A Decision With A Cost
Liv talked to her mother that evening. She had not talked seriously to her mother about anything in months. She did, this time. She did not soften it. She told her, plainly, what the group had been doing and what part of it she had played.
Her mother listened without interrupting. When Liv was finished, her mother said: "Thank you for telling me. That was hard. What do you want to do?"
"I don't know."
"What do you think the right thing is?"
"I think — I think I have to leave the group chat. Tell them I think it's wrong. Apologise to Esin. Tell the school what I know. I think — I think I have to do all of it."
"That will cost you, Liv."
"I know."
"Do you want me to be there for any of it?"
"For the school part. Yes. The friends part — I have to do that on my own."
"Okay."
That night Liv wrote three things.
The first was a message to the group chat. It said:
*Bo, Hanna, Mara — I've been part of this for two months and I should not have been. I'm leaving. I think what we have been doing to Esin is bullying. I have laughed and reacted to messages and not said anything when I should have. I am sorry I have been part of it. I am going to apologise to Esin and I am going to talk to the school about what I know, including my own part. I want you to know I am doing this because I think it is the right thing, not because I want to make you look bad. But I am doing it.*
She