Danny Abbot can't remember that last time that he didn't feel numb.

Every time he came close to some sort of feeling he made it go away, he didn't want to feel.

His arms were covered in freshly cut slits and ones that had scabbed over from days to weeks ago. Even in summer he wore long sleeves, ashamed of what he was doing. Why would he want others to see?

Danny walked home every day by himself; he didn't know that someone was watching.

Amira Jackson, 16 years old, the same age as Danny. She attended his previous high school, the one the he attended before he moved to Dalton. She watched Danny walk home, she saw that almost every day Danny would sneak into the alley way and when he thought no one was watching, he brought the small silver razor out of his pocket and watch the blood trickle down his arm.

Amira wasn't very popular, very little people knew that she existed. Danny wasn't very popular either; he only had a small number of friends which barely spoke to him as he sat at the end of the lunch table every day keeping to himself.

Every day for 5 months Amira would follow Danny home, and watch him, helplessly. Every day, wishing that she had the courage to stop him from hurting himself, to tell him that he was worth the world. Each day she stopped herself, scared that he might think that she was a freak.

One day, Amira realized that she was selfish.

She watched Danny go into the same alley way, she watched Danny pull out the same silver razor.

"Stop, Danny"

Danny dropped the razor out of his hand

"It's-It's not what it looks like" He stuttered, why did he have to explain himself to someone he didn't even know?

"Really?" Amira said as she walked towards Danny and pulled up his sleeve to display the cuts on his arms. "Because, to me, what this looks like is someone who comes here, every day, and hurts themselves. This looks like someone who can't see what they are worth. I have seen you, do this to yourself, everyday for 5 months. To me, this looks like someone who thinks that they are not worth it, and I am sorry that it has taken so long for me to stop and tell you that you are worth more than this"

Danny stood there, frozen. With his arm in the girl's hand, he had seen her around school before. She, like him was not very popular, she had friends but from what he knew, she didn't talk very much. She was a stranger; she was someone who knew his secret. For a long time he stood staring at the girl, wondering where she came from and why she had seen him. She was the first person who had seen him, seen him. Seen how much he was hurting.

It was winter. Danny was getting ready to go out to dinner with his girlfriend, and despite the cold, he wore a white tee-shirt. He didn't care that he would be freezing, he didn't care that it was a completely inappropriate choice of clothing for this time of year. Because, this was the first time that Danny Abbot had worn an item of clothing that had shown his arms, and it was the first time that he wasn't afraid. He still had the scars, but there weren't cuts anymore.

Every morning Danny had woken up to a text from Amira

You are stronger than you think – A

Don't think you aren't loved, because you are – A

And the one that he had received this morning

Don't hide from the world, we all have scars – A

So he wasn't going to hide from the world, not anymore.