out to find trouble.

“Yeah they were involved,” he nodded, agreeing with her with that note. “But they never forced people to smoke. They didn’t shove the cigarettes into the mouths of their consumers, light them up, and cut off all air supply so the consumers would be forced to inhale. No matter how many times a company advertises for something, they can’t physically make someone go out and buy their product.” He explained, now shaking his head. “It’s the consumer’s faults. They made their decisions whether it was because they thought it would make them look cool, because they’re stressed out and knew that it helped other’s who’re stressed out de-stress, or they fell into peer pressure. Their choices. Not the companies.” Todd continued, flailing his arms about as he spoke to put emphasis into his point. “Other people can’t make you do shit.” His demeanor calmed down now as his words were now spoken in a softer tone. “It’s just shit, my business. I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Abigail grimaced. “But they didn’t have to, by adding that ‘cool’ aesthetic they generated people wanting to. It’s why I smoked, or why you began smoking. It’s seen by young people as a cool thing to do.” She popped a piece of gum in her mouth before gesturing the pack toward him and signalling with her other hand around where he’d slipped his deck into his pocket. “I mean, fair enough it is in a way their decision I do see where you’re coming from but it’s more a sixty the companies fault and a forty their fault.” The brunette shrugged her shoulders in an accepting manner. “Well, I don’t want to pry because that’s a dickish thing to do but if it’s really bothering you all I’m going to say is tackling early on would possibly resolve the problem before it grows into something more.” She paused. “If you get me?”

I would like that roulette wheel that Scott has in his head to pop up sometimes, maybe I’d get out of some bad situations more often if it did. You don’t talk that fast by the way, so you can cross that off your badass title. Personally, I think I’d rather skip the whole label idea altogether. We’re all so many things we’d just have a giant cloud of words over our heads all the time. Take a look at me: bisexual, badass, musician, nerd, singer, pianist, guitarist, songwriter, commitment-phobe, slut – and I mean that in a self-empowering way, cheater, chemist-to-be, genius, brat, only-child, daughter…see where I’m going with this?

Oh god, same, but honestly my decisions are solely made with one thing constantly in the forefront of my mind so even if the wheel turned to something else I’d still chat about the environment.  I see where you’re going, but like wouldn’t it be cool to see other people’s traits when you meet them so you know if you’re compatible or not? Not wasting time on people who won’t want to waste time with you kinda thing.

Trust me, it’s bravery. I think, at this point at least, I’m a tad beyond hope I mean I can’t even catch. I’m Karen out of Mean Girls in the introductory bit where they throw the football at her and it bounces off her tit. Teach me how to swim, I’m a bit hopeless there as well. Any physical activity for me, is a stretch.

 He inhaled and exhaled a cloud of smoke, blowing it away from the brunette next to him. “Well then, what was your point? No, you know, it’s not even these companies faults. People are too impressionable. Nobody can be at fault for other’s decisions except for the ones making those decisions. You do something because someone else persuaded you to do it? Fuck, no. You let yourself be persuaded.” His voice filled with a bit of anger even if it was unintentional. “I ain’t enabling shit,” Todd added, “I smoke because I want to. I’m fuckin’ stressed and this shit helps me. I don’t persuade other’s to do it by smoking, they make that choice for themselves.”

“It is there fault, or was their fault. They were involved.” Her voice hesitant, watching Todd’s demeanour shift slightly. “You’re persuaded to smoke at a very young age by the things around you, and the industry adheres to this. By taking it up, you’re telling them it works. If you get me.” The words ‘calm down’ were on the tip of her tongue but Abigail swallowed them. “What are you so stressed about anyway that requires you to live thirteen less minutes anyhow?” The brunette asked raising her eyebrows while digging in her pockets.

Probably “sarcastic brat,” but to be totally honest, I think I might prefer that label over the nerd one. Yours would probably be in that ornate scripty font that you see on wedding invitations, so at least it wouldn’t be entirely readable from far away. Means your game won’t suffer too much, as long as you hook them before they’re like…5 feet from you.

We all have more than one label, I would think or else we’d just be bland boring people. ‘Sarcastic brat’ with bullet points under or, by the side including nerd. Each font different to represent the different sides of you. Kind of like the comic effect in Scott Pilgram vs the World but not really at all. Mine would probably be an ornate font because of my classy views and being so hard to understand because I talk way too fast. Thinking about it, I’d probably be ‘Activist Cunt’ because that’s what I’m known for.

“You know, I heard that ever cigarette cuts your life by, something like, three minutes.” Todd spoke, his voice sounding a bit condescending, pulling out the bent and dented, nearly empty pack from the back pocket of his sagging jeans. “So that’s…” he paused, flicking the top open with his thumb and counting the cigarettes he had left. As soon as he finished counting them, his brows raised and he stuffed the pack back in his pocket, nodding as his eyes found Abigail. “… Ten minutes less I’ll have.” Todd chuckled softly, “thirteen if you wanna count this one.” He raised his arm up to gesture at the cigarette between his middle and fore fingers, then brought it to his lips.

Her eyes glazed over the packet then back to the cigarette in hand. “I think everyone knew that, it’s the first fact they scare you with when people tend to take it up.” She shrugged her shoulders, however, sighing shallowly as she watched him stuff the packet back into his pocket. “But that’s something I doubts true and even if it is who care ultimately something kills us anyway. However, it’s not the point I was trying to get across.”