“Yes.”
But her voice didn’t sound convincing.
I didn’t push her further.
That was one of my mistakes.
Sometimes we think we’re helping someone by giving them space.
But there is a difference between giving someone space and allowing them to remain alone with a problem.
The Conversation That Finally Broke the Silence
A few days later, I found her sitting on the stairs.
She looked exhausted.
I sat beside her.
“You don’t have to tell me everything,” I said. “But if something is happening at school, you don’t have to handle it alone.”
She didn’t answer.
I waited.
Eventually, she said:
“They keep doing things to me.”
My stomach dropped.
“Who?”
She wouldn’t give me names.
She said a group of students had been making fun of her.
Sometimes they mocked her clothes.
Sometimes they followed her.
Sometimes they deliberately knocked things out of her hands.
