Marsai:
I had no idea how long I’d been slumped on the cold bathroom floor, exactly where Sadie had shoved me. It felt like forever.
Thank the goddess no one else had walked in and seen me like that. I didn’t think I could handle that kind of humiliation on top of everything else.
Eventually, Hana burst through the door, eyes wide as she rushed over and dropped to her knees beside me.
“Goddess, Marsai! I’ve been looking everywhere for you! I thought you didn’t come to school. I texted you,” she said, wrapping her arms around my shoulders, trying to pull me into a hug. “It’s okay. You don’t have to—”
“Do you believe it?” I cut in, my voice barely more than a whisper, thick with the tears that streaked down my cheeks.
She froze. “What?”
“Do you believe what everyone’s saying? That I m
