Florida stepped back, visibly and physically taken aback.
I tried to imagine what had earned me her surprise. Perhaps she had expected me to be the same helpless girl. The me of the past had been far weaker than I was today. An easy target, I’d been unable to defend myself and unwilling to socialize for fear of being bullied.
How often I had hidden in bathroom stalls or closets, waiting for everyone else to leave the hallway before I would emerge. My schooldays before Alex’s interference had been bleak and full of fear. I’d cried every night, afraid of what the next day would bring.
When I tried to tell my mother about the bullying, she just brushed me off.
“This is what children do,” Mom had said then. “They only joke around with you because they like you.”
That wasn’t true, but n
