_Rowena’s POV_
After a while of our staring competition, Virella finally smiled.
It was a wide smile, the kind that had been waiting for this specific moment for a long time and was finally getting to exist.
“Look at you,” she beamed, flipping her curly blonde hair. She’d dyed it, I noticed.
“Look at you,” I said back, pleasantly.
The smile faltered slightly at the edges. She had expected something different from me, I could tell. Maybe she wanted me to be shocked to see her. Or maybe scared to see her. Something that confirmed she had the upper hand in a visible and satisfying way.
I wasn’t going to give her that. She wasn’t even that big of a deal for someone like me.
“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this,” she said again and I thought carefully. Why didn’t I
