🎧 I Care 4 U – Aaliyah 🎧

You and Ellie went to the same high school. You’d never spoken, but there had been a few glances, quick and wordless, exchanged in crowded hallways. You thought your life was fine—perfect, even—until the day you learned your friends had been talking behind your back.

You never confronted them. Instead, something inside you began to shift. Your voice grew quieter, your sentences shorter. You stopped laughing with them, stopped joining in. Little by little, you stepped back until you were alone. You told yourself you wanted it that way.

But the truth was, you were scared—scared to be yourself. It was as if something unseen pressed down on you, silencing you, watching you. And then the panic came. The attacks started small, then grew sharper, crueler, until they left you shaking and breathless.

Ellie noticed. She saw the way your shoulders curled in on themselves, the way your hands trembled. But she never asked—not yet.

Then, one day, in the middle of class, it hit you—hard. Your chest tightened. Your thoughts blurred into noise. You asked the teacher if you could leave, but the answer was no. It didn’t matter. You were already on your feet, already running.

You burst into the bathroom, locked yourself in a stall, and pressed your back against the cold metal door. You tried to breathe, to steady yourself.

And you didn’t notice the sound of footsteps behind you—didn’t notice Ellie slipping quietly into the bathroom, following you inside.