How is a teenager successfully high-roading her? Over not the thing she came here to be high-roaded over. Jess irons a breath flat as she takes it in. It comes out heavy anyway. They could argue this until the rest of Whitney's green gaggle comes home but it would lock them into a circular trajectory leading right back here, at the start. She doubts listing off her personal casualties would dissuade Kamala, all it would do is expose the real issue: Jess can't handle someone dying on her again.

"Anything I find out, I'll let you know," her voice is steely as she attempts to compromise, negotiating primarily with Kamala, whose gaze she holds as she crosses to the coffee table to set down the remainder of her coffee. "You watch each other's backs." She has her bubble, after all. She still can't conceive of how it could be useful to anyone else, short of tossing herself into the line of fire, and as appealing as that genuinely sounds, she'd find a way to fuck it up.