Welcome to Gaia! ::

Even if Asher couldn't decide whether or not he was done with the conversation, Beth certainly looked as if she was. She paled under her foundation and she wrung her hands together to stop them from trembling. Denials would sound weak; to agree would be surrender. For one perfect moment, the impulse to wipe the smug look she saw on his face bloomed in the pit of her stomach.

She regained her composure and retreated into her last resort: icy disdain. As she had watched her mother do on several occasions, she lifted her head and said archly, "I'm sure you think you've gotten it all figured out from down there." If he wanted her to tip her hand one way or another, she'd go ahead and let him think what he wanted about her. She knew herself, or so she insisted silently, despite his assertion to the contrary. "But I simply don't feel the need to share everything with every little boy who comes around pulling my pigtails to see if I'll react."

Though it was her instinct to flee, to leave as soon as possible for somewhere safe to cry, she leaned against the pen, searching for any animal to secure her attention. As long as she was channeling her mother, she might as well refuse not to move. Let Asher be the little gadfly if he so desired. She wasn't going to let it bother her.

Oh, so this was the turn of the game. Pretend to be least one hurt, was it? Beth frowned lightly at him, brows knitting as if in puzzlement. "Why should I care about something as trivial as your nose when it's your attitude causing all the problems?" She huffed, almost to herself. Though her impulse was to explain herself, to apologize and tell him what she meant, the words burned to ashes on the edge of her tongue. If he wanted to continue to engage her, fine. If he wanted to sulk like the child he was, that was also fine by her.

Besides, she wasn't going to waste the effort to raise her voice on his behalf. Neither of them wanted to hear anything the other had to say. She shifted her body away from him, a cold dismissal in the arch of her back as she continued her actual purpose here: making sure no animals burst out of the pen. She wasn't going to let herself be his entertainment anymore.