People who got too close.
“You look at people like you’re deciding how to hurt them.”
“Your anger fills rooms.”
“No wonder she ran.”
I slam the dumbbell down, metal cracking against the rubber floor.My breath saws out in sharp bursts.
I scrub both hands over my face and lean forward, elbows on my knees.
I don’t know how to be gentle.
I don’t know how to make myself smaller.
I don’t know how to be someone she doesn’t have to brace herself around.
But I know one thing—
Someoneelseis scaring her.
I saw it in her eyes this morning.
Whatever got to her happened outside the rink.
Something she brought with her.
Something she’s hiding so deep she can’t even talk about it.
And the thought of that—
of someone hurting her,
threatening her,
making her look like that—
is enough to make something vicious coil inside me.
My jaw locks.
My hands curl into fists.
Fine.
If she won’t tell us what’s wrong,
I’ll find out myself.
I’ll find whoever’s putting that fear in her eyes.
And when I do...
No amount of space in the world will keep me from ending it.
