Chapter 54: "Back Into the Fire"
The school gates looked the same.
Same peeling paint. Same rusted hinges.
But Zariah felt different.
Every step up the front walkway made her stomach twist tighter. Her sleeves were pulled low, covering the fresh bandages, and her backpack felt ten times heavier than it should have. Jasmine walked beside her, close but quiet, like they were both walking into enemy territory.
Zariah's heart pounded as they entered the building. The hallways were loud — too loud. Laughter, lockers slamming, someone yelling down the corridor. She flinched at the noise.
The first teacher to notice her was her homeroom one — Miss Keller, always soft-spoken and wide-eyed. She blinked when she saw Zariah, then her expression softened. "Zariah, welcome back. We missed you."
Zariah nodded politely, forcing a smile. "Thanks."
That was the line. The same one she'd given the math teacher.
A few other teachers asked the same thing.
"Where have you been?"
"Are you okay?"
"Is everything alright at home?"
She gave them all the same smile. "I've been sick. Just needed time."
Some believed her. Some didn't.
By second period, the whispers started.
Jasmine caught a few:
"Did you see her wrists?"
"She looks like a ghost."
"Something's not right with her…"
Zariah heard them too. She kept her eyes on her desk, her hands buried in her sleeves, but the words burned. And what hurt the most wasn't the rumors — it was how easy they were to believe.
At lunch, she barely touched her food. Jasmine sat beside her, close as ever, but there was nothing either of them could say to make it okay.
"Wanna go outside?" Jasmine offered.
Zariah shook her head. "They're all watching."
Jasmine glanced around. "Let them."
But Zariah couldn't. She felt like a glass pane — cracked and transparent — and the longer she stayed here, the more she felt like she might shatter completely.
When the bell rang for their final class, Zariah moved like she was sleepwalking.
In the hallway, someone brushed past her hard. "Watch it, freak," they muttered under their breath.
Zariah didn't respond. She just stared ahead, unblinking. Her ears were ringing again, just like the night it almost ended. The crowd, the weight, the pressure — it was all too loud.
When she sat down in the back of her last class, her hands trembled under the desk.
Jasmine glanced over, concern in her eyes.
Zariah looked straight ahead.
And smiled.
A cracked, crooked, tired smile.
Because no one could see how close she was to breaking again.
And she didn't know how much longer she could fake it.