I sat on the cold, hard cafeteria seat with my mom next to me. All of my friends and teammates were arriving and hanging out at the tables around us, but I just gave them a small, halfhearted smile, and continued to sit silently. We were waiting for A.
She showed up later than usual, just barely in time for practice to start at six o clock.
"Can everyone please head into the gym and start warming up?" She called across the room before focusing her attention on my mom and I. She nodded her head, apparently already knowing why we were there.
"Let's go down the hall," she suggested, putting her bag down on one of the tables and heading towards the far side of the cafeteria. We followed her across the room and down the music hall to the chorus room.
As A turned the lights on, we pulled up some chairs and got settled.
My mom did all the talking, explaining that since I first brought the situation up to A, my ex had gotten even bolder with their lies and told even more people.
A listened closely, but when it was her turn to speak, she disappointed me.
"Well I guess the first thing I should ask is, did you hit them?" She said, turning to me.
"No," I furrowed my eyebrows. "Of course not."
"Ok. I guess I can talk to them about it again, but this is really out my control. All I can really do is tell you to stay away from them."
"She's already doing that," my mom interjected, "and I've told her to always make sure she's within view of an adult."
"You can't do anything to help me?" I asked incredulously.
"This seems to be more of a school problem than a guard problem, so no, I can't do anything else. Sorry," A told me.
And, of course, she kept true to her word and never did do anything else.
YOU ARE READING
Look What You Made Me Do
Non-Fiction"Don't tell anybody about this." "If you just ignore it, it'll stop." "There's nothing I can do to help you." And so I did everything I was told. I shut up. I put on a brave face. I followed all the rules. But that was the past and it's not who I am...
