“I’ll be there.”
The following morning, I walked into my old high school right before the assembly. The building hadn’t changed much.
The principal, Mrs. Dalton, greeted me near the auditorium doors. “We appreciate your involvement in the anti-bullying initiative,” she said warmly. “It means a lot to our students.”
“I’m glad to support it,” I replied.
But that, of course, wasn’t the whole truth.
“It means a lot to our students.”
The auditorium buzzed with students, parents, and faculty. The annual assembly had grown since our time there. A banner stretched across the stage that read: Words Have Weight.
I stood near the back, arms crossed, exactly where I could see him without being seen immediately.
Mark stood offstage, pacing. He looked worse than he had in my office. His hands flexed at his sides as if he were a man preparing to walk into fire.
