Re: log: blake and graham, thorne house
Blake looked across at Graham with a kind of bleary resign that was a hundred miles from the defiantly vivacious and problematic creature who had torn holes through clubs in Vegas and stuck his dick in anyone vaguely attractive who crossed his path. Maybe that silent distaste for everything and the loathing so sharp he could taste it on his tongue had always been seething under the surface then, but they were much closer to it now. They merrily bubbled away while he listened to Graham talk.
The anger didn't fail to register, but he didn't get worried. He didn't want to die these days, but he didn't exactly have the best reflex for self-preservation when he was already drunk and morose. "I wanted to know your kid was alright," he said, not the least bit soft, despite everything. It wasn't a great reason, but it was the truth. Part of it. "I didn't see a kid here." Implication being he had expected there to be another sad story, had itched to know somebody had gotten out okay, if not clean.
He caught the sarcasm. He wasn't stupid even after snorting half the coke in Nevada, but it was always easier to slide through life without thinking, wasn't it? Maybe the fact that he'd had to get so busy not thinking to avoid it said something about what happened when he didn't work at it. "Not really," he said. That had to be the answer that Graham expected. He stared across, still able to focus enough to maintain a good long stare.
A wave crashed up through his chest, unbidden, and he shifted, leaning forward a little. He could still remember what the dead woman's hair smelled like, that smell. He'd already known it, blood on the skin of somebody you loved. He was regretting handing the bottle over, now. If Graham was going to let loose a little of that held back anger he could catch peeking out around the edges (no, not stupid) then he already wished he was going to be more drunk for it.
"Would taking a swing at me cheer you up?" he asked, with all the zip and verve of Tom Waits with a hangover.