[SE] the sound of all things good breaking

NOE

So it's gonna be forever
Or it's gonna go down in flames

Oh, but Koa, things were that simple for a Friend of the Family. Why don't you join them and find out?

She was about to argue that they could fix anything if they put their minds to it - after all, they were the Carpenter siblings, and since when did they just give up? - but Koa's next words hit her like a ton of bricks, stopping her slow approach. Infected? She could almost laugh, if it wasn't for Koa's broken whisper, the way he couldn't even look at her while he told her that something was wrong with her. With her, when he was the one who'd been acting so weird.

Betrayal, thick and acrid, coated her tongue, but she bit back a hasty retort. Okay, fine, so he thought she was infected. Maybe he was just confused. "I'm not infected, Koa. The Family aren't the monsters everyone makes them out to be." Maybe, if he could just see it from her point of view... after all, she'd never been happier than she was now, and he could be that way, too, if he'd just be a Friend with her.

You can tell me when it's over
If the high was worth the pain