I was halfway through math homework when I got the text.

“Dude… did you see what Jace posted?”

My stomach sank. My friend Elijah never sent texts like that unless something big was going down.

I opened the link.
And there it was.

A blurry video of me, from earlier that week, stumbling during gym class while trying to jump over a hurdle. But someone had edited it with goofy sound effects and the caption:

“When you try to be athletic but fail at life 😂😂💀”

It had over 300 likes in under two hours. Comments too.
“Bro can’t jump a stick.”
“L for real 💀”
“Stick to math, man.”

I froze. My face felt hot, my stomach twisted.

And the worst part? Jace, the guy who posted it, used to be my friend.

The next day at school, I kept my head down. I didn’t want to see the looks. Or hear the whispers. Or feel like I was the joke of the week.

During lunch, I sat alone behind the library. I just wanted the ground to open up and swallow me.

Then Elijah found me. He handed me a mini chocolate milk and said, “You okay?”

I shrugged. “Not really.”

We sat in silence for a bit. Then he said something I didn’t expect.
“Wanna know what I think?”

I looked up.

“I think people forget what they post stays around forever. But so does how you treat people when they’re down.” He opened his milk. “Jace is getting laughs now. But real friends? Real courage? That lasts way longer than likes.”

He took out his phone. “Also, I reported the post. And I told Jace he crossed a line.”

I blinked. “You… did?”

“Yeah. And if he doesn’t take it down, I’ll talk to Mr. Chambers.”

Something about that hit me. Hard. Not just because Elijah stood up for me. But because his words reminded me of what I used to believe.

I used to think standing up for others was easy. That I’d do it no matter what. But now that it was happening to me? I realized how much those small acts of kindness actually meant.

The video was gone the next day. Jace never said anything, but he didn’t post again for a while.

But what stuck with me most wasn’t the post coming down. It was the lesson that went up in my heart:

When someone’s hurting, a little courage can change everything.

And yeah—I’m still not great at hurdles. But with friends like Elijah, I don’t have to jump them alone.