Nightly Dreams by Hannah Phillips

Author:Hannah Phillips [Phillips, Hannah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hannah Phillips

"What?" Niro exclaims. "But I only told you guys, I- I know you wouldn't do anything like that... right?" Anders, Kenji and I look at each other for a split second before exclaiming "Of course not!" and "We would never!"

Niro looks at us, and I'm pretty sure they believe us. They stare at us for a few seconds more, not saying anything.

"So," Anders says awkwardly, breaking the silence, "there was an anonymous photo posted. It had texts basically saying that Niro's nonbinary, but the weird thing is that it looks like it came from Niro's phone."

"So Sophie called to confirm that it was Niro?" I clarify.

"Yeah."

"But there's no way that Niro would out themself, especially not like that," Kenji interjects.

I look over at Niro, who seems to be experiencing ten emotions at once. Confusion, realization, anger, then fury.

"My parents," they whisper as the realization hits them.

"Your parents?" Kenji asks, his hand twitching as he resists the urge to comfort them.

"They must've read my texts and leaked them."

"I can't believe that." I can't resist saying.

"I can," Niro explains, "There's a reason I'm here most of the time instead of my own house."

My heart sinks as I realize that Niro feels more loved here than at their own home. I look down at my legs, trying to hide the tears that are forming. If I look up and make eye contact with anyone, I'll probably start crying. I feel tears falling down my face now, even though I'm not looking at anyone.

Niro, though, is hiding their emotions. They're muttering under their breath, trying to figure out what happened.

"Adria was the only one I texted about this, so I must've accidentally left my phone out and they went through it. They do that sometimes, so that makes sense. They must've seen the texts, made a copy of them and sent them to the press."

Their muttering is quiet, quiet enough that if you aren't paying attention you won't hear it. But we're all paying attention to everything that they're saying, so we hear every word. They've never said anything about their parents being abusive before now, or gave us any signs that they were. We would've done something much sooner if we had.

"Niro..." Anders says quietly. "Do you need to stay here for a while?" Niro's gaze snaps up to meet Anders', like they didn't think we were listening.

"You would let me?" My heart breaks at their tone.

"Of course!" Anders exclaims. "We'll gladly figure something out for you!"

Niro looks over in my direction, to see if I'm alright with it. I've already been nodding my head since Anders' question.

The relief on Niro's face is immediate and I hope with all that I have in me that Niro never has to go back to their parent's house.

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