She had done nothing wrong by asking to be left alone.
And she should not have to beg another student for permission to leave a restroom.
“Please move,” she said, more firmly.
Madison crossed her arms.
“Or what?”
Nora glanced at the door.
“I’ll tell someone.”
Madison’s eyes narrowed.
“You really think anybody’s gonna believe you?”
“That isn’t your decision.”
Madison stepped closer.
Nora stepped backward.
“Don’t.”
But Madison continued.
“All day you’ve been trying to make me look stupid.”
“I haven’t.”
“You think because you’re quiet and you get good grades, you’re better than everyone else.”
Nora shook her head.
“I never said that.”
“Then why do you keep talking back?”
Nora stared at her.
The question revealed something she had never fully understood before.
To Madison, disagreement itself was an insult.
Nora’s refusal to obey was not simply irritating.
It challenged the way Madison expected the world to work.
For months, Nora had tried to make herself small enough to avoid attention.
Now, merely by refusing to surrender an ordinary seat or apologize for an imagined offense, she had become a problem Madison felt compelled to correct.
It was exhausting.
And deeply unfair.
“I don’t want anything from you,” Nora said.
“I just want to be left alone.”
Madison gave a sharp laugh.
“Then you should’ve thought about that before making a scene.”
Nora felt her eyes sting.
She hated that reaction.
She was not crying because Madison was right.
She was crying because she had been frightened and frustrated for so long that her feelings had become difficult to contain.
She blinked hard.
Madison noticed.
Of course she noticed.
Her smile returned.
“There it is.”
Nora said nothing.
“Go ahead,” Madison continued.
“Cry.”
Nora shook her head.
“I’m not crying.”
“Sure.”
Madison moved another step.
Nora backed toward the sinks.
The edge of the counter touched her hip.
She could see the door over Madison’s shoulder.
It was only a short distance away.
But Madison stood between them.
Nora suddenly felt painfully aware of how empty the restroom was.
No teacher.
No other students.
Nobody to interrupt.
“Let me leave,” Nora said.
Madison tilted her head.
“Make me.”
Nora tried to move around her.
Madison caught her arm.
The contact was sudden and unwelcome.
Nora pulled away.
“Don’t touch me.”
Madison’s expression darkened.
“You don’t tell me what to do.”
Nora struggled to keep her breathing steady.
“I said stop.”
For a moment, Madison simply stared at her.
Then she reached forward.
Her fingers caught a handful of Nora’s long chestnut hair.
Nora gasped.
“Madison!”
The blonde girl pulled her toward the sink.
Nora raised her hands instinctively.
She tried to catch the edge of the counter, but her movement was too late.
Her forehead struck the mirror.
A sharp cracking sound filled the restroom.
Nora’s reflection broke apart.
Pain flashed across her forehead.
She grabbed the counter and struggled to steady herself.
Madison was still holding her hair.
Then came the laughter.
“What?
You gonna cry now?”
For an instant, Nora could scarcely understand what had happened.
The sound of the cracking glass seemed to remain in the air long after the mirror had stopped moving.
She had heard things break before.
Dishes.
A dropped picture frame.
A glass knocked from a table.
But this sound was different.
It had happened directly in front of her face.
The reflection she had been studying moments earlier was now divided by thin, jagged lines.
Several pieces remained held in the frame, while smaller fragments glittered near the sink.
Nora could see a faint red mark on her forehead.
Her fingers moved toward it.
When she brought them away, she saw a small amount of blood.
She stared.
It seemed strangely impossible.
Only a few minutes earlier, she had been sitting in class, thinking about an ordinary afternoon.
Now she was in an empty restroom with a damaged mirror and a girl holding her by the hair.
She could hear her own breathing.
Madison leaned closer.
“Look at you,” she sneered.
“You actually thought you could stand up to me?”
Nora tried to straighten.
The movement pulled painfully against her scalp.
“Let go.”
Madison tightened her fingers.
“Maybe next time you’ll know better.”
Nora closed her eyes for a moment.
She wanted to shout.
She wanted to demand an explanation for why Madison hated her so much.
But she was beginning to understand that there might not be an explanation that made sense.
Madison had made a choice.
And Nora was the one being made to suffer for it.
The thought brought a sudden clarity.
This was not an argument between two students who had misunderstood each other.
It was not an unfortunate accident.
Madison had followed her into an empty restroom after being asked to stop.
