Beatrice

*(6.) Bea the virgin

III person POV

"I fear your families have taken a permanent offense at me." Lestat says to Beatrice and Louis. They were all taking a walk down the streets of Storyville.

"Ay, when Paul ain't picking at his plate, he's picking a fight. If I had your tricks I would've done the same." Louis responds.

Beatrice stayed quiet as she always does and continues to walk, playing with the rings on her fingers.

"She never talks, does she? Only when she wants to? She was totally comfortable scolding me for my foolish actions when I did that thing to Paul." Lestat asks, referring to Beatrice. She looks at Lestat and looks back down at her rings.

"I can talk, some topics don't deserve my engagement. I have no interest in this conversation." Beatrice says, still making eye contact with the floor she was walking on. Lestat start to become more intrigued by Beatrice and smirks.

'I'll give her something to talk about soon.' Lestat thinks to himself.

Lestat turns his attention back to Louis, "You must envy him." Lestat says, continuing on with their conversation, referring to Paul.

"Boy thinks god speaks to him through birds in his head. How you figure envy?" Louis says. Beatrice chuckles and that catches Lestat's attention. She quickly stops though.

"The liberty he has with his thoughts.However misshapen they may be, your brother has no shame sharing them." Lestat adds.

"You saying I got shame?" Louis asks.

"Yes. You and Beatrice. The lie you both told about the opera we all went to. You said we left early, we didn't, you were near weeping when the curtain fell. And Beatrice said she came up with the idea to go, she didn't, I did. Why hide this information from family?" Lestat asks. Beatrice stops playing with her rings and looks up at the two men next to her.

"Don't everybody need to know what we do, what I do. It's none of they business." Beatrice answers, startling Lestat because she barely speaks.

"And she speaks again. Dishonesty breeds dishonesty." Lestat throws shade at Beatrice,  but she thinks nothing of it.

"They judge in silence, Love. Paul is the only one who would say it to our faces. Mawma and Grace never speak on stuff they find weird or dumb." Beatrice adds, looking at Lestat for a bit, then looking back down to the ground. Lestat felt the same way he felt at dinner when Beatrice called him love. Like a little spark that he couldn't understand.

Louis starts to talk about his father's sugar business and the bankruptcy issue. And how they would've been screwed if he didn't do something. As he talks, Lestat puts his arm around Beatrice's shoulders. She scrunches her eyebrows again, but does nothing and keeps looking at the floor.

'I'm too high to care.' She thinks to herself.

"You don't need to defend yourself to me, Louis. I know what you go through to keep your family ignorant in their comfort." Lestat says as they start to stop so Beatrice stops as well.

"It's not easy, the work I do. Nothing but broken souls around me and the ones that ain't broke are greedy." Louis takes a sip of liquor.

"Drink up my good man, the earth's a savage garden." Lestat says, smiling.

"You made the right choice off that boat when you did. St. Louis don't got shit on Storyville." Louis says. Beatrice looks up from the ground,  smiles at Louis and pushes his shoulder. He laughs because he knows that Beatrice grew up in St. Louis.

Lestat's smile drops a bit when he sees that interaction. "Yes, I feel quite at home here. Should we all have a nightcap?" Lestat asks.

"We probably had enough for tonight. Mawma doesn't like when Beatrice is alone at night so she has to come along with me too."  Louis said, Beatrice looked at him like he was crazy, but said nothing, she wanted to go home anyway.