Sympathy For The Devil

13. The Heart of the Matter

He had been wrong.

If there was one thing no genius enjoyed, it was being wrong. It was almost an insult, really.

He had gotten emotional, and he had gotten every. Single. Thing. Wrong. Having it thrown in his face by both his best friend and a clumsy, utterly ordinary little nobody stung like a personal affront.

The pity stung just as much. The knowledge that his moment of weakness had had a witness was nearly too much to bear. The combination of the three set his heart rate racing and filled him with vehement anger until his limbs shook with it. He could feel the rational part of him be slowly crowded to the back of his mind, choked off by fury and heated shame.

"Was that really necessary?" Eddward growled, his voice low. He was outwardly calm, and practiced at remaining that way, though he doubted Marie was fooled. She knew him too well.

She looked him in the eye, unwavering. "Yes."

"You were not involved."

"'Were' being the operative term here."

"This is not a joke, Marie!" he snapped.

"You're telling me!" she retorted. "Besides, you were upset. That makes me involved whether you like it or not."

"Oh, and I'm not upset now," he snarled, his tone drenched in sarcasm. The anger made an attempt to flare up, but with some effort he kept it low, under control, like a Bunsen burner. "You are not my keeper, Marie."

A quiet scoff. "Could've fooled me. I'm gone for a little over a week and look what happens."

"My business is my own!" he snapped again. He struggled inwardly, fighting to keep his anger contained. "You had no right to interfere that way! You went too far. Do you have any idea how many boundaries you overstepped-?"

"You were hurting someone." She was shaking, but not faltering.

Her words, and the tone with which she spoke them, threw salt on the wound, and his temper flared. "Don't you dare judge me!" She cringed, and almost unconsciously he backed off, but did not back down. "What gives you the right?" he demanded. "What gives you the right to stand there and - and lecture me on what I do?"

She met him head-on, an immovable object meeting an unstoppable force. "Are you angrier that I got involved, or that you were wrong?"

Something in him snapped, and his leashed anger blazed completely out of his control. "You were not there, Marie!" His voice rose before he could stop it, and it was a losing battle to bring it back under control. "It was not any of your business, and yet you went and meddled and - and-"

He was pushing her, some part of him acknowledged. He could see it in her face, in the hardening of her expression, her eyes. "And what, Edd."

The heart of the matter slipped out before he could stop it.

"Youtook his side!"

Marie recoiled as if he had aimed a blow at her, but he was past caring because it was not fair, it was nowhere near fair, because she was his friend, hisconfidant, the only person he would ever allow to touch his possessions, or know when and where and why he hurt, or see what it looked like when he was weak, and she had gone and used that, had defended someone else, had stood against him -

Everything hurt, and no amount of effort from him would bury it or wrest it aside. And when he felt this helpless, all he could do was push, lash out, fight back against whatever was within reach. "What is yourproblem?" he demanded. "I thought you and I were friends! Was I wrong about that, as well?"