Meredith Russo

I felt hot tears coming but I blinked them away. I watched my reflection in the car window, beyond it trees and dusty road passing in a blur. “I just want to have a normal life.”

“And I just want you to live past your senior year,” Dad said, his jaw clenched. He let out a long breath. “People like you get killed by people like him.”

It’s what I’ve wanted for so long, but it’s scary too. It’s scary to think of leaving here, of being so far from my parents and everything I know. But then it’s the only way I can be really free, that I can finally live somewhere that people understand me.

my biggest secret isn’t that I’m bi,” Bee said, leaning forward slightly. I cocked my head and listened. “I was raped in tenth grade.”

“Oh my God,” I said, covering my mouth. “I’m so sorry.”

“Whatever,” Bee said, waving my condolences away and snapping a few pictures. “It’s not a … I mean, it was a big deal. I needed therapy and shit. But it’s not why I am who I am or whatever.