Page 117 of Love Me Stalk Me

---

I don't know if I want to laugh or scream.

All I know is that Callahan is still watching me.

And I don't know what the hell he's thinking.

SHE HAS A BOYFRIEND. SHE ALSO HAS MY MOUTH ON HER.

CAL

Izzy's voiceis steady at first.

She's trying to keep Evan calm, trying to manage him the way she's probably done a thousand times before.

And I hate it.

I hate the way she immediately shifts into damage control. Like his feelings matter more than her own. Like she has to explain herself for something that shouldn't need an explanation.

And then I hear it.

The gaslighting.

She looks at me.

She looks straight at me even as she tells Evan she can't go to the appointment. She holds my gaze as she repeats it. The chocolate brown of her irises darkens with resolve, her lashes fluttering with each blink.

And then she says it.

That she doesn’t want to go to the appointment.

A fierce satisfaction ignites in my chest. She's not just avoiding it. She's rejecting it. Because there's nothing wrong with her weight. Because there's nothing wrong with her body.

And when Evan scoffs, when he mutters that he “can't talk to her when she's like this” and hangs the phone up on her, I don't think I've ever wanted to hit someone more in my entire life.

She stares at her phone like she's still processing what just happened. Her thumb trembles slightly against the screen.

And I watch her, feeling a complex mixture of emotions rising in mychest.

Pride.

Satisfaction.

But also rage.

A protective fury.

Because the truth is?

She shouldn't have had to say that at all.

I exhale. "Took you long enough to say it."

Izzy blinks, startled by my words.

Her lips part like she's going to argue with me, but then she closes her mouth.

Because she knows I'm right.

She stares at the phone a bit longer, her thumb hovering over the screen like she might change her mind.

---