Overcast | ✓

Green

The air fills with conversation, even as first period continues. My chemistry teacher is glaringly unaware of the situation and I wonder to myself if any teacher knows. Something feels disgustingly wrong. Students around me talk about how Marcos deserved what he got, or how they wished they got a clearer view of the fight. Nobody said anything about the fact that he was crying and bleeding and probably wounded so bad, he couldn't move. It was all laughter around me instead.

"Sunny," Maeve says and I look up from my phone, which isn't even on. "Is Elio okay?"

I shrug. "I think so."

There's a pause as her eyes burn into me. "Are you okay?"

I shrug again. "Fine."

Faye taps my knee with her own and gestures to my phone. The screen is lit up with a text from Elio. Finally.

(8:50 AM) Elio: hi, i'm okay. i have a friend in this class. everyone's asking me about marcos, tho

(8:50 AM) Me: put earbuds in. don't talk to them.

(8:50 AM) Elio: 👍❤️

I turn my phone off and exhale. Faye's eyes are still on me, nonverbally asking a thousand questions. I can guess a few of them. What happened to Elio? Why cant you let him be alone? Why did Marcos bully him in the first place? Are you okay?

They were unanswerable, not because I didn't have the right responses, but because it was too difficult to even think about most days. I hate that my brother went through what he did. I hate that he had felt so alone. I hate that I cannot do anything about it. Our table group is silent amidst the noisy chaos of our classroom. It seems as if the same two names were escaping everyone's lips: "Marcos Smith", "Elio Davidson". I try my hardest to drown them out, but bits of conversations still meet my ears.

"I'm glad someone put Marcos in his place. He was such a dick."

"Elio Davidson? That dorky sophomore? Why does anybody care who picked on him?"

"Are we sure Elio was even telling the truth about the bullying? I knew Marcos during the first semester of our freshman year. He didn't seem the type to do that."

Faye and Maeve are listening in, too, but their eyes remain fixed on phones and laptops. It's Faye who speaks first.

"Can either of you remember the school wifi?" she asks, quietly, and I find myself beginning to laugh. Faye has been staring at a blank screen for 10 minutes because she's too afraid to interrupt the silence. It's horribly comical.

"What's so funny?" Maeve's eyes fall on me in confusion.

"Nothing," I say as I smile. Faye and Maeve glance at each other worriedly before I shake my head. "Today has just been shit."

"Yeah," Faye replies. "It's only 9 o'clock."

"Oh, God," Maeve smiles.

"Far too early to be dealing with this," I add in and the other two nod.

"Well, I think we deserve a consolation snack," Faye says and whips a bag of gummy worms from her backpack. I perk up and extend my arm, allowing Faye to pour a few into my cupped hand. "Maeve?"

"None for me," she replies with a sigh and smiles wide enough for us to see her braces. I give her a pitying frown before popping a few candies into my mouth.

"Thank you," I say and Faye smiles, but it's a strange smile. One that says, I wish I could read your mind.

I feel a bit sorry for Faye, because she's been thrown into everything without caution. Everyone else knew Marcos, or at least knew what he did. Maeve was around when everything happened with Elio. But, Faye has stepped into unknown territory with no means of navigation. I can tell through the hesitation in her eyes that Faye feels sorry for me, too, but for larger, indescribable reasons. She is sorry for things she doesn't understand. She is sorry that something happened to Elio. She is sorry that something makes me scared to be away from him for too long. Faye has her guesses- I'm sure they aren't far off- and her eyes give a thousand apologies. The kind that don't need to escape her mouth, because nothing that happened was her fault at all. But sometimes, sorry is the only thing to say.