I Was The Bully's Bystander In High School

So I was this quiet kid in high school. Nothing too memorable, just kept to myself, did my homework, and tried not to draw attention to myself. My best friend Alex and I had a solid group of friends, but we never really got involved in the drama that seemed to swirl around us all day long at school. We thought we were pretty cool for keeping out of it, you know? But one time, everything changed. This guy named Matt was a bit of an outsider too. He had some social anxiety and didn't fit in with any group. One afternoon during lunch, he got into this situation where the popular kids cornered him in the hallway and started teasing him about his glasses and how socially awkward he seemed to be around others. It wasn't just words either; they were pushing him against lockers, stealing his bag. And there I was, standing a few feet away, watching it all happen. I thought about stepping in, but what if that made things worse? Maybe the bullies would turn on me instead. Besides, everyone else seemed to think this was funny. They were laughing and taking videos of Matt's reactions with their phones. So I didn't do anything except stand there awkwardly until they finally let him go. I know now it wasn't right to just watch. But at the time, fear and peer pressure made me a bystander. And even though it happened years ago, every time I think about it, that feeling of doing nothing gets under my skin. It's like an itch you can never scratch because it's from something inside your head rather than on your skin. Sometimes I wonder how different things would have been if I had just stood up for him back then.