FIXING WOUNDS

CONFRONT

One day, Zero finally snapped.

Ivy had been avoiding him for weeks. Every time he sat near her, every time he asked how she was, she shut it down with a short reply or just silence.

So he caught her after class, when the hallway was almost empty.

“Why do you keep pushing me away?” Zero asked. His voice wasn’t angry. It was tired. “No matter how much I try to be your friend, you act like I’m not even here.”

Ivy didn’t answer. She just looked down and walked past him.

For a week, he kept asking. Not loudly. Not in front of people. Just a quiet _“Why?”_ every time he saw her.

Finally, Ivy stopped.

She looked at him and said everything.

About Priscilla. About the rumors. About Dylan and the cold _“K”_. About her mom, and how the house felt like a prison. About how she’d tried to trust people before and it always ended the same — with her alone again.

Zero listened. He didn’t interrupt. He didn’t try to fix it with quick words or empty promises. That’s who he was. The type to listen more and speak less.

When she finished, he tried to comfort her.

But before he could say anything, Ivy cut him off.

“Don’t bother,” she said, voice flat. “It always ends the same. That’s what Dylan said when I told him about Zara. And it ended the same way. If not worse.”

Zero didn’t argue. He just nodded.

But he didn’t leave.

He kept showing up. Sitting near her at lunch. Walking beside her to class. Not as a best friend. Not with expectations. Just as someone who refused to give up on her.

Little by little, Ivy started opening up to him. Not fully. Not with her heart. But enough that she didn’t feel like she was talking to a stranger anymore.

He became someone close to her. Someone safe.

---

Then it happened.

It was a bad day. Ivy was exhausted. Her eyes burned from lack of sleep, and her head pounded from her mom’s yelling the night before. She was leaning against her locker, trying to breathe, when Priscilla and her friends walked up.

Priscilla had a plastic bag in her hand.

Before Ivy could react, Priscilla threw the spoiled meat all over her. The smell hit instantly. Rotten and sour.

“That’s what you get for snatching my boyfriend,” Priscilla hissed, surrounded by giggling friends.

Ivy stood there, frozen. Clothes ruined. Hair sticking to her skin. Students were watching, some laughing, some recording.

She was so tired she didn’t even cry. She didn’t know what to do anymore.

The school nurse’s office was low on water and cleaning supplies, so Ivy asked the principal for permission to go home.

Zero followed her.

On the way to the office, he explained to the principal that Ivy needed to go home urgently. No details. No drama. Just quiet support.

When Ivy got home, her mom was in the room.

And she saw it — the meat still stuck to Ivy’s shirt, the smell, the humiliation.

Ivy thought her mom would yell again. That she’d say _“What did you do now?”_ like always.

Instead, her mom moved closer. For a second, Ivy thought she was going to hit her.

Then her mom gave her a slight hug.

“What happened?” her mom asked softly. “Open up to me, Ivy.”

Ivy broke.

She told her everything. About the school. About Priscilla. About Dylan. About Zero. Even about how her mom had always brushed it off before, like Ivy’s pain didn’t matter. She told her how sometimes she wished she could just disappear.

Her mom didn’t have an answer. She just held her.

That night, Ivy went to her room, picked up her phone, and put on music. For the first time in a long time, she just listened. In peace. No yelling. No phone buzzing with rumors. Just quiet.

---

After that night, something shifted.

Her mom kept her home from school for a few days. She came into Ivy’s room and apologized. Really apologized. For everything. For not listening. For making Ivy feel like she had to carry it all alone.

Ivy didn’t say much. She just gave her mom a small, closed smile.

She knew an apology wouldn’t fix everything. Things could never go back to how they were. The trust was cracked. Maybe broken for good.

Her mom told her she could switch schools if she wanted.

Ivy shook her head.

“Changing schools won’t help anything,” she said. “Besides, I’m only graduating in a few months.”

A few months. That’s all she had left. She could hold on that long.