She is not bad

Chapter 30 : Ring

Jane put the same clothes that Joyce gave her as she told her she could keep the outfit. She was feeling good in the clothes. She didn't remember when the last time she had new clothes was. She watched herself in Mallory's mirror the entire morning which amused the blonde girl. Joyce was going up in her estimation. The week was arriving to its end, finally. Jane was exhausted, she was struggling to follow her classes as at night she was seeing some clients to pay the rent of the apartment. She left early Mallory's home and began to walk in the streets in direction of her school. She was still surprised to still go to school after all this time. Maybe she was feeling not too bad in this place. People were strange, but some of them were nice with her. It was probably why she didn't give up yet. As it was still early, Jane sat on the steps and began to smoke a cigarette. She was drawing when someone sat next to her. She frowned when she recognized Dumbo.

- "Um...Hey?" Jane said.

- "Hey. Do you have some fire?" Max asked.

- "Yeah, always."

Max placed her cigarette between her lips while Jane was lighting it. The redhead took a deep puff and noticed Jane's confused expression which amused her.

- "You're wondering why I'm sitting next to you, right?"

- "Um...yeah! I thought you were hating me!" Jane stated.

- "Are you hating me?"

- "I...didn't like your lie, but I...I don't hate you, I guess...I'm just...awful with people."

- "Indeed."

Jane pinched her lips together and looked down. She wasn't feeling the same tension in the air with her. She didn't know why.

- "I'm sorry for the drawings," the brunette said.

- "Are you?"

- "Yeah. When I'm angry, I'm just stupid."

- "Even when you're not angry, you're stupid."

- "Damn, that's rude!" Jane stated with an amused tone. "Does that mean that we're good now?"

- "I don't know. Are you gonna bully me again?"

- "No. I'm not a bully."

- "Well, then, I guess I can stop being mean to you when you're around. What do you think?"

- "It sounds good. What convinces you?"

- "My pity for you."

- "Oh...You feel sorry for me?"

- "Yeah. People as angry as you, or even me, are generally struggling with their pasts or their families, or both. Well, we're a mess. And I can understand it," Max explained. "And Bev is a big fan of you! I guess I won't really have the choice now!"

Jane had a weak smile.

- "Don't expect me to stop mocking you, by the way," Max said, blowing the smoke of her cigarette.

- "I'm okay with that. If I'm allowed to answer."

Max scoffed, rolled her eyes, and shook her head. Jane was stupid, but she didn't seem really dangerous. Well, not right now. She thought it was better to have Jane on her side than on the other side. She liked how she defended her the day before. Alban was ridiculous, Jane humiliated him the right way. And she was liking her outfit lately, it was looking cool on her. Damn, she had weird thoughts sometimes! Luckily, Beverly and Gary arrived, both frowning.

- "Max? You know you're smoking with Jane?" Bev said.

- "I know."

- "...Is everything okay?"