She said it on a Saturday morning with the directness of someone who had been holding it in for a specific number of days and had reached the end of that number.
Ava was at the kitchen table with her laptop and a project she was using to keep herself occupied and Zara came in from her bedroom in her oversized university shirt with her hair loose and her eyes still slightly creased from sleep, and she stood in the kitchen doorway and looked at Ava for a moment and said, "I need to say something."
"Good morning to you too," Ava said.
"Good morning. I need to say something." Zara sat down across from her and folded her arms on the table and looked at her best friend with the specific expression that meant the thing she was about to say had been prepared, and she was not open to deflection.
