Brianna sat still, her hands trembling under the table as she tried to tune out the growing murmurs around her. Despite her soft-spoken pleas and efforts to maintain calm, she could sense the tables nearby catching every word of their conversation. The air around her felt thick with judgment.
She kept her eyes fixed on the scratched surface of the table, willing herself not to look up. But the whispers and glances were impossible to ignore. Some faces carried fleeting pity, others bore thinly veiled disapproval. A few had expressions Brianna couldn’t quite decipher, though they only deepened her sense of shame.