Maeve’s eyes narrowed when he spoke back, a small smile tugging at one of the corners of her lips. This was what she had worked for. Even if it would sound terrible to anyone overhearing them. It ignited something inside of her. She was always burning, a fire inside few could put out. Joel was like gasoline when he wasn’t water but for him to be the latter she had to let him. She believed he’d lost that privilige, even though he already knew her colors, all her sides. That was it, wasn’t it? He knew too much, so he got the worst and they bounced off each other’s flames, tossing it back and forth which only made it burn brighter. It was a game and Maeve enjoyed it even when it hurt.
❛ Joel. I don’t have daddy issues, but my daddy has wife issues, ❜ she stated as if it was actually amusing. It was annoying. Maeve had liked not even a handful of the women his dad had brought into his, formerly their, home. However, he did divorce the worst one when Maeve had told him what she did. He loved his daughter and she loved the way he showed it, usually in a materialistic and spoiling way. Joel just didn’t get it.
Of course, a father’s love wasn’t like someone else’s, was it? But Maeve stood by that she was good on her own, that she has such high standards that no one could meet them. Joel didn’t. Yet she’d still loved him. A word she’d only said to him once when it was too late.
❛ Oh honey, I’m the last person in this town who should be called bland, ❜ she scoffed, eyes locked with his, refusing to acknowledge how her heart skipped a beat. She knew they weren’t true. He’s wrong. Again. ❛ You need to come up with insults I can actually believe. ❜
Her teeth slowly bit down on her lower lip, head tilting to the side slightly. ❛ And if I’m not shit to you then… maybe don’t strike up a conversation every time we’re in close proximity to each other. ❜ Her words were quippy but dipped with venom, one of truth laced with something that’d draw him in because whether she liked it or not, his attention was as addictive as the stick between his lips. ❛ Pathetic. ❜ Yet, Maeve knew she did the same thing sometimes. Just for the inferno.
“I could tell you your fuckin’ eyes are brown and you’d call me a liar.” She’d mock him for it too. Stick the point of her heels between the pebbles of his spine and ask him to stand.
“Now, that’s funny,” he shoves the bud of his cigarette against a crack in the wall, his hands retreating into his pockets for warmth. Too uncertain if the harsh bite was a gift from the season or his current company. “Conversations work both ways, Princess. You could tell me to fuck off, walk the fuck away or not even acknowledge me. I might be many things but I’m not out ‘ere demanding your time. You give that to me willingly.”
Joel could not deny the moments in which he thought of her; how his mind would stir, contorting itself to deny the hours they had shared. How they appeared and disappeared just as quickly as he had imagined them. Always arriving wrapped with a bow of both doubt and disbelief. They were different in all the ways fire and ice existed at each side of a spectrum. Too far apart to collide as they had. How absurd to believe she had once been the very source of his heartbeat. Now he could barely feel the decaying organ within him.
”Poisonous,” he matches her tone verbatim. He’d spit it out if it vexed her further. “You’re poison.”
She’s as pale as marrow under this light and he has thought long and hard on this sequence. Each rendition different than the next. He’d suppose reality was further removed. She’s as pale as marrow and he’s thought twice now whether to leave before the annoyance turns into ash - before he seeks someone else out that could make him feel half as human as she once had.
pixelskylines
titsay
romaincrisis
yousharknotpass