The bedroom was just so quiet in a particular way that made every small sound louder than it should be.
Nara sat at the dresser, pulling the brush through her hair in slow strokes and watching herself in the mirror without really seeing herself. The tea party had left something behind in her mind.. a kind of residue she couldn't shake off no matter how many times she turned the evening over in her head.
Cassie's voice and taunts, her friends laughing, the way everyone in that room had looked at her like she was beneath them all.
Behind her in the mirror, Jared moved around his side of the room, working the buttons of his shirt loose with very impatient fingers. He pulled it off and dropped it onto a chair before sitting on the edge of the bed.. Then he just stayed there, not moving an
