The Perfect Act

Veracity

THE PERFECT ACT

Eleven: Veracity

The auditorium was quiet, all students staring at the principal solemnly. The screen was lit with the words SUICIDE AWARENESS, words that caused a stir when students first entered the auditorium. Mack and Ailey looked at each other, feeling eyes wandering over them.

"We want you to reach out to someone you trust; a friend, a parents, the counsellor, anyone. This is a tragedy that we want to prevent from reoccurring." Mack scoffed, the irritation bubbling over in him. "We are here to help and protect all our students and would always be there."

A different man came up, next to police in uniform, explaining how to spot someone that has depression or in distress, the police digging deeper into how families feel who were left behind.

Mack stood from his seat, pushing past the students, trying to get away before he would burst into tears. He tried to walk past a teacher who grabbed his wrist, pulling him back. "What are you doing? Go back to your seat."

"And listen to this? No thanks." He tried to pull his arm away, but the teacher refused and tightened their grip.

"This is a mandatory assembly, get back to your seat."

"No! Nobody listened to Ivar when he spoke up about being bullied; no one tried to help him or stop the harassment. Now you want to talk about suicide prevention?! You should have thought about that before he jumped!" He ripped his hand away and stormed out, the tears falling from his eyes.

Mack ran to the bathroom, locking himself into a stall and sat on the ground, sobbing. A quick knock stifled his cries, hand over his mouth as he looked at the locked door.

"Mack?" He heard Ailey's soft voice. "Are you okay?" He stood up and slowly opened the door. Seeing her own red, puffy eyes, he let her in and hugged her tightly, loud sobs continuing.

"I should have known," he sniffled into her clothes, pulling away.

"No, Mack, come on. We all thought he was able to handle it." Mack quickly shook his head, looking at Ailey with self-condemnation.

"He couldn't. He wasn't handling it at all." He hiccoughed, another sob following. "He was cutting himself, Ailey." He sobbed into her clothes, her hands still in shock on his back.

"What do you mean? No he wasn't. He was fine." Mack shook his head again, muffling into her shoulder.

"No, I saw it on his birthday; he promised me not to tell. I didn't want to break that promise."

Ailey rubbed his back, trying to calm him down, but her own tears were taking over and she could no longer hold back her tears.

"It's not your fault Mack. You couldn't have known." Ailey squeezed him tighter, trying to console him, but knew it didn't work.

The halls were plastered with suicide awareness and prevention hotline numbers. Mack had already been called to the counsellor's office, staring at the man he didn't even know existed. "This is just to make you understand that we are here to help, and if Ivar had only reached out to us, then m-"

"What?" Mack sat forward in his chair, looking at the man. "If he reached out? Where was the school when he was bullied in class or harassed out in the hallways? None of the teachers did anything?! They all stood by and watched! Where were you?"

"I was here, available to meet. You can't expect the teachers to know what is going on when they're not watching?"

"When can they do anything?"