Chapter 1: The Girl by the Wall
I had spent years living inside the silence that followed the accident.
When I was ten, a fire took my parents and left me unable to walk. People always spoke about it carefully, as if my life were made of glass. Teachers lowered their voices around me. Neighbors smiled with pity. Classmates treated my wheelchair like a wall they didn’t know how to cross.
So when prom came, I decided to go.
The song was slow, soft, almost fragile.
Daniel moved with patience, turning my wheelchair in gentle circles beneath the lights. His hands never rushed. He never made me feel like a burden. He looked at me as if I belonged there as much as anyone else.
At first, people stared.
Then something shifted.
The whispering faded. A few students smiled. Someone stepped back to give us more space. For once, the room did not feel like it was watching my pain. It felt like it was witnessing my courage.
I laughed, surprising myself. Daniel laughed too, but there was something behind his eyes I couldn’t read.
It looked almost like sadness.
When the song ended, he crouched beside me.
“I’ve wanted to do that for a long time,” he said quietly.
I asked him why.
Before he could answer, a police officer entered the gym.