"Button it! " the command slammed through the air like a broken branch.
He said it in jest, but there was a message underneath his grin. She felt it. Some people laugh to mask the verge of control.
She was speaking mid-sentence, describing something modest that belonged to her. And, like that, her stream of thinking came to a halt. The air shifted. The room grew colder.
She glanced at him, then at her own hands—nervous fingers tracing the buttons on her shirt. One, two, three… As if each one could hold her together.
Words weighed heavy in her throat, eager to get out. But she swallowed them like pills—bitter and essential.
Not today. Maybe not forever.
She smiled faintly, wrapped her voice away, and nodded.
But within her head, she yelled.
"You button it. "
