I couldn’t speak.
For the first time, I understood that the short answers, the oversized hoodies, and the tears she had tried to hide weren’t signs that she wanted to shut me out for no reason.
They were signs that she was struggling.
And I had mistaken her silence for ordinary teenage behavior.
Emily pressed her palms against her eyes.
“Last Friday, one of them took a picture of me eating lunch alone. She sent it to a group chat. Someone wrote, ‘Even the cafeteria doesn’t want to sit with her.’ Then they started making jokes about it.”
She took a shaky breath.
“I saw the messages because someone showed me. They were laughing about me like I wasn’t even a real person.”
I felt a wave of anger so powerful that my hands began to tremble.
“Who did this?”
Emily immediately stiffened.
“See? That’s what I mean!”
