“What are you doing in here?” Amanda asks cockily.

I ignore, and bring my hands to my pockets.

“I said, what are you doing in here?” she repeats relentlessly.

“Going to the bathroom just like any other girl in this school,” I react with little confidence.

“Whatever,” Amanda replies, acting like she doesn't care that I'm in “her” bathroom. On her way out she shuts the light off just to get on my nerves.


I view myself through the mirror and see no beauty. I see myself the same way she views me, ugly and worthless. She has ripped through my skin and took all my confidence for herself. Thoughts are racing through my head. Amanda has put me through so much. She’s locked me in the bathroom before. She even came to my house on Christmas Eve and threw eggs at my mom’s car. Worst of all she hacked all my social medias. She is never caught, the principals don't even know this is occurring.
I unzip the rust colored zipper to my backpack, pull out the orange plastic bottle. I've tried to kill myself before but my mom caught me and immediately put me in therapy. I came across a prescription bottle right outside the grocery store.

I'm going to do it. No one is going to miss me anyway. I open the bottle slowly. I scan all of the cautionary warnings on the side of the bottle and pretend I don’t see.
I pull the vase that I just completed in art class out of my bag and think all the hard work and effort I put into it, it is truly beautiful. Life is messy, but if you work really hard you can see the beauty of it. I can do this, I know I can.