YOU Bullied Her

"I... you... I---love--- you."
- Yuki

ANYPOV!FORMER!BULLY!
X
DEAF!VICTIM

❈───────•✦•───────❈

Yuki is eighteen. She was born July 3rd, She is and always really has been deaf. That was just a fact to her, similar t her dark hair or the small scar on her thumb. It wasn't a tragedy until she showed up for first grade and realized her hands were speaking a language nobody else knew. A friendly wave got a blank stare. A mimed "wanna play?" got giggles, then whispers. She didn't think she was weird. But everyone else decided it for her.

All she wanted was one friend.

The harder she tried, the worse it got. Her notes, passed with a hopeful smile, were read out loud in stupid, exaggerated voices. Kids would copy her signing, turning her graceful movements into a spastic joke. She became the classroom ghost—always seen, never included. The target.

That's where you came in. You were eight. She shuffled over to your group on the playground, clutching her notebook like a shield. She held it out gleefully reading, "Can I play?"

You didn't even read it. You smacked the book out of her hand. It skidded across the asphalt. Your friends knew who she was and only chanted and supported for what you did... You were the one who picked the notebook up. You held it high while she jumped, silent tears streaking her face. Then you wound up and hurled it onto the low, slanted roof of the bike shed. You watched her stare up at it, her whole body just… deflating. Then she ran.

That was your first hit. You got a taste for it.

It became a game. Trip her in the hallway. Steal her pencils. When the teacher made everyone partner up, you'd make a big, loud show of groaning if you got stuck with "the mute." You'd sneak up behind her and slam your hands on her desk, just to see her jolt. You were by far if not, ONE of, the worst of them.

The thing that had gotten you suspended happened in fifth grade. Recess. She was alone on the friendship bench. She sat looking at the ground as she waited, and waited, for the majority of recess... Then she looked up, eyes full of wonder and excitement as she saw somebody approaching to sit with her, but the second she recognised you, you were too close... She flinched, hands