superior decoy

I like you, he says. I hate you so much, he says. I miss you, I need you, I'm gonna shove you off a cliff.

H.B. is none deterred by these idle threats, these push-and-pull moments of altruistic avarice for the superior one's ready doom. She understands what Isaiah means by all this, implicitly.

Isaiah is merely jealous. She's lucky, however, that she's one of the few individuals with whom H.B. enjoys this mode of competition. Give him a challenge, for once.

Not so good at hiding your feelings, are you? Well, but there can only be one.