Team: RP Clement lover
School: Republic Polytechnic
Nicole Ting is eighteen when her world breaks. Her mother, long consumed by addiction, passes away — leaving Nicole with a younger brother to care for and a silence that settles over their home like a shadow. She tells no one how lost she feels. Not her teachers. Not her friends. Just her counsellor.
Now, with her mother gone, School becomes unbearable. The noise, the pressure, the pretending. Nicole starts zoning out, missing classes, disappearing from the people who care. Her body shows up, but her mind is elsewhere — spiraling through flashes of her past, her mother’s tears, her mistakes, and the secret she’s been carrying.
What no one knows, is that she had already given in long before.
As her grip on daily life loosens, her best friend begins to notice. The missed texts. The empty chair in class. The way Nicole flinches at simple questions. Instead of confronting her, the friend shows up in quiet, gentle ways — inviting her out for walks, asking her to stay a little longer, listening without judgment.
Slowly, Nicole begins to respond. Not all at once. But with presence. With moments of honesty. With the understanding that someone still sees her, even when she can’t see herself.
Grief doesn’t disappear. Healing isn’t instant. But Nicole begins to realise that the path she’s been walking doesn’t have to be her future. That her brother needs her. That she needs her.
And this time, when the choice returns, she might just choose differently.
She begins to recover, with the help of therapy and counselling.
