Overture Downs can't stand it

briggs didn’t answer right away. just kept walking, his stride steady, unhurried.
his ear twitched. she thought she was clever, didn’t she?
he exhaled sharply through his nose, a sound that might’ve been a laugh if it wasn’t so damn dry.
you ain’t, he said, voice flat. just happen to be goin’ the same way.
wasn’t true. wasn’t a lie, either.
he followed because he felt like it, not because she needed him to. not because he gave a shit. and if he did—well, that wasn’t a conversation he was interested in having.
his gaze flicked to her, unreadable in the low light. he let the silence hang for a second, maybe just to be difficult, then—
briggs.
nothing else. no elaboration. no offering it up like it meant anything. just a fact, plain as the dirt beneath his paws.