BITTEN OFF SCOFF , MORE AIR THAN TEETH , a sound for humoring that doesn’t quite make it past the gums . caught somewhere in-between , the joke suddenly LOST on him & dried up on his tongue , a quick sip from his mug to satiate it . the taste is more bitter than he remembers ; instinctive tug at the corners of his lips that he forces to momentum —— GRINS around it like it belongs there ( maybe it does ) & studies the ceramic instead of her expression .
❛ forty-five — hell , fifty-eight years beg to differ ❜ , he wants to say . ❝ you speak from personal experience ? ❞ he says instead , words lilted with haphazard SKEPTICISM & pride merely portioned sincerity . @coffive cont.
Allison looked away, her brothers expression a little too much for her. It scared her, truly, when he smiled like he had nothing to lose. ( Haven’t they lost enough ? ) Her eyebrows furrowed together, forming a distasteful frown. She didn’t understand which part of her sentence had elicitied this response from Five. [ why are you surprised ? you’ve never been helpful ] “ Yes. I speak from personal experience. I’ve been hurt too. I was STRANDED here without being able to even speak, LOST without my family for two years. I also grew up with Reginald Hargreeves as an egotistical father. I’m SORRY you spent that time in the future, and I’m so sorry we couldn’t help you. But being like this won’t make you happy either. ” maybe that was the wrong thing to say. HAPPY ? When have they ever been happy ?










