Shatter-Me-PDF-Shatter-Me-Series-Shatter-Me-Shatter-Me-1-Tahereh-Mafi (1)

Chapter Twenty-Three
I’m 14 years old again and I’m staring at the back of his
head in a small classroom. I’m 14 years old and I’ve been in
love with Adam Kent for years. I made sure to be extra
careful, to be extra quiet, to be extra cooperative because I
didn’t want to move away again. I didn’t want to leave the
school with the one friendly face I’d ever known. I watched
him grow up a little more every day, grow a little taller
every day, a little stronger, a little tougher, a little more
quiet every day. He eventually got too big to get beat up by
his dad, but no one really knows what happened to his
mother. The students shunned him, harassed him until he
started fighting back, until the pressure of the world finally
cracked him.
But his eyes always stayed the same.
Always the same when he looked at me. Kind.
Compassionate. Desperate to understand. But he never
asked questions. He never pushed me to say a word. He just
made sure he was close enough to scare away everyone
else.
I thought maybe I wasn’t so bad. Maybe.
I thought maybe he saw something in me. I thought
maybe I wasn’t as horrible as everyone said I was. I hadn’t
touched anyone in years. I didn’t dare get close to people. I
couldn’t risk it.
Until one day I did, and I ruined everything.
I killed a little boy in a grocery store simply by helping him
to his feet. By grabbing his little hands. I didn’t understand
why he was screaming. It was my first experience ever
touching someone for such a long period of time and I didn’t
understand what was happening to me. The few times I’d