I wiped away the last of my tears. "Lucky me."
"You meant what you said in there, didn't you?" Brent asked quietly. "About us tormenting you being a kind of death."
I sighed, looking down at my hands. "Yes. No. I don't know. It just came out."
"But you felt it."
"Of course I felt it," I said, frustration bleeding into my voice. "Do you have any idea what it was like? Year after year of being told I was nothing, that I was worthless, that no one would ever want me? It breaks something inside you, Brent. Something that doesn't just magically heal because suddenly you've decided I'm worth something."
He flinched as if I'd struck him. "I know. And I can't undo that damage. None of us can. But we can try to be better. To prove that we've changed."
"Have you, though?" I challenged, turning
