Chapter 3:the point where he stops crying

Julian kept trying.

He tried so many times.

At first, he went to his homeroom teacher, Miss Lyle. He stood in front of her desk with shaking hands, holding one of his ruined drawings.

“Miss… they keep doing this to me. They won’t leave me alone.”

She barely looked up. “Ignore them, Julian. You’re overreacting again. Go sit down.”

So he tried the school counselor the next week. He explained everything — the shoving, the stolen food, the names they called him, the bruises on his arms.

The counselor smiled politely, typed a few notes, and said, “You have to learn to be stronger, Julian. Life is hard for everyone.”

Julian walked out of the room feeling smaller than when he walked in.

He tried again later, this time telling the principal. He repeated the same story, word for word, hoping someone would finally listen.

The principal sighed.
“Are you causing the problems, Julian? Caleb’s parents say you’re always ‘looking for attention.’ Fix your attitude and they’ll stop.”

The words hit harder than any punch.

At home, things were no better. When he tried telling his mom about the bullying, she was too stressed from work and bills.
“I don’t have time for this right now,” she said, rubbing her forehead.
His father just said, “Man up.”

Every time he reached out, every time he repeated the same desperate words — “Please, I need help” — someone brushed him off.

After the tenth, maybe twelfth time, something inside him started to die.

Julian stopped trying to tell anyone.
He stopped explaining.
Stopped repeating the same stories.
Stopped hoping someone would care.

He stopped caring about himself.

He stopped eating lunch.
Stopped doing homework.
Stopped drawing the characters he used to love.
He would walk through school like a ghost — quiet, invisible, heavy‑eyed.

People noticed he looked tired.
People noticed he was becoming thinner, quieter, colder.
But nobody said anything.

One morning, as he looked into the cracked bathroom mirror, Julian whispered to himself:

“Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe I don’t matter.”

And that’s when everything began to change — not because someone helped him, but because Julian hit a breaking point.

A point where his old self couldn’t survive anymore.

A point where something different… something stronger… would have to rise.