A boy called Sam had a rotten day at school — something went wrong with his friends, the kind of thing that sits in your chest. He came home, and his mum, who knew nothing about any of it, asked him cheerfully to take his shoes off the stairs. And Sam exploded. He snapped something horrible, told her to leave him alone, and stormed off. She hadn't done anything. She was just the first safe person he saw. Now he's in his room, the bad day still there, plus a new layer of guilt about how he spoke to the one person who was only trying to be kind.