Long time lurker here haven’t really introduced myself due to personal and privacy reasons, but here’s an ob from a few years ago that’s been stuck in my head lately.

It was my ex bf’s gf at the time lol, who sat next to me in class in high school. One time she did terrible on a test and started panicking, all I knew was her mom tears her a new one whenever she fails a test bc I wasn’t close to her. After she got her grades she just sat there with her head buried in her hands until class was dismissed and folks in class went checking on her. She pulled her hand off of her face and she actually wasn’t crying yet, several people went to talk to her and as she talked, she started trembling and tearing up. Eventually she started sobbing silently, her friend stayed by her side gently rubbing and patting her back as she cried, she was crying with her head up so I was able to see her tears rolling down her cheeks, she wiped it pretty frequently so nothing special to see there yet. After a while her friend left for another class and she just sat there and cried on and off for a long time, until she eventually started sobbing out loud with her eyes squeezed shut. Big and complete teardrops were coming out of her squeezed-shut line of eyes somehow and rolling down her cheeks, sometimes free falling. She was sometimes crying sitting straight up but she would lean on her desk to cry into her arms or put her hands on her face once in a while, I think she cried for a solid hour or so like that because she cried through an entire 45-min class session at least. It was the summertime and we were wearing short-sleeved shirts, in fact she was wearing a collared sleeveless blouse, so by the end of that class when I looked at her again the fabric where her shirt collar touched her neck was wet, she had tear stains all over her shirt, she had teardrops on her hair, some on her table, and her hands and arms were wet. She literally cried for an hour without any tissue, so the tears went everywhere even though she tried to wipe and control them with her hands. I actually handed her some tissue half way through the class, she just held on to them in her hands and kept sobbing, by that point I think she cried so hard and so long that she just couldn’t pay attention to where her tears went anymore. A friend of hers started wiping her face and neck when another person wiped her arms and the table, then her bf came, sat next to her and wiped her tears and snot with lots of tissues as she continued crying and produced more. I think she sobbed on and off for at least two hours total, or that I only observed it until the day was over at school and I had to get home, when I left I was still hearing her wailing in the classroom saying she was scared to go home. The bf stayed with her and took care of her tears though, so no more tears falling afterwards.

She didn’t like me much so I never approached her, and me being the aloof person I am I didn’t really care to comfort her, she probably wouldn’t have liked it anyway. I felt really bad for her having to deal with that abusive parent situation though, she came to class ok the day after but still it must have been real stressful in the moment