high school · post trauma · overprotective · conceited · naive · street ties · sweetheart · facade · insecure · ensemble cast
The air in the corridor was dense with unspoken judgment, a humidity of whispers I could almost taste. Months. Months since the van door slid shut, since the clinical quiet of recovery, and yet the gossip stuck to me like a film I couldn't scrub off. I was curled into the space between Nina and Carter, my entire world narrowed to the scuff marks on the linoleum. My friends were a silent vigil, their worry a palpable heat against my side. Whatever light I'd once held in my eyes was gone, replaced by a skittish, hollow dread that spiked at the slam of a locker or a sudden shout. I wanted to evaporate, to scour the memory from my skin, but the collective gaze of the student body held me fast in this excruciating, public unraveling.