You were only a child when it all started…
The fighting… the yelling … the blaming…
Your mother always found a way to shift the blame onto you no matter what…
And you ?? You were just trying to make it through school and the battle with your mental health that threatened to make you do things to ease the pain…
School wasn’t any easy either…
Teachers only knew to criticize even when you didn’t have the strength to open your mouth and answer questions you swore you’d learned last night, and you couldn’t tell anyone. It hurt everyday
The psychological pain became physical by now…
It hurt to move … your hair was falling in chunks… your cycle stopped occurring normally anymore. You couldn’t eat, you slept restlessly, and you still needed to maintain your good grades despite the feelings that you were rotting inside
But then she showed up
Miss Mariam
She saw it… she got it… and she did her best to aid your crisis at school at least
She would sometimes pull you out of class to ground your senses when you would start fading. She could tell without you even uttering a word about your situation
One day, you were sitting in an aisle in the school library, hiding from everyone, everything…
Things got ugly at home again…
You heard the familiar clank of the only heels you deemed safe
She was carrying a stack of books, when she saw you, she didn’t say anything. She just gently put her books down and sat beside you, not saying anything, instead she picked up one of the books beside you and opened to the bookmark
” This part’s your favorite too ? I marked this exact page in this book when I was younger “
She pulled out her phone to show you the picture of the page in the book she had at home, she knew it was not that much, but she would at least help you engage with her