Professional Courtesy [Ehefra, Helle]

And then just like that it was gone.

IT was confusing at first, in fact startling that she even wondered if she had seen it in the first place. Ehefra just stared for a few seconds as that .... look, suddenly shifted to some shit eating little bitch face that she was more familiar with. That brief moment of actual pure enjoyment replaced with what she actually came to expect from the woman. A Cunt who thought she was better than Ehefra.

Who knew she was better than Ehefra.

The pat on her head sealed the deal, and her expression drained of any fluster or uncertainty. Until Ehefra was staring at Helle with a tired, baleful leer. Not just backtracking, but doubling down as she somehow felt cheated in that instant. Yea, she didn't feel like an adult. She felt like an idiot who had been tricked. Of all the things she could feel, of all the things she worked so hard to keep herself from experiencing.
She felt stupid.

She didn't say a thing. She yanked away from the other woman's attempt at patting her on the head, turned around, and attempted to stride straight out of the woman's office.

It wasn't fair.
Shoving through the doors and out into the hallway, any notion of going back to the lab was gone as she strode. But her mind wasn't on the path that she was taking, no it was stinging with the situation she found herself in. That rat bitch. That was a dirty shot, making her drop her guard like that.

It wasn't fair.
She'd been trying, hadn't she? She tried to pull it back, she had been good hadn't she? She'd tempered so many things she wanted to say. She'd pulled back so many punches. She'd leveled with Helle. She'd complimented her. She'd conceded that she respected the woman and wanted to help her. She'd pulled back the desire to be RIGHT, and made at least SOME attempt to be civil. A poor attempt, but it was SOMETHING wasn't it? And when she saw that sudden crumple, she was shocked. And she was open. And now it was blood.

It was hot, searing pain in her chest as she felt her feelings tearing away at her. Not because Helle had treated her like that. But because Helle had every right to. Because the moment that Ehefra had tried to be decent, the woman had spotted her out. As if Helle could tell that Ehefra's attempts at civility were forced. And as she grasped the handle to her front door, she remembered that smug look in the other woman's eyes. Eyes that said 'I know what you are'.

The frame of the door cracked as she tore the latch straight through the side of the frame, not even thinking that it was locked, she simply forced the door open and shoved it to the side as she went into her home. A hand clutched over her face as she felt everything bubbling back up. Words that had given her so much hope. But now haunted her.

She wanted so badly to be better.

But maybe her mistake was thinking she was any good in the first place.