remorse isn’t a sentiment she inspires in him ; rage , lust , the compulsive need to scream into a pillow , but never remorse . she can take his jabs , and he needs to put up with her stream of lies and bullshit . it’s an unspoken agreement . james scrunches his nose , twisting his mouth into a snarl - unaware of weather she can actually see his skepticism blossoming - but willing to commit, nonetheless. “ sure … i mean - was going along the lies of ‘i look tastier, and people are avoiding you like the plague’ – but we can go with your version if you want. ” he has an arm pressed down his knee , wrist and hand hanging idly , and it comes alive to gesture along with his little quips .
“ — and yet you continue to indulge me. ” a hum vibrates in his throat ; james calls her bluff , all cat & canary sounding . “ how charitable of you , sister faith. ” a dangerous kind of malice froths around each syllable , everything sounds perverse on his tongue , when he wants it to . and as it happens , around her , he frequently feels an urge to fall back into that role — it comes easy to him , like slipping in & out of an worn-out sweater you’re all too familiar with . she recoils , he stays still , studying with precision faith’s evasive attics and defensive stance . her pretty bones pop like buttons when she’s mad or embarrassed . it’s difficult to discern one emotion from the other - he fathoms most of the time , she can’t either . “ how high on the offensive list would that go? like… a 6 - a 5? does it rank higher if you climb on top of me to stab me? —– i read the chapter, but the instructions were very unclear … ” he lacquers his tongue with naivete , crafted from years of practice as a pretty boy with a fairly reliable facial structure . it doesn’t mean much & it doesn’t have to ; he has every intention of riling her up . “ not nearly as ambitious as you , is she? don’t worry , i’m sure you’ll be asked to be a bridesmaid when she marries her cousin . ” he hasn’t made an attempt to get up yet —– faith’s not tall enough to towers over his bent form , and he quite enjoys seeing her from a different perspective . “ you get off on being mean a little, don’t you? judging everyone , looking down your perky little nose at them … ” his jaw unhinges into a wolfish grin . “ i don’t mind it , it’s refreshing . everyone’s so despicably nice to me . so , we can play confession if you want . i mean , it must be tough being told you need to be all prim & proper all your life … use this , don’t wear that . read this , don’t read that . don’t enjoy that , don’t look at this , vote this , blah blah … how you made it without driving a crucifix across somebody’s chest , is beyond me . ”
“Must you ruin my fantasies with your own?” Faith said with a roll of her eyes, more or less useless in the dark. But of course he would take even her comment about murder and make it vulgar, and it annoyed her to no end. “I was enjoying my untainted image of killing you and being rid of all those bad jokes forever.” She’d have to pray forgiveness for enjoying it, maybe, but it was also worth it. He got on her nerves like absolutely nobody else managed to do. “Having a family is an ambition,” she said tightly, always ready to defend her best friend back home who she missed every single day, and who would have been as shocked and appalled by these people--especially James--as Faith was. “And as funny as I know you and everyone else in LA thinks it is to joke about incest in the South, I’m sorry to tell you she’s not married to her cousin, and she has a beautiful family. Really good try, though, James.”
She scoffed at his assumption, one that a few people before him had also made. Sure, she liked being honest with people, and maybe she also got a little something out of arguments when it was just so easy to get liberals riled up, but she didn’t like being mean. In fact, it thrilled her whenever she actually found someone she could stomach being nice to, rare as it was. She stayed silent throughout his whole tirade, jaw clenched and foot jiggling in agitation where it hung next to her leg, thankfully also difficult to see right now. “Have you ever considered that I like my life?” she finally snapped before he’d even gotten the last word out. “I like being prim and proper and I like knowing what kinds of media I should and shouldn’t consume in order to maintain my virtue and avoid sin.” It could be a little stuffy sometimes, but that was the sacrifice good Catholics made in order to be closer to god, right? “I wouldn’t expect you to understand. And if you’re so repulsed by my way of life and my beliefs then why, pray tell, can’t you leave me alone? Obviously it’s not as distasteful to you as you’d like people to believe.”
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