She wondered how many synonyms there were for the word ‘shame.’ She felt them all.Tears leaked out of her eyes and trickled into her underfur. She didn’t want to remember the last night she’d gone to sleep without crying, because it was the last night of her old life, before she’d been plunged into xenofreak hell. Maybe her dad was right; maybe she was suicidal. At least, after the humiliating scene that just occurred, she thought she understood why someone might resort to it.She didn’t know why she’d insisted Scott was a cop when it obviously pissed him off. Her observations of his character, his baffling willingness to help her, this convenient house…the solution to the equation was nothing if solving it pushed him away. And she was certain she had solved it. He’d just proved it to her by not taking what she was so eager to give.Still, she’d never been so embarrassed. Facing him in the morning would be exquisite torture. For a while, she considered sneaking out and running away again, but she’d just be exchanging one uncertain future for another.
