Page 184 of Bad Prince

---

Stopped it?

Caught her?

Rewritten physics?

I exhale.

“Doesn’t matter.”

Silence stretches.

Not awkward.

Just… thick.

“You don’t have to stay,” she says again.

Different this time.

Less polite.

More honest.

I don’t answer right away.

Because the truth isn’t simple.

My phone buzzes.

Again.

And again.

I don’t look at it.

I already know what it is.

Clips.

Photos.

Narratives being written without me.

“I can call someone,” Isa says after a second. “My roommate. Or one of the girls.”

I shake my head.

“They’ll come anyway.”

She huffs out a quiet laugh.

“Yeah.”

Another beat.

Then—

“Why are you really still here?”

---