An oyster can turn something irritating into a rare and beautiful pearl. People can do that, too. Anaïs and I end up talking for hours. It’s as if we’re making up for lost time. She says seeing my bruises after the prank with the chair woke her up. “I just kept thinking, ‘I can’t believe they hurt Ellie. I mean, they really hurt her.’ ” I don’t tell her the bruises hurt less than the words they’ve said, that there are wounds she can’t see. I don’t say anything because I can only focus on one thing. She called me Ellie.
