⠀⠀"Oh, Kalani," Alec whispers, holding out her wrist and carefully sliding her sleeve back down to cover what he has just discovered.

⠀⠀She had been so careful to keep those scars covered. She wore long sleeved shirts every day. She never slid her sleeves up, even if she was too warm. She even wore bracelets underneath the sleeves just in case it accidentally slid up her arm somehow.

⠀⠀He was not supposed to see the scars of her cuts, and he especially wasn't supposed to see the one that runs vertically up her right forearm. Nobody was supposed to see them except for Kalani and her mother, who insists on checking to make sure there aren't any new ones.

⠀⠀She hadn't planned her usual coverup today, though. Today, there are too many other things on her mind. She forgot about the bracelets in her frantic rush to leave her house this morning.

⠀⠀So when she lifted her hand to tie her hair up into a ponytail after Alec referred to it as a rat's nest, her loose sweater sleeve went down with gravity, revealing the collection of thin lines across her wrist. He saw them, of course. They're hard to miss.

⠀⠀Kalani bites down on her bottom lip and tries to blink back her tears. "Don't tell anyone."

⠀⠀He rubs his hand across the back of his neck. The bell for their next class rang long ago, and they're the only two left in the hallway.

⠀⠀"Why did you do that to yourself?" he asks quietly.

⠀⠀She looks around to see if anyone can possibly be overhearing this conversation. "Can you take me home? My mom didn't trust me to drive today, and I can't be here right now."

⠀⠀He simply stares at her for a few seconds, and then he nods, starting in the direction of the exit of the school in order to get to his car in the parking lot.

* * * * *

⠀⠀The ride to Kalani's house is silent, making the relatively short drive feel like hours. The only noises are the hum of the engine and the country music playing through the radio.

⠀⠀Her house is empty when they arrive, but she still closes the door behind them when they go into her room. She sits down on her bed, and Alec sits next to her. She looks down at her hands.

⠀⠀"So," Alec says softly, not wanting to push her too hard but wanting desperately to know what had caused her to harm herself.

⠀⠀"So, two years ago today, I was going for a run through my neighborhood. It was hot out that day, so I was just wearing a sports bra and shorts, typical workout clothes. I got stopped at a crosswalk, and two guys I sort of recognized from school were right behind me. They started cat-calling and whistling and saying stupid things to me. I asked them to stop, but they wouldn't. It felt like that light just wouldn't change, so I couldn't escape them. And then one of them grabbed me and pulled me in this area behind the nearest building while the other stood look out. Then they both started touching me. Kissing me. Feeling me. They wouldn't have stopped if this lady hadn't come out to throw away some trash and caught them.

⠀⠀"They both went running off, and she took me to the police station. Turns out both of the boys were cops' kids. No charges were filed. The official story is that I was dressed provocatively and flirted with them, but then I wanted the attention afterwards, so I screamed assault when it was all totally consensual.

⠀⠀"As if that wasn't bad enough, then I had to go to school every day and see the two of them with smug looks on their faces as I walked past. I had to deal with the people calling me a slut and an attention whore and all that. I started to blame myself for what had happened to me, too. Everyone starts saying one thing and eventually you start to believe it, so I believed that it was my fault because I was only wearing a sports bra and shorts, even though every girl in that town did the same thing because it's fucking hot in Arizona. I wanted to punish myself, so I cut myself. One day, it all became too much, and I made this one."

⠀⠀She pulls up her sleeve to reveal the one vertical scar that runs up a large portion of her forearm. She traces the line with her finger and goes quiet for a while.

⠀⠀"My mom found me, and the doctors were able to save me. I got sent to a psychiatric facility to get treatment, and that's where I spent the last year-and-a-half of my life before coming here. That's why my mom lost her job. She took too many days off to visit me and make sure I was okay."

⠀⠀She hadn't even realized that she was crying as she told this story until it was over and she can feel the salty drops on her lips and the hotness on her cheeks.

⠀⠀Alec wraps his arms around her and pulls her into his chest. "I'm so sorry, Lani. I'm so sorry that that happened to you, and I wish I could've been there to beat the crap out of those assholes."

⠀⠀"They weren't even sorry," she cries. "They just smiled at me and laughed as if it was their right to have me, and I couldn't do anything to stop it."

⠀⠀He just holds her even tighter, not knowing what to say or do or feel but wanting to do anything and everything to help her.

⠀⠀"I could feel their hands on me every second of the day. I could feel their lips on my body. I relived it over and over and over again every day when I saw them and every night when I dreamed."

⠀⠀He wants to fly to Arizona and find them and kill them. He wants to make them pay for what they did to her. They deserve to pay for it.

⠀⠀"Please don't tell anyone. I don't want people to know."

⠀⠀"I won't. I promise. I just wish I had been there for you."

⠀⠀"I wish you could've been there, too."