[The worst part is that Koby knows that -- he knows Clarisse is just saying and doing things to get a rise out of him, he knows she doesn't necessarily mean it. He wouldn't normally be so...sensitive to it, either. He'd roll his eyes and make some snippy comment, flustered, but not dangerously so, and he'd leave. And that would be that.
Except -- maybe she does mean it. Maybe there's a streak of genuine cruelty in her, to match the streak of something he can feel worrying at his very being like a splinter under a nail. Maybe Clarisse had meant every snide, sharp word, from the very beginning.]
You don't mean that. [Koby throws it out like a weapon, like his closest thing to a threat, feeling that sharp thing jabbing at every soft part of him.]
no subject
Except -- maybe she does mean it. Maybe there's a streak of genuine cruelty in her, to match the streak of something he can feel worrying at his very being like a splinter under a nail. Maybe Clarisse had meant every snide, sharp word, from the very beginning.]
You don't mean that. [Koby throws it out like a weapon, like his closest thing to a threat, feeling that sharp thing jabbing at every soft part of him.]