When did I learn this?

She couldn't gather the courage to tell her mother about it. Her family was sure to either bury the matter as if it never happened, or to treat her like a madman and yell at her for getting the 'disease'.

Is it even a disease? Are mental illnesses diseases? No, they're just that - an illness. She thought.

She knew what her family would never understand this. She herself was afraid of visiting a counsellor or psychiatrist; not because she believed in the stigmas that the society attached to them, but because she was afraid of having her fears confirmed.

Ever since school reopened, Marley's wits had gone for a toss. Ever since her little cousin sister said those words, she had been this mess. Ever since Tallara went to Morocco and never came back, Marley had been having bad days.

It was as if a vacuum pump had sucked the happiness out of her life.

She knew that she had depression, she was positive of it, but she had no one to share this with.

Her increasing obsession with Gordon Ellis frightened her. Her constant thoughts of death frightened her. The realisation that she had figured out her family and that she was distancing herself from them frightened her. The fact that she had nobody to turn to, and how she had been alone and closed off for almost
a month now - it frightened her.

"All the House Captains are requested to report to the assembly hall. Alina Karimi, Shikin Warne, Perrine Vauxhall and Marley Linton - please report to the assembly hall immediately." The cultural co-ordinator's voice boomed over the speakers.

Once again, she had drifted off in the middle of a lecture, and once again she would be missing a lecture for the stupid march past practise.

She let out a huff of breath and stood up to gather her things. She kept her English textbook and notebooks in her bag and flung out over her shoulder. Without turning to look at her staring classmates, she made her way out of the classroom, muttering a "Sorry, ma'am" to her English teacher.
It seemed that it was all that was left to say in her life: Sorry.