Thread: Two Belles of the Ball on a Stage Too Small - ( Erebus & Crescent )

img200x315 ---------------------------------- Jean drew a clean breath in through her nose just so she could huff it out again in response to the woman's insistence in invading her space. She turned her head deliberately away from the door and crossed her arms. A thin, wavy trail of smoke drifted from the cigarette tucked between two fingers of her right hand. With a tap of her fingertips the spent tip crumbled to the concrete. The showy billboards across the street blurred out of focus in her vision. Her eyes sought a merely direction, not any object of interest. The woman's first mocking words did little to improve her hospitality. Determined as she was not to look upon Lily though, Jean's side-eyed glare found only the brick wall opposite her. Her eyes stayed to the right even as she turned her head to face forward when Lily spoke again. Just the matter of fact way the woman expressed herself irritated Jean. 'Oh thank god', she mouthed silently, the voice in her mind laced with sarcasm. As if she needed to be told the other woman wasn't here for the sharing of comfort. Jean tried to mask the movement of her lips by raising her cig again for another inhale. The released smoke drifted in a condensed cloud in front of her, a makeshift screen that sadly would dissipate shortly. As it passed her vision again, Jean noticed how near the lit end had crept towards the orange wrapped filter. With an annoyed sigh she cast the butt to the concrete and ground it beneath a boot heel. The loss of her play-thing, her distraction, meant she had to finally address the brunette in the doorway. Had she bothered to wipe the remnants of tears from her cheeks? Too late to do it now. Jean looked flatly in Lily's direction. That's what you came here for? Really? She stalled with another eye-rolling huff, ending with her hazel iris' aimed toward's Lily's shoes. How was it her fault? The accusation had preceded a reasoning certainly, but Jean held it as fact that this snooty woman was to blame. Talking with a haughty swagger, her eyes danced circles around contact with Lily's, I don't know, you tell me. Fuck if I know why they...why you're still here. It's not like you fit the part. Jean's shoulders resumed their hunched state, with her arms crossed overtop her chest and her head turned way again. She could feel the heat beginning to rise to her face again where crinkled lines showed stern displeasure at having had to give an explanation. And, she added after a brief pause glancing over through half lidded eyes, it's not like you even want this part, Miss 'I'm so above all this'. Jean's lips curled at a particularly cruel thought. She raised her chin and straightened her back, letting fly a mirthless laugh, Hah!. Her voice trailed off as she continued, can't even act like you want to be here. Instinctively she raised her right hand to her lips only to find it lacking a cigarette. She exhaled sharply through her teeth and instead plucked the band from her chin-length, chestnut hair. With her butt pressed to the wall, Jean dropped her upper body sharply forward to let it flop down all at once. Using both hands she gathered the deep brown strands in clumps, working them behind her head together before reapplying the orange, elastic binding. The challenging look on her face as she leaned back again made no attempt to dodge away.