As the tirade continues, Alex wonders if he should leave. Walk out and break himself from this fucked up moment, because he's not going to stand and endure abuse from a dick he doesn't even know and only disapproves of, and there's the whole My family isn't your business that Neil throws in his face whenever Alex makes a smart comment on Neil's father--comments, he would defend, that seem highly accurate at a glance. Yeah, it would probably be best, he thinks. To step around this drama and step out.
Except it continues, over Neil's faulty interruptions and the man's condescending tone. And just as Alex had decided to walk out, the man says something that makes Alex start, do a double-take at the gray-haired man in a scientist coat. Did he actually just... use Neil's mom as a fucking excuse? The mom that Neil had such guilt over, that he had drunkenly told him, that day in Novak, that he believed he killed? And this asshole was just going to throw that like a gauntlet between them?
Something jerks in Alex's brain, something primal and angry, and he thinks to step forward, take some kind of action--
"You have the key to my place. I need that back."
A tone of breaking, of swallowing shit down. Alex reformats, rethinks. Neil's wrong. Such a dumb, wrong kid. It's Alex's business. It's always been his business. Because there's no way he's going to leave Neil alone with this bullshit. No way he's just going to walk out on him through this.
At thigh level, Alex puts a hand out, palm back, as he steps forward, a clear stop/stay motion. Calm to the point of cold, Alex walks forward, stopping within an arm's length of James. At this distance, it would be clearer than it had outside, on the slanted pathway. Alex's height and size. The breadth of his shoulder and the well-built style of his body. The weapons showing over his back and at his sides. The frozen, unamused set to his mouth.
Alex moves, his arm reaching out. He turns his hand palm up, waiting.
no subject
Except it continues, over Neil's faulty interruptions and the man's condescending tone. And just as Alex had decided to walk out, the man says something that makes Alex start, do a double-take at the gray-haired man in a scientist coat. Did he actually just... use Neil's mom as a fucking excuse? The mom that Neil had such guilt over, that he had drunkenly told him, that day in Novak, that he believed he killed? And this asshole was just going to throw that like a gauntlet between them?
Something jerks in Alex's brain, something primal and angry, and he thinks to step forward, take some kind of action--
"You have the key to my place. I need that back."
A tone of breaking, of swallowing shit down. Alex reformats, rethinks. Neil's wrong. Such a dumb, wrong kid. It's Alex's business. It's always been his business. Because there's no way he's going to leave Neil alone with this bullshit. No way he's just going to walk out on him through this.
At thigh level, Alex puts a hand out, palm back, as he steps forward, a clear stop/stay motion. Calm to the point of cold, Alex walks forward, stopping within an arm's length of James. At this distance, it would be clearer than it had outside, on the slanted pathway. Alex's height and size. The breadth of his shoulder and the well-built style of his body. The weapons showing over his back and at his sides. The frozen, unamused set to his mouth.
Alex moves, his arm reaching out. He turns his hand palm up, waiting.