Hope and Matt: Sense and Sensibility

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Hope meets Matt in the library and they talk about his English assignment before straying into far more serious topics.

Trigger warning: mention of domestic abuse

Hope quietly made her way into the library, not wanting to disturb any other occupants of the space. With steps that were quite sure now, she made her way to the stacks where the sheet music was being kept in search of new, interesting pieces. She changed course though when she saw Matt 'eying' the book with his hands and quietly approached his chair, knowing he would probably have heard her. "Good morning, Matt." She greeted him.

"Hey Hope," he had recognized her heartbeat when she had entered the library, but hadn't wanted to yell or call out to her across the space. No one else was here right now, but it was still a library. Quiet was required. Plus, Matt liked the quiet. That was part of why he liked libraries. The other reason was because they had books and this one in particular had some in Braille. That was pretty awesome in his opinion. "Sup?"

"To be honest, I was a little curious... You seemed... a little vexed by the book?" Hope sat on the edge of a chair that was nearby, neatly arranging her skirt. "I might be mistaken though."  

"Oh," he grinned a little, "It's boring. Really boring. Have you read it?" he sighed, "Stupid required reading."

She eyed the book in his hands, seeing if she could find a title somewhere that was not in braille. "I might have, but I am afraid I do not know which book you are currently reading. And I cannot see a title anywhere that I can read, I am afraid..."

Oh, whoops! "Sense and Sensibility," he informed her. "Required reading for senior English. So dull," Matt yawned to punctuate that. "You read it?"

"Oh yes. We read it last year during my English class and spent some time analyzing it." Hope explained. "I found it an fascinating novel to be honest."  

"You did?" How? Matt was very skeptical. The book was so dull. And complicated.

Hope leaned forward, settling her head on her first. "What do you think the book was about?" 

"I have no idea," Matt confessed, then added "It seems like a bunch of gossipy women being bitches over guys, except it's all convoluted and old-timey so you don't even realize they're being a bitch for like another chapter half the time," women today could learn a thing or two about that.

She could not help it: she had to giggle at those words. Hope quickly covered her mouth with her hand though and said: "If you look at the surface of the story, I can see why you might say that. How far are you along in the book? Perhaps I can explain why I find the book so fascinating." 

"Not that far. Maybe about half way through?" he held up his book, "This is only volume two. There're three altogether," braille could only be printed on one side of a page so it required a lot more pages to print a book, so they were divided up into volumes.

"I did not know that... I cannot imagine how many books an encyclopedia in braille would have..." Hope mused for a moment. "But if you are halfway, I think that is far enough to illustrate on of the reasons. How would you describe the characters of Elinor and Marianne?" 

"Frigid bitch and slut," Matt replied promptly. These were things he understood.

The swear words made Hope pause for quite a few moments... "I suppose one could describe them in that way... if one truly wished to..." She had to pause again, thinking for a moment. "Look at it from another angle... What would you say on what they base their decisions upon? And I do not mean the desire to find a husband. What characters traits?"  

 "Uh....Elinor thinks too much and Marianne feels too much, yeah?" Matt offered. "Elinor's the smart one, uses her head and thinks of others. Probably'll end up on drugs 'cause she don't know how to make herself happy. Marianne's more about excitement, likes the party and all that. She'll end up just as fucked by some lowlife if she ain't careful," Matt knew what he was talking about, "'Cept this is 17-whatever, so I guess this is before drugs and stuff."

"Exactly, though I have no idea about Elinor ending up on drugs if she lived in modern times. But that is what I was talking about. Elinor uses her head and Marianne uses her heart and the question is what the right balance is. And that question is still relevant to this day."

Ain't that the truth? "Huh," seemed so simple when she put it like that. "You're pretty smart, you know that?"

Hope shook her head quickly. "Not really... It are merely some thoughts we discussed with our class last year, with a capable teacher to guide us."  

"So?" Matt wasn't buying that. "You remembered it. That says a lot." Especially on a book so boring like this one. He was not a Jane Austen fan, that he knew.

