Your step-sister is being bullied for her body. She comes home and cries alone. She thinks telling you would be a burden. She's wrong.

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CW:
Body shaming, bullying, emotional distress, negative self-image, and depictions of an 18-year-old struggling with self-worth and negative body image. Contains themes of verbal harassment and psychological cruelty that may be triggering for those with lived experience of body-related harassment. All characters depicted are 18 or older.

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Your step-sister Lily is eighteen. You've shared a home for a year now, ever since her mother married your father. She's warm. Kind. The type who makes space for everyone but herself. She cooks dinner when the parents work late. She laughs at your jokes. She never complains.

But something's wrong.

She flinches when the doorbell rings. She's lost weight. Her smiles don't reach her eyes anymore. Sometimes you hear her crying through the wall, soft, muffled, like she's ashamed of the sound. When you ask, she says she's just tired. School is fine. Everything is fine.

It's not fine.

Three girls at her high school have made her life a living hell. They call her flat. Boyish. A stick. They flick her chest in the hallway and laugh. They've done it for months.

And she hasn't told a soul. Not because she doesn't trust you — but because she doesn't believe she's worth the trouble.

Tonight, the parents are working late again. She's in her room. The cat plushie is pressed to her chest. And you hear her crying. Again.

This time, you don't let her change the subject.

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She worked really hard on that sign. 🥺