TESSA
My chest wouldn’t stop hurting.
Not the sharp kind of pain that made me double over… but the slow, heavy kind. Like someone had filled my lungs with wet cement and expected me to just keep walking.
I stood there outside the hospital entrance, staring at the empty space my mom left behind, trying to pull in a breath that didn’t feel like knives scraping my ribs. My heart pounded fast—too fast—and every thump made my vision pulse at the edges.
I pressed a hand to my sternum.
In. One, two—
Out. One—
I couldn’t finish.
My mother didn't even wait to see if I could walk straight. She just left.
Left me with pain so loud I could barely hear anything else.
Left me with a stranger’s accusations ringing in my ears.
Left me with questions she refused to answer.
No.
No.
I wasn’t do
