You Are Not Alone

Written for ”Word of the Day Challenge”.

‘No matter how bad things seem now, memories fade,’ her best friend, Sarah said.

It wasn’t the memories Laura was worried about, but the texts, her so called friends had sent. To make things worse, they had flooded Tic-toc with memes, and now everyone had seen her cry.

She couldn’t tell her mum, it would make things worse.

‘What about the memes, they won’t fade, they will just go on and on. Everyone laughs behind my back now. Some of the other bullies are trying to make me cry. I hate my life. I want to . . . ‘ She didn’t want to say it aloud, but had thought it many times.

‘You need to tell a teacher, your mum.’

‘What do you know, you’re perfect, I bet nobodies made fun of you.’

Sarah sat down on the bench, and patted the seat. ‘This isn’t my first school. You know I moved school don’t you?’

‘Yea, your mum and dad moved.’

‘Because of me, I left it too late at my old school. I was cyber bullied for a couple of years. I even thought I wanted to end it all – I tried, but Mum caught me in time.’

Laura shuffled beside her friend, ‘I didn’t know, I’m so sorry.’

‘It got better, it really did, but I was ashamed of what I had done, and couldn’t face going back. When I came here, and met you, things changed. You saw something in me I couldn’t see in myself.’

‘Do you really think I you tell Mum, I mean what if it gets worse?’

‘At least it is out in the open. Bullies don’t like to be shown for who they are, and there is always something that can be done. Not saying anything and they will just carry on making your life a misery. You can screenshot the post, and you have proof. Look, I’ll go with you to Miss Burrows.’

Everything her friend made sense, and just knowing someone else had suffered, made her feel less alone, less depressed, and more of a person. She had her tenth birthday next week, nobody had the right to make her feel small.

‘You’ll go with me?’