Chapter 41. Words Can Turn to Knives

S:

Kieran’s driving too slow.

I don’t say it, but he knows. Keeps glancing at me through the mirror, tapping his thumb against the steering wheel like he’s trying to distract himself from how tense the air is.

The city slides by in smudges of grey and motion. The world’s awake, but it feels wrong today.

I can’t get the footage out of my head. Karina stomping out of Rae and Eliza’s café like a snake kicked out of a henhouse.

My jaw clenches.

“I don’t like this,” I mutter, staring out the tinted window. “She’s pushing boundaries.”

“She didn’t touch them,” Kieran says. “You saw that. Just some petty words thrown around.”

“Words can turn into knives. Fast.”

“I get it,” he sighs. “Believe me, if I were you, I’d be pacing, too. But Rae held her own. Hell, she didn’t even flinch.”

That’s not the point.

Rae shouldn’t have to defend herself from Karina’s poison. She shouldn’t have to smile through it, pretend like it