Fuck it, she thinks one way, and goes crazy. Why not? She's trapped in her own mind, perhaps railing against it will upset her from this torture and she can go home. Saving herself, one cancer stick at a time. Alex feels the need to justify herself like this when she does it, to quash the guilt down.
Never had Gene seen anyone feel so bad about asking for a cigarette.
He's not without his moments either, eyebrows trying very hard to climb into his hair line and he half asks her if she's sure before catching himself and shoves the pack into her hands. Figures that she's clumsy with them, like she's never done it before (that has to be a lie; everyone he knows has had a cigarette at least once in their life time) and she is well on her way to breaking his lighter before he takes it back and does it for her.
Gene deserves an award for not laughing at her the way Ray does when she sputters and coughs and moves to throw it out the window of the Quattro. "Don't you dare, Bols." he snarls and she looks like a kid with her hand in the biscuit tin. "You'll be wanting that later when our friends don't show up until arse o'clock in the morning." He means to say that if she wastes his fags he'll make her pick it up off the ground and finish it first. They're not cheap.
She puffs away like a manic chimney she does. They're all so amused that they dare not tell her that she's doing it wrong.
