For a long moment, the assembly hall hangs suspended in silence. Then clapping starts right next to me. I look over and see that it’s Linea, still staring at Kim. I join her and soon our classmates around us follow our example. After that, it takes only a second and the entire school is applauding her.

Kim keeps standing on stage for another few seconds, her eyes slightly out of focus like she’s lost in thought. Then she gives a little jerk with her head as if to say, ‘Right, that’s that, then’ and walks off.

Mr Lang meets her at the bottom of the stairs and shakes her hand before accepting the microphone from her.

“What a great show of strength and character, Kim,” he says as the applause dies out. “I understand the difficulty of coming out here and telling us about your past, especially with a crowd this large. That was very brave. I hope that I speak for us all when I say that this will not impact how we perceive or treat you in any way, shape or form. I am proud of how far we’ve come as a progressive and accepting community and I will not accept any bullying at this school. Please, everybody, give it up for Kim!”

Again, applause fills the hall and then people start filing out and back to their classrooms.

None of us, move, though. Our entire class sits and waits until everybody else has left and as the crowds clear, I see that Kim is waiting as well. She’s standing by her seat at the other end of the hall and looks up at us anxiously.

Finally, I move away from my seat and down toward her to encourage her to join up with the rest of us, but instead, it turns out that all of them just follow me. Halfway down the stairs, Linea slips past me, walks right up to her friend and hugs her tightly.

I'm the first to get into hearing range, so I hear as Kim says, blinking rapidly, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

But Linea just rubs her back and says, “I get it, Kim, I get it. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

And then Kim looks up and sees all of us standing around them, and she gives a choked noise from the back of her throat.

“Hi,” she says then, letting go of Linea to look around. She seems to want to say something more by way of apologising but she doesn’t get that far because the moment she’s stepped away from Linea, Leon is there, putting his arms around her in much the same way. Especially throughout the last semester, the two have become rather close friends.

“Hi,” he says into her hair because he’s just that much taller than her.

She gives another squashed noise and lets it happen. When he lets go of her, there are tears glistening in her eyes and the next person is waiting already. She starts openly crying after the third person hugs her. Nobody mentions it.

When everybody’s had their turn, she sniffles and says in a low voice that still seems to carry easily through the entire hall, “I love you guys, you know that, right?”

“We love you too,” Linea says as we start to walk toward the exit, putting an arm around Kim’s shoulders.

We’ve just made it out of the building and are about to cross the schoolyard when Ben gives a sudden shout. “OH! Kim, do you still want to play football?”

Kim looks a little surprised at first but then she nods slowly.

“You totally have to join us, then. We meet up to play regularly.”

She starts blinking rapidly again. Quite an emotional day. “But aren’t I way too bad? Like, I haven’t played in over ten years.”

He shrugs. “Who?”

“What, who?”

“Who cares? Like, you’re really not that slow, are you? And it’s mostly about being together, anyway.”

For a moment, she looks like that angle really hadn’t occurred to her. Then she beams at him. “Alright, then. When are you gonna…?”

“Saturday.”

“Okay!”

Her participation in class doesn’t really change for the rest of the day. I can imagine well enough why she can’t concentrate. Why none of us can really concentrate, for that matter. Despite the circumstances, a feeling of elation has overcome us. We just beat the blackmailer to it. We showed solidarity. We acted right as one.

None of the teachers seem to mind, though. They go easy on us and mostly don’t bother us with new subject matter for the rest of the day. Two teachers even approach Kim after class and express their pride in her and also generally at how well we hold together. None of them state it but really, we’re all aware that we are this way because of Kim to begin with. So her plan worked out great, didn’t it?

I am wondering, though, who the person is. Because wasn’t that party just us? I don’t know of anybody who wasn’t there that night who wasn’t also in our year. But how could they…?

And then, just as we leave the classroom after our final class, a younger boy walks up to us. I think his name is Hector. He’s in the year below ours. I really don’t know much about him, he’s a quiet kid, far as I can tell. And the moment he approaches Kim, I know where this is headed.

“Hey, Kim, can I talk to you for a moment?” he stammers, flushing, unable to maintain eye contact.

