Silence

The day turned grim. As bleak as my self. I sat there feeling the utter disgust of the touch washing over me. Over and over again. I slowly observed Ezra laughing in jolly along with his mates. His face, his hands, his smile. I felt the rage in me growing by the second. But it was instantly replaced by the terror of confronting the situation. I never understood myself. I could never understand my cowardice or the utter helplessness I feel despite having a tongue in my mouth. The words never voiced themselves. It was always tucked away, elsewhere from within my reach.

" Did you know if you scratched your nose a hundred times, your mom won't die?"

The sudden absurd statement brought me back to reality. " Umm...What?"

Dhruv, with his head still down to his notebook spoke a little louder this time.

" If you scratch your nose bridge a hundred times, its unlikely your mother will die" he then placed his pencil down and turned towards me. I was still looking at my thigh, facing away from him.

" Loads of bullshit" I mumbled under my breath.

" Well tell that to those gals over there" I took a glance towards the chalk board and saw two of my classmates scrape their own nose bridges counting under breaths. I scoffed loudly and shook my head in disbelief. Dhruv chuckled and grasped my arm with his in an interlocking manner.

" You seem a bit off. Is everything alright?"

I didn't want the one incident to spoil the rest of the day. I was quick to defend myself. "Why won't I be?! I'm just taking in the freedom of first period" He raised his eyebrows, quite pleased with the answer and grinned like an idiot.