This certainly put a damper on her holiday spirits some. Paige's eyes wandered, looking everywhere except at the friend in front of her as if afraid that looking at her might perturb the image of Jean that she'd already grown to adore. "Ah just don't believe it," she repeated quietly, hardly audible against all the crowd chatter. This meant that Jean was some kind of felon now (for what, attempted murder against an Avenger?) and that was just something the blonde clearly wasn't prepared to accept.
But she needed to get it together. They were in the middle of a dang shopping mall, this was not the place to be freaking out or nothin'. Nibbling on her bottom lip, Paige finally forced herself to look at the girl, face scrunched together in a frown. "Well Ah ain't fix'n ta turn mah back on ya if that's what yer thinkin'!" she snapped, offended that Jean would even let it cross her mind. Was Paige upset, of course she was, but they were friends...teammates and last time she checked, X-Men weren't supposed to turn on each other just like that.
"You wanna go somewhere and talk about this?" she offered, making a brief glance at Jean's followers. "If yer thinkin' somethin's done taken over, Ah'd say that matters, and you know what? You can't keep up with this self-loathin', that's just gonna kill ya." From her cheek, Paige swept away the one tear that managed to get away. "Ah'm already seein' it."