Re: TWD, Cell: Shane and Clem (+ Graham)
It was hard for someone so sure of her own importance to find anything true in his words. She'd never questioned being liked, being wanted, being loved (even if she'd never done any loving in return). She was the center of her own damn world, and she always had been, and it was hard to take any truth from what he was saying. "I don't want him to like me. He just does," she said. It wasn't like she was trying to climb herself into Graham Ross' bed. If she'd been planning on that, she would've already made her move. She was a lazy thing, and she wasn't made for long conning or working at seducing a man. She liked Graham for who he was, infuriating quiet thing of a man that smiled at her sometimes like she'd gotten beneath his skin. But Shane was invalidating everything she was sure about, and she had a real hard time letting that thought stick.
But she did know he was like a brother to Graham. She knew, despite what Jude said, that Shane would never lay a finger on her if Graham told him not to. She didn't think he'd do it anyways, but saying he was inclined, one word from Graham would stop it. She trusted that as much as she trusted anything in this world full of abominations.
She settled her hands on her hips, never the kind of woman to cross her arm in anything resembling a defensive posture, and her fingers curled into that red fabric. "He's not crazy. Maybe I remind him of her sometimes," she conceded, but the words stuck in her craw, because she couldn't quite own them, "but that's not the same as thinking I'm her." She stood there, looking at him a few seconds longer. "What in the heck are you even asking me to do?"
She couldn't be anyone but herself, and she liked the way Graham was around her; she couldn't change anything there, even if he wanted her to. She couldn't leave, because there wasn't a damn way out. And, truth was, she didn't think she'd go even if there was. She'd told Jake she wouldn't leave without his daddy, and she meant it. They weren't going to find blonde dye here, and it wouldn't do a lick of good anyway, she thought, because she didn't perceive any difference in how Graham treated her when she was blonde, and how he treated her now.
"You asking me to ignore him altogether?" She sounded plenty incredulous.