Of The Fittest

A wad of bills hit Myles in the chest and bounced off, scattering and fluttering to the ground. For a minute, he just started at Julien in stunned silence, still trying to catch his breath.

That... hurt.

It did. Nothing deep about it. Just a stupid jab at the insecurity that had followed him since elementary school, and it hit home.

Myles blinked once, twice, and straightened up, desperately hoping that Julien couldn't tell that he was suddenly blinking back tears of humiliation and rage on top of the pain he was already in.

"What-" He interrupted himself with a shaking, bubbling laugh, devoid of humor.

"What an ugly person you are inside."

He turned and fled without waiting for a response.

((Myles Roux continued in Got No Heart to Break))

He knew right away that he'd hurt him... found some place in his heart, then wrapped his hand around it and squeezed.

Julien watched Myles leave before he turned his attention back to the torn bags, doing what he could to try and salvage it before ultimately giving up and moving things around as he needed to.

It was hardly lost on him, what he just did. There was no pride to be taken in doing so, and he would move on with his day now as he'd planned on doing before all this. He could reconcile with the ugliness inside him being drawn out by his surroundings, since it didn't rule him. Not all the time, certainly.

Now, he had a home to get back to, and all this shopping wouldn't carry itself.

[ Julien Leblanc continued elsewhere. ]