416 Owning My Shit

(Winona)

“It’s true. He saw the chance; he wanted to shoot his shot, I guess,” Lisa says calmly.

“The chance should never have been there.”

Lisa takes a deep breath, “Look, it sounds like it was about feeling safe to lose control for you, not about hurting Jayden. You’d never do that to him purposely.”

“I definitely didn’t think of it in terms of hurting him, but maybe that was just me being convenient. I thought I was doing it for me, for my own empowerment. But now I see how incredibly short-sighted it was.”

I pause, twisting a stray blade of grass between my fingers. “I was so focused on what I felt I deserved, you know? A chance to be carefree, to do what everyone else seemed to do without consequence. But the truth is, I didn’t think about how deep it could cut Jayden.”

Lisa leans forward, her face full of care. “You didn’t kill anyone, Winona. You’re not some evil person. You took care of your needs, for once. That’s not a crime.”

“But now I’ve destroyed everything,” I whisper.