Hope quickly diminished it with a shrug, bowing her head a little. "If you are halfway though the book, you should be far enough to have an idea about this? Whom do you think Marianne should form an attachment too? Colonel Brandon or Mr. Willoughby?" She hastily switched to another question.      

Matt had to think about that for a moment. "Colonel Brandon," he replied, "because he's not engaged or anything to anyone. Mr. Willoughby is marrying someone else. If he's not sure of the marriage, then he should break it off before he does anything with anyone else. Cheating never gets you anywhere, you know? But I'm not a girl. Girls are like...I dunno. Aliens."

"They say men come from Mars and women from Venus for a reason."  Hope smiled and then went back to her narrative. "What about before Marianne knew he was betrothed? Whom should she have picked then?"  

"It doesn't matter," Matt said, "I mean, it's a book. She's gonna choose who ever she chooses. It's been written, you know? Not like my opinion changes it," he definitely thought that women were from another planet.

Hope immediately lowered her eyes in the old ingrained response. "You are right. It is not important. My apologies."  

Huh? That was not the response Matt had expected. There was something in her voice, too..."Hey wait," Matt said softly, "what'd bring that on?" He knew girls who acted like Hope and he knew why they acted that way. The question was, why was Hope?

She raised her gaze just a little. "I merrily stated that you are right. Your opinion won't change what Jane Austen has written. That is all I intended to say."

"Look, if you're trying to peddle that sort of bullshit, it ain't gonna fly," Matt crossed his arms and faced her properly, "I want names, Hope. Who hurt you? Because it won't happen again."

Now she did meet his eyes and they were wide in shock. "Nobody hurt me. I had just forgotten... what a proper lady does. My parents taught me..." Her voice died down, not quite sure what to say.  

Okay, so maybe he'd been a little abrupt and demanding, but he was concerned! No one got to hurt his friends and get away with it! He clenched his jaw, thinking. "I don't know nothing about 'proper ladies,'" he finally said, "but I know lots about women who get the shit kicked out of them by men who claim they love them and they all talk like that."

"My father has never raised a hand to me." Almost hesitantly she reached out and touched his hand. "Nor has anyone else... A proper lady just does not push when a gentleman wants to change the subject. I had forgotten that for a moment." Normally she would not explain things that openly, but she wanted desperately to fix the misunderstanding that had grown between them.  

"I ain't a 'gentleman' either," Matt snorted. This was a load of crap! He took her hand though, holding her softly it in his rougher hand, "That attitude you got is gonna get you beat, Hope. This ain't no Jane Austen novel and I'm not Colonel Brandon! Guys, they see a woman like you and they think they hit jackpot. Meek, submissive. Ain't gonna go crying to the police. Always gonna forgive. I've seen it Hope. And I sure as hell ain't always gonna be around to watch out for you. You gotta watch out for yourself."

She literally had no idea what to say to that. She could say that she would never let that happen to her, but when it mattered she didn't like using empty phrases. And would a good husband, chosen with her parents approval, truly hit her? So she just blinked at him a few times. "I never.... considered that..." She finally to say. 

He was getting somewhere, Good. Let her think. "So what, you think having money means they're a better caliber of person?" Matt snorted again, "Rich people and poor people got one thing in common. They're all still people. And people treat each other like shit if they think they can get away with it." He was glad she didn't make false promises or assurances though. "They prey on people weaker than them. That's why the adults here are all X-Men, stopping that. You promise me Hope, you promise me that if something bad happens or someone hurts you, you tell me. I'll stop them."

"No..." Hope shook her head. "I know rich men can misbehave just as well. It's just... I will not be the only one making the decision whom to marry... Surely with good counsel..." She let her voice die down though when she found she could hardly believe the words herself. "I mean... I... I... I don't know, Matt. But I am willing to make that promise to you. I will tell you when someone truly hurts me." 

Matt reached out, patting her arm, "You mean well Hope. And you're a sweet girl. You're just really...naive. It's kinda refreshing."

She had to blush a little when he called her a sweet girl. "Uh... Thank you?" She could not help it, she had to giggle a little. 

"You're welcome," Matt answered.