Girl in Pieces

I did have this teacher once, in the fourth grade. She was totally nice, even to the bullies in class. She never yelled. She just let me be, really, she never made me go out to recess if I didn’t want to go, or to gym. She’d let me stay in the classroom and draw while she worked on grading or looked out the big square windows. Once, she said, “Charlotte, I know things are so hard right now, but they’ll get better. Sometimes it takes a while to find that special friend, but you will. Oh, gosh, I don’t think I had a really good-good friend until I was in high school.” She fingered the little gold heart on a chain around her neck.

She was right. I did find my special friend. But nobody told me she was going to fucking kill herself.