[Some people are just bastards. Some wade through mires of suffering and never become bastards. And some have bastard-dom thrust upon them. It's not an excuse. It's not, and Prior twists himself up over whether to allow it air to breathe.
Look. He takes the offer of distraction to watch Nadine for a moment, as their father's knife scrapes across his plate, the sound high and jarring. Her head is bowed, now, and Prior's fingertips curl with the want to tip her chin back up to defiance.]
I wish you'd taken her. You're stronger, with her, maybe you'd have been happier too. But. More people might have believed the stories, then. [It's phrased as a question, the words pitched upwards at the tail, but it's not much of one. In the same way, they might have taken Byerly's flight as an admission of guilt. There really is no winning here.] It's an impossible situation, and you're practically a child. How are you supposed to do the right thing when there's no right thing to do? You tried for a month and ran out of ideas to protect her. Lou's 32, and was fucking me, until that prospect became unappealing. That's when he ran. This is so not the same. There's no fair chance for you, you don't even know what you're up against.
[Byerly's father drops his cutlery, loud enough to startle, and sits staring dully ahead. It's a small horror to see a man so hollowed out. Prior takes a breath, and the bullet between his teeth.]
Your father. He was the youngest, growing up. [It's a question, and it's not.] And he had an older brother, too.
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Look. He takes the offer of distraction to watch Nadine for a moment, as their father's knife scrapes across his plate, the sound high and jarring. Her head is bowed, now, and Prior's fingertips curl with the want to tip her chin back up to defiance.]
I wish you'd taken her. You're stronger, with her, maybe you'd have been happier too. But. More people might have believed the stories, then. [It's phrased as a question, the words pitched upwards at the tail, but it's not much of one. In the same way, they might have taken Byerly's flight as an admission of guilt. There really is no winning here.] It's an impossible situation, and you're practically a child. How are you supposed to do the right thing when there's no right thing to do? You tried for a month and ran out of ideas to protect her. Lou's 32, and was fucking me, until that prospect became unappealing. That's when he ran. This is so not the same. There's no fair chance for you, you don't even know what you're up against.
[Byerly's father drops his cutlery, loud enough to startle, and sits staring dully ahead. It's a small horror to see a man so hollowed out. Prior takes a breath, and the bullet between his teeth.]
Your father. He was the youngest, growing up. [It's a question, and it's not.] And he had an older brother, too.