But her voice didn’t sound convincing.

I didn’t push her further.

That was one of my mistakes.

Sometimes we think we’re helping someone by giving them space.

But there is a difference between giving someone space and allowing them to remain alone with a problem.

---

The Conversation That Finally Broke the Silence

A few days later, I found her sitting on the stairs.

She looked exhausted.

I sat beside her.

“You don’t have to tell me everything,” I said. “But if something is happening at school, you don’t have to handle it alone.”

She didn’t answer.

I waited.

Eventually, she said:

“They keep doing things to me.”

My stomach dropped.

“Who?”

She wouldn’t give me names.

She said a group of students had been making fun of her.

Sometimes they mocked her clothes.

Sometimes they followed her.

Sometimes they deliberately knocked things out of her hands.

And, she said, the jacket had not been ruined accidentally.