After the interview aired, I didn’t sleep for two days. I tried, God, I tried but sleep doesn’t come easily when the whole world has its eyes on you.
The video clips played on every screen I passed. The campus cafeteria, my phone notifications, and even a muted screen above the gas station counter while I bought tea.
They didn’t just show my face. They showed opinions chopped-up sentences pulled from strangers who’d never met me but swore they knew me. Some called me brave while some called me a disgrace and a liar in the comment section, bold and cruel with their keyboards.
I could take that but what I wasn’t ready for… was the silence from my mom.
Not even a prayer text this time. No message, missed calls, just absence like the kind of silence you feel at a funeral, thick and waiting
