The next day, Emma came home with more questions than answers.
She and Tyler had talked on the bleachers behind the gym after school. She sat down at the kitchen table, and I made her a grilled cheese, and she told me about it.
“He said some boys on the basketball team were making jokes,” she said.
“About what?”
“My arms.”
I felt my anger rise again. I kept my back to her and flipped the sandwich.
“Tyler said one of them noticed when we were holding hands in the hallway. A boy named Brandon. And they started teasing him about it. Saying stuff like, ‘Hey, Tyler, who’s your boyfriend?'”
I set the grilled cheese down in front of her.
“Did Tyler tell them to stop?”
Emma shook her head.
“He laughed.”
I closed my eyes for a second.
“He said he didn’t think it was a big deal at first,” Emma went on. “But they kept bringing it up. Every practice. Every day.”
“And that’s when he asked you to shave?”
“Yeah.”
Emma twisted her fingers together on the table. She didn’t touch the sandwich.
“He said he didn’t mean to make me cry. He said he just wanted them to leave us alone.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him I wasn’t the one making jokes.”
“Good,” I said. “That was exactly right.”
“He didn’t really have an answer for that.”
She hesitated. Then she said the thing that had clearly been bothering her the most.
“Then he said, ‘You don’t understand what it’s like when everybody keeps staring at something about you.'”
I frowned. “What did he mean by that?”
“I don’t know. I asked him. He wouldn’t explain. He just said never mind and he had to go to practice.”
For the next few days, Emma and Tyler barely spoke outside of school.
She stopped checking her phone every five minutes. She stopped sleeping with it under her pillow.
And I noticed something else.
She stopped wearing the heavy gray sweatshirt around the house.
Ethan Blake is a skilled Creative Content Specialist with a talent for crafting engaging and thought-provoking narratives. With a strong background in storytelling and digital content creation, Ethan brings a unique perspective to his role at TheArchivists, where he curates and produces captivating content for a global audience.
Ethan holds a degree in Communications from Zurich University, where he developed his expertise in storytelling, media strategy, and audience engagement. Known for his ability to blend creativity with analytical precision, he excels at creating content that not only entertains but also connects deeply with readers.
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