"I know. I don't want to cut him out of my life but... I'm done just doing whatever the hell he wants just to earn his praise. I need to be better than that now."

She took a particularly large bite out of her scorpion then, chewing pointedly even as she thought it over. That was what she kept telling herself, but even then... It still felt really hard, like maybe she was making a mistake in cutting him off like that...