She nods almost mechanically and gives him her usual, dazzling smile, all the while my body goes into fighting mode. My heart rate accelerates like a race car as adrenaline soars through my veins. I hit Sadie with my elbow to get her attention and once she looks at me and sees my expression, she immediately gets it. The next moment, I’m leaning into Henry like I’m hugging him and he seems startled at first but then accepts and I whisper into his ear, “Get some of the other guys, wait around the corner, don’t go out of earshot!”

Hektor is a lanky kid, I’m taller than him. I can probably take him in a fair fight, even Kim and Sadie could, probably. Both of them have visited martial arts classes at some point throughout their lives.

Henry goes briefly stiff and opens his mouth to ask what this is about but then I’ve already let go of him and slipped back into the classroom, just as Kim is about to close the door behind her and Hektor. Sadie follows me.

Kim looks startled for a moment as we both settle against the table right by the door, our faces hard.

“Sorry Wells but… I think this is a conversation we should have with just the two of us?” she says, sounding apologetic.

I shake my head. “I don’t think you should.”

For a second I start to waver because what if he just has the virus and wants to talk about it? But then his eyes make contact with mine and he’s gone a sickly kind of pale and I’m certain.

Kim gives me a confused look. “But how would you know? Isn’t this about…?” She turns and sees the way Hektor looks at me and I let out a cold laugh.

“Go tell her what you did, Hek.”

For another moment Kim looks confused, then it dawns on her. She’s not stupid. “Did you…? Were you…?” Her throat seems to constrict around the words. She can’t get them out. Her eyes are wide with horror.

“I was drunk,” the boy says desperately. “I didn’t know about your past, I just thought –” He stops himself. “I’ve been in love with you for years! I’d never try to hurt you!”

I cringe inwardly at the twisted logic. I want to hit him. I want to kick him in the balls until I’m certain he’s never again going to be able to produce children or even think with his dick. But I don’t. This is Kim’s decision.

For a long while she seems too stunned to say anything. Then, with her mouth in a flat line, she says, “And what now? Want me to kiss you?”

Her words come so unexpectedly that I almost laugh. Hektor looks absolutely horrified.

“What? No, I… I wanted to apologise. And I wanted you to feel safe again. Because I’ll stop. I’ve already deleted the video, here, you can check.” He holds out his phone like he expects that to make everything well again. Like that’s even the problem right now.

Kim’s lips curl with disgust and with a sudden movement, she slaps the phone out of Hektor’s hand. It hits the ground with a loud clattering and even from where I’m standing I can see that the screen is cracked. “I’ll never feel safe around you, never!” she says and I realise that I’ve never seen Kim angry. Her eyes, usually so kind and full of laughter bear a deep, burning hatred. I feel like, if she were looking at me right now, I’d just want to die on the spot. But then she closes her eyes briefly and draws a deep, shivery breath. When she opens them again, the hatred is gone and her face is a mask of cool control. “You should leave this school.”

Hektor’s face falls. “What? But I can’t! I’d have to repeat the year and anyway-”

Kim doesn’t let him finish. “Fuck! You!” she snarls. “If I ever see you again, I’m reporting you!” And with that, she turns and walks past us, and out of the classroom, strands of her hair carried up by the speed of her steps.

Both Sadie and I take another second to glare at the boy, then walk after her.

We catch up with her as she passes the corner and stops dead in her tracks at the sight of just about every single boy from our year and Linea standing at the ready.

“What are you doing here?” she asks a little tightly.

“You just talked to him, didn’t you?” Linea asks back.

Kim gives a tiny nod and anger lights up Linea’s eyes. “I hope you’re done with him, then, because I’m first in line,” she says and moves to stride past Kim, who has to throw her arms around her friend’s stomach and bodily keep her from walking any further.

“Don’t! Don’t! I dealt with it. It’s over!” she says, her voice pleading.

The sound of her voice makes Linea stop. “You sure? I really don’t think he deserves your protection, honestly.”

But Kim is certain. “Please, let’s just… go somewhere and do something else.”

“We could go bowling?” Leon says. “As a group?”

