Stella paused, seeming to gather her thoughts as she prepared to dive into the most painful chapters of her story. I tensed, bracing myself for the brutal recounting to come.
"At first, Judas seemed to tolerate our... infatuation, I guess you could call it, with a sort of aloof bemusement," she began haltingly. "Like we were silly little girls with a crush on the hot substitute teacher or something."
Tom made a quiet noise of displeasure in the back of his throat, but remained silent, allowing Stella to unspool the narrative at her own pace.
"But then something shifted," she went on. "I'm not sure if it was ego or genuine interest or what... but he started giving me these little crumbs of attention. Lingering after poetry slams to discuss metaphor and form. Seeking me out at parties to
