Mariah

By the time lunch rolled around, I was done pretending this was just noise.

Noise is background.

Noise is something you ignore.

This?

This had teeth.

The ultrasound on my locker.

The Instagram post.

The whispers that shifted from “is it true?” to “well… you never know.”

I sat at the lunch table with my phone in my hand, not really scrolling, just staring at the Ridgeville Gossip account like it had personally insulted my intelligence.

Jessa was beside me, quiet but ...