Inner Beauty
"What's up with the apathy?" he asked.
"Huh?" I asked back.
"It's like you don't give a shit about anything."
"That's an accurate assessment."
"So why is that?"
"Let me explain something to you, and listen to me very carefully. Despite my outward appearance of abject cynicism, which could be construed as chronic pessimism, I do care about certain things. My main issues are ones of trust, and I don't trust most folks with the things that I find precious. Do you understand? If there's something I truly love, there's very little chance I'm going to be sharing that with anyone."
"Ah, I get it. So you're not really apathetic, you've just got a certain superficial political outlook that's gloomy as hell, and underneath all that you're a selfish, mostly covetous fear-filled animal."
I stared at him, took a long pull on my beer without breaking eye contact, clapped the bottle down on the bar and said, "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up."
First draft: 140728
Published: 230329