“You’re wrong”

“What’d ya say?” The bearded man hissed, his face contorting into a picture of anger as he rose from his seat in the mess hall, wiping a bit of spaghetti sauce from his lips, and slamming his fork down onto the metal table. 

“I said...You. Are. Wrong.” The huskiness of her words was followed by a pierced tongue sticking out at the man standing a few feet from the girl.

A yellow-toothed grin formed across the man’s face as he slowly drew closer until a mere couple of inches from her face, his foul garlic breath causing her to wince. 
“Wrong about [i]what[/i] exactly?” Both hands curled into fists, and a low guttural growl emanated from the man’s throat.

Vic smirked, enjoying the rise that she elicited from the guy known as Curtis, a man who gave her just as much shit, if not more, on a daily basis. He didn’t like her for reasons of his own, but she knew his main problem was that she wasn’t like [i]them[/i]. And yet she was fine with that either way.

“You gonna punch me Curtis?” She said after a few moments, raising an eyebrow as though intrigued by his threatening gesture. “Or, are you too chicken shit to hit a girl? Oh wait, I know what it is.” She snorted, clearly amused by the fact that she knew something about the older man in front of her. “See, you’ve been down this road before haven’t you? And the last time you hit a woman in this shit hole we call a ‘home’, you were thrown in a tiny cage for what? A month?...”

Curtis clenched his teeth as his breathing grew heavier. “Okay. You’re relatively new here and clearly have a few loose screws in that pretty head, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and let that slide.”

“But why?” Vic plopped down onto the bench the man was previously seated at, causing her to look up at the angry face of her opponent as he stared down through eyes that could catch fire at any moment. “I like you Curtis. I think you’re one of the only straight shooters around this dump...” She paused and then grinned. “Even though you smell like a wet dog rolled in it’s own shit most of the time.”

There was, what one could consider, an awkward moment of silence between the two save for the ambience of others eating and chatting it up at other tables, mostly unconcerned with what was going on between them except for the soldier standing near the far corner of the mess watching the whole matter. 

“O’Brien!” The guard yelled, causing Curtis to snap his attention toward the source of the voice across the room. “Sit your ass down, finish your meal, and leave her alone!”

The bearded man narrowed his eyes as he stared at the guard for a moment before returning his attention to Vic, shaking his head in disbelief and allowing his angered expression to subside as he started walking past where the girl was sitting. “I’ve lost my appetite anyway…”

He suddenly stopped a few feet from her and turned around, a quizzical expression plastered on his face. “So what was it you were accusing me of being so ‘wrong’ about?”

“Hm? Oh…” She looked up at him and shrugged. “I have no fucking clue really, but I’m sure you’ve been wrong about a shit ton of things in your pathetic and abusive life, so figured I’d point that out to you in case it wasn’t obvious.” 

“Bitch I’ll-” He growled, almost ready to pounce on her with all of the inner beast he could muster up just to shred that smug look from her face. But he didn’t, knowing that she was no doubt playing him for a fool considering she was one of the girl’s that he had become violent with, and she knew that one more outburst like that would most likely get him exiled or simply killed by one of the officers, or perhaps even [b]Sergeant Major Mitchell[/b] herself.

“I’ll see you around...[i]Ms Helix[/i].”  He finally said with a wry grin, knowing she wasn't a huge fan of someone addressing her in that manner, and turned around to exit the mess hall.

Vic sat there for a moment, watching him as he left, before sliding over toward his food tray and picking through whatever random meats and vegetables still looked edible, as well as shoving a half-eaten oatmeal cookie in her jacket pocket for later.