Q: Ma, it's fine.

It keeps crawling, and coming, and picking at his sanity. He does what he can to stay calm. Head down, hands at his side, roaming the hallway unnoticed by most, except for those who plague him. He never did anything to deserve harassment, but then again who did? He prays every night just to be invisible. Although he aches for affection, he doesn't want the attention given through shoves and strikes. It's not only physical. The verbal abuse is just as abundant. And some times, it hurts a lot worse. All sorts of obscenities are yelled, as he tries to ignore and just keep walking. But one can only ignore for so long. He balls his fists up, and tightens his hands, hoping to just bottle up his frustration without an episode. He just wants to be unnoticed. He doesn't stick up for himself, hoping that by being the 'bigger man', and just walking away, the harassment would stop. But it doesn't. And some times he blames himself. There has to be a reason they pick on me, he would say to himself, but never out loud. Any time he tries to make his situation known, he is patronized and belittled by condescending adults who just don't understand.A person can only take so much before they reach their breaking point. Being shoved into lockers, randomly punched, and verbally harassed brings otherwise quiet, shy people to the brink. And this boy is no different. He shakes his fists and his eyes close, as he tries to disappear. Just disappear off to some distant world where he isn't the awkward, weird kid that walks through the hallways and is constantly bullied. But there's no magic in hoping or wishing, and you can't just hope your problems away. Today he decides to take a stand, and stick up for himself. His fists no longer shake, instead they are sledgehammers and weights that come down on top of another child's face. It doesn't matter who the child is, or what they've done. Years of bottled up rage and frustration now on the delivering end, instead of the receiving end. The blame is irrelevant and the cause doesn't matter. Whether the bullied or the bully, there's still a victim, and often it is both.

I hope he's okay.
Vonnie S.