“Smiling While It Burns” 🐍💔📱
1033 Words
The school didn’t greet Cherry Axle that morning.
It reacted to her.
Like she was already an event that had started without permission.
She walked through the gates of Eclipse Heights Academy slowly, feeling it immediately—the shift in atmosphere. Not louder. Not quieter. Just… focused. Conversations didn’t stop when she passed anymore.
They bent around her.
Like she was the center of something invisible.
Cherry kept her eyes forward.
She had learned that looking around too much made it worse.
But ignoring it didn’t make it disappear either.
A group near the lockers paused mid-laugh when she walked by.
Not subtle this time.
One of them even turned fully.
Cherry heard her name.
Again.
And again.
Like it had become easier for people to say than not say.
She reached the hallway near her class.
That’s when she saw the phone again.
Two girls. Same posture as yesterday. Same angle of secrecy.
But this time, they didn’t hide it properly.
The screen was brighter.
Closer.
Intentional.
Cherry slowed.
Even though she told herself not to.
On the screen:
Her name.
Westbridge School.
Threads of comments underneath.
Not facts.
Opinions.
Assumptions dressed up as certainty.
“She transferred because of that?”
“I heard it was worse than they’re saying…”
“No wonder Lara Damian is still friends with her…”
Cherry’s breath caught slightly at the last line.
Lara.
“Crazy, right?”
The girl holding the phone laughed softly.
Cherry walked past them.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Like if she moved too fast, something would break.
But something already had.
She reached her classroom.
The moment she stepped inside, the noise dipped again.
Not silence.
Recognition.
She felt it in the air.
In the way chairs didn’t move immediately.
In the way conversations restarted half a second too late.
Cherry went to her seat.
Sat down.
Stared at her desk.
Tried not to think.
But thinking wasn’t the problem.
Being thought about was.
Her phone buzzed again.
She didn’t open it immediately.
Not because she was strong.
Because she was tired.
Then she looked.
Another screenshot.
This one had more reactions.
More engagement.
More certainty built from fragments.
Her chest tightened.
She locked the screen.
“Cherry.”
She looked up.
Lara Damian stood near the front of the class.
Calm.
Composed.
Same face as always.
Same perfect control.
But something about the way she was standing felt slightly more deliberate than usual.
Cherry stood up slowly and walked toward her.
They stepped into the hallway.
Lara didn’t speak immediately.
Cherry did.
“It’s everywhere now,” she said quietly.
Lara nodded once.
“Yes.”
That was all.
Cherry stared at her.
Waiting.
“For what?” Cherry asked.
Lara tilted her head slightly.
“For it to pass.”
Cherry let out a short, humourless breath.
“It doesn’t feel like it’s passing.”
Lara’s expression didn’t change.
“It will.”
Cherry shook her head slightly.
“You’re not even reacting to it.”
That sentence hung in the air.
Lara finally looked at her more directly.
“I am reacting,” she said softly.
Cherry frowned.
“How?”
A pause.
Then Lara answered:
“By not letting it control me.”
Cherry didn’t respond immediately.
Because something about that answer didn’t feel like comfort.
It felt like distance.
Like stepping back from something instead of stepping into it.
A group of students passed behind them.
One of them said Cherry’s name again.
This time followed by laughter.
Cherry flinched slightly before she could stop herself.
Lara noticed.
Of course she did.
“Do you want me to handle it?” Lara asked.
Cherry looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
Lara’s voice stayed calm.
“I can make it stop spreading.”
Cherry hesitated.
“Can you?”
A beat.
Then Lara said:
“Yes.”
That answer should have felt like relief.
But it didn’t.
It felt like control.
Cherry studied her face.
Trying to find cracks.
There were none.
Not visible ones.
Before Cherry could respond, another voice cut in.
“Lara.”
A boy approached from the side of the corridor.
Dayo Sinclair.
Cherry had seen him before, but never like this.
Not directly involved.
Not part of her problem.
Until now.
He glanced at Cherry briefly.
Then at Lara.
“I heard what’s going around,” he said.
Lara nodded slightly.
“Yes.”
Dayo frowned.
“That’s messed up.”
Cherry looked at him for the first time properly.
Noticed his tone.
Not dismissive.
Not curious.
Concerned.
Lara spoke first.
“It’s being handled.”
Dayo looked between them.
“Handled how?”
A pause.
Lara didn’t answer immediately.
Cherry felt something shift again.
Small.
But noticeable.
Dayo exhaled slightly.
“If she didn’t do it,” he said, nodding toward Cherry, “then someone’s using her name for attention.”
Cherry looked down slightly at that.
Not because it hurt.
Because it sounded too close to the truth she hadn’t fully formed yet.
Lara finally spoke again.
“People use names all the time,” she said.
Dayo didn’t look convinced.
Cherry noticed that too.
The bell rang in the distance.
Movement started again.
Students shifting.
Life continuing.
But Cherry felt stuck in the middle of something that had already moved past her control.
Dayo looked at Cherry one more time.
Then said quietly:
“If you need help… don’t stay quiet.”
Cherry didn’t answer.
Because she didn’t know what kind of help existed in a place like this.
He walked away.
Silence returned between Cherry and Lara.
Different silence now.
Heavier.
Not empty.
Lara spoke softly.
“He’s involved more than he should be.”
Cherry frowned slightly.
“Involved how?”
Lara looked at her.
“People like him get curious at the wrong time.”
Cherry felt something tighten again.
Not fear.
Uncertainty.
The hallway filled again with movement.
Noise rising.
Normal returning on the surface.
But nothing felt normal underneath it anymore.
Cherry looked at Lara.
For the first time since everything started.
She didn’t feel fully safe beside her.
And that realization didn’t arrive loudly.
It arrived quietly.
And stayed.
🔥
- Writer
