Tools

Ella was in a daze.

Last night had felt unreal - like a dream or maybe a lapse in sanity. That was the only explanation she could offer herself for what she had done. She had nearly sexually assaulted Dale. Her breath hitched at the memory, a flash of heat rose in her cheeks, not from embarrassment, but from a strange, messy tangle of guilt, frustration, shame and something more that she refused to name. She didn't know what she was thinking - or if she had been thinking at all.

But the truth was more complicated. She had been fed up. Fed up with his constant taunts, his cool condescension, and that maddening tone he used as if he always knew more than she did. His words were always like knives -not deadly, but precise and aimed at all her vulnerabilities. And last night, she had finally snapped.