Kim nods quickly, still holding Linea, even though the other girl has long stopped struggling against her grip. “Yeah, that’d be nice.”

“Right,” Leon says, checking his watch. “There’s a bus in five minutes, we can still catch that.”

***

We stay at the bowling strip for the rest of the day. We split up into four teams and play an elaborate tournament, none of us really care about money today. Almost everybody who wasn’t there to begin with joins us barely an hour later after they’ve been alerted through the group chat.

It seems to do the job. After everything that’s happened, Kim looks positively exhausted but she still plays and laughs with us. Probably because she’s just that relieved. Every second of this is reassurance that she’s still part of this group and we still like her just as much as before.

When we decide to go to a restaurant afterwards, though, she decides to turn in. Nobody seems particularly surprised. She’d been yawning constantly and by now the dark rings underneath her eyes are clearly visible. I decide to accompany her to the bus she’s going to take home and at the last second, Linea joins us.

That she had an ulterior motive for doing so, I find out only once the bus has left and we’ve started our way towards the restaurant.

“You knew, didn’t you?” she says then, out of the blue.

I almost stop walking for a moment, then I nod.

“I’d been wondering why you started hanging out all of a sudden. I mean, Kim’s nice to everybody, of course, but you’ve been going to the same class for years and you’re… not exactly the super extroverted kind that just starts hanging out with new people out of the blue. That she told you is the only way it made sense.”

That finally does make me stop. “Wait, so you knew too?”

She grins dreamily. “I’ve known for years.”

“But… how?”

She shrugs. “Happened across an old photo album while helping her tidy up the attic. She wasn’t looking so I decided to just keep it to myself until she told me herself. Only that moment never really came.”

“But you do get why, don’t you?”

She nods hurriedly. “Of course. That’s why I respected it, too. She did tell me at some point that she’d been bullied at her old school.” She shakes her head and lets out a disbelieving laugh. “Which is honestly such a ridiculous idea.” She stops herself just as she’s about to say something more and considers me for a long moment. Then she says, cautiously, “Wells, do you think you could keep a secret? Like, not for all of eternity. Just for… a while?”

I nod. “Sure. As long as you haven’t murdered somebody.”

She doesn’t laugh. “I am…. I was wondering if….” Then she gives herself a shove. “Do you think there’s a chance Kim might like me… back?”

My heart leaps and for a moment, I’m about to tell her that yes, she might very much. Then I realise that that would take away the romantic moment of confession and I decide not to tell her just yet.

Linea interprets my silence as indecisiveness. “I mean, of course she wouldn’t tell you but…. You’ve spent some time with her recently. Has she ever said anything about me that, you know, might suggest…?” She gives a helpless shrug. “It’s just that…. I’ve liked her for years and I thought I couldn’t tell her because she didn’t like girls to begin with and even if, her secret would taint our relationship from her perspective. Because that’s just the way she works and it turns out I was right. Woman actually tried to apologise for her trauma. But now that she’s… out, I guess, I’m scared she’s gonna think I think of her as a boy when I ask her out. And that’s just –” She stops herself when she sees me laugh.

“What?” she asks a little defensively.

“Nothing,” I say, wiping laughter tears from the corners of my eyes. “I just really think you’re overthinking it way too much.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Am I?”

“Yeah,” I nod. “Kim thinks very, very highly of you. You’ve been her best friend for years for a reason. Just tell her all the things you’ve just told me and even if she doesn’t like you back, she’ll appreciate it, I’m sure of that.”

“So you think she might…?”

I give a non-committal shrug. “She might. Just be yourself. If you ask me, I think you’d make a great couple!”

SeptemberMorgan

Personally, I don't really like the whole Hektor coming to confess thing but I also didn't want to leave the whole situation unresolved sooooo...
Please tell me what you think!
Also, in case you were wondering why I haven't posted anything last Sunday, I currently kinda have to finish several project works for uni right now so I'm sorta swamped with work. I might end up posting a little slower for some more time but the free Sunday actually helped me work my way through the worst. It's just a question of how bad the rest is (and how burned out I am because the next chapter is definitely not writing itself).
Also, Happy New Year! (I have a story for this day if you haven't read it, I think it's pretty good)