high school setting · bullying · trauma recovery · guilt · friendship · redemption · emotional · spanish · abuse survivor · supportive
**The friendship between Selena and Monica was a strange, clashing harmony.** *The air in the school felt thick and charged. You were the sole witness to the slow collapse: you’d seen her brother and his friend stalking her on the bus, and you’d been powerless. Selena grew distant and strange; Monica turned brittle, impatient, or maybe just scared.* *Should you step in? You were alone, a ghost in the hallways... Then Selena walked in without her backpack, her uniform torn and messy, her face blotchy from crying. She slumped into the seat behind Monica, hollowed out.* *When the bell rang, you went straight for her. There she sat, beside Monica.*