Snippet #1540987

Peony watched the interaction between Julius and his brother with a hint of amusement. Recently, she’d come to the discovery that sibling relationships seemed to be the only ones with any real substance; the only ones that would last through thick and thin. Parents gave up on their children, friends only put up with you when they got something out of it, lovers got bored and left. Well, she wasn’t a hundred percent sure about that last bit, never having had anything really resembling a lover, herself, but she assumed. Of course, it was likely that she was just projecting her own experience on the world at large, her little sister being the only person she could rely on anymore, but wasn’t that how it always went? Man was an inherently self-absorbed species.

Peony was inclined to smile at their antics, but she had been told that it never looked sincere when she did, and since then she always opted not to. It made her come off as rather severe, but it was better than the alternative. She’d rather look severe than completely fake.

“That was my brother the dumbass,” Julius said as his brother said his goodbyes and disappeared into the storm. Peony did chuckle a little at that, but the sound was tinged with bitterness. She couldn’t help it, and she didn’t mean it in a negative way, it was just that bitterness had become such a ubiquitous facet of her being since she was so sorely disillusioned. Her steps were laden with it as she walked, and no matter how she tried to run from it, bitterness gripped her ankles and wouldn’t let her go, causing her to fall flat on her face. She was use to it now, and didn’t much dwell on it… except at times like these when she wondered how it looked to others. Mostly, it seemed to drive them away, at least the few who’d tried to get close to her. It wasn’t what she wanted, but it was usually what happened all the same.

“So, we should get going,” he suggested, and he demonstrated by walking a few feet away, then turning to see if she was following. Peony fell into step with him. She wasn’t really sure where the River Brew was, since she’d never been there, so she stayed close to him, letting him lead.

“So,” she said, her voice still tinge with the ever-present monotone she’d adopted, “does your brother always leave you alone at night with strange girls you find on the street? He should be more careful. I could be a psychopath, you know,” she said. She meant it as a joke, but the tone of voice she used when saying it was completely serious.

They didn’t have long to walk, it seemed, because they reached an establishment with the words “River Brew” painted in large letters along the window. Peony stopped and looked in. Hmm… those boys at the register seemed familiar somehow. She squinted her eyes more carefully and took a closer look. Ah, one of them was the boy from the library. What was it? No, she had never gotten his name. Which must mean that the other was his friend, whom she had only seen briefly, but could still recognize nonetheless for his sheer attractiveness, not to mention the intimate scene she’d been party to in the parking lot was enough to establish them both in her mind for a while to come.

“Well, I’m assuming we’re here,” she said to the new acquaintance by her side, waving her hand in the direction of the painted letters.