The Quiet Stand
I’ve always been the kind of guy who disappears into walls. They push me, laugh at me, call me nothing—and I just take it. But today, I asked *her* for help. My girlfriend, barely five feet tall, softer than silence. She doesn’t fight. She doesn’t shout. But when she looked at me with those steady eyes and said, 'I’ll talk to them,' something cracked open inside me. Now I’m watching her walk toward them, heart hammering—not because I’m scared they’ll hurt her, but because I’m terrified she’ll realize I was never worth defending.