A Dorm Divided

Broen sneered back at her, practically baring his teeth. "Well you've got it all figured out, huh? Yeah, I'm a dick. And maybe I should hold my fuckin tongue. But you definitely need to get thicker skin."

He actually laughed a bit, thinking about it now. "Like holy shit. How charmed is your fuckin life that you can't take somebody being mean to you."

"Yeah, see. This is what I'm talking about. You see me, how I am. And you think this is just how it is. But you don't know shit about dick about my fucking life. You talk about me wanting shit easy, but shit has never been fucking easy for me".

Broen was pacing now, running his hands through his hair. It wasn't a fair question. He'd spent basically his whole life just trying to survive. And then Abernathy happened, and he stopped really having a choice. But she wouldn't care about any of that. Nobody actually cared. If they had...

"The shooting at Woodland Imports. All my job was was keeping the boss safe. I could've teleported her out and that would have been me doing my job. Insuramce would have covered the damages. But I gave up my best power to fucking keep them from killing the employees. The hostages."

Why was he even bothering? He knew this game. Make him flounder to try and come up with examples, only to do mental gymnastics to tell him why he was wrong.

"I didn't give a shit what she wanted. Her fucking happiness wasn't my job. Her safety was. I saved those people because..." He frowned. Honestly, he couldn't understand his thought processes in the moment he had decided to use the belt. He remembered them, for sure. It had been prudent and efficient. But had it been, really?

"Up until about a month ago, I couldn't care about anybody even if I wanted to, so that's a moot point. And..."

Broen paused, considering something. He nodded slowly, his eyes noting some realization he was slowly coming to.

"She wouldn't have fired me. Not for anything..."

"I never said I did things selflessly. Nobody does shit selflessly. But you asked for a thing I did with no expectation of reward. I probablyhad some unconscious motivation. But in the moment, I wasn't thinking dollars and cents."

Broen paused and went to the kitchenette to start making some eggs. Cooking would calm him. He hoped, anyway.
"Things was easier when I didn't feel shit like remorse and doubt." He wasn't talking to Althea, more just. Thinking out loud. He didn't even know if she could hear him with the frying pan sizzling. He hoped not. Broen just wanted this argument to be over.