her spine. The fluorescent lights swam. For a terrible second she couldn't pull in air at all - just lay t

ad scattered

air with the irritated look of someone who had somewhere to be. He w

down and picked up a sheet of paper from the floor.

inted in clean black

lved. What replaced it was some

s best friend. And from the look on his face r

carried down the empty hallway without

forbidden, explosive. Now here it was again, and this time she could feel the weight of it, th

She didn't argue. S

had expected flinching, and

g sure she watched every second of it, and dropped i

with trash," he

rash can. Then back to him.

riated him more tha

until his face was inches from hers. He smelled of expensive aftershave and

away from Han

Excuse me," she said, her voic

ked genuinely thrown. Like t

sharp-eyed behind her glasses, fixed Dylon with a wi

shoulder into Abigail's bruised a

ieved the crumpled ball of paper, and smoothed it methodi

into the

e. The silence had a texture to it - thick an

extbook against the wrinkled paper until the creases disapp

o class since she was twelve years old. Whatever else this

up her pen,