Chapter 44. We've Talked Enough About Me

S:

Dinner is… quiet.

Too quiet.

Kieran and I eat slowly, barely touching the steak.

They’re pretending. I can feel it.

Rae laughs too much.

Eliza keeps shifting like her chair’s on fire.

They’re not themselves—and they’re trying way too hard to act like they are.

I don’t speak at first. Just watch.

Fork clinks. Water pours. Rae hums a song that doesn’t match the soft jazz playing in the background.

Her hand trembles slightly as she cuts through a piece of fish. Her wrist buckles, and she switches hands with an awkward laugh.

“Eliza,” Kieran says mildly, “how’s the shoulder?”

She jolts. A sharp inhale she tries to mask with a cough. “Fine.”

“Didn’t seem fine earlier.”

“I stretched it.”

Kieran raises a brow.

“Yeah,” Rae jumps in, too fast. “We both did some stretches. Eliza even did this cool yoga pose where she—”

“Fell,” Eliza cuts in flatly.

“No, no, that was