MINE TO BULLY
His pulse refused to slow down.
*Pathetic.* That was the word for this. For all of it. Three years of being humiliated by someone and still, still, lying in bed every morning hoping for one more glimpse of him before school forced them back into their assigned roles .... bully and joke, golden boy and punchline.
Ezra had never told anyone. Not Sophie. Not his mother. Some secrets you buried so deep they became part of the foundation, load-bearing walls holding up everything else, and you learned to live around the shape of them instead of ever digging them out.