british · 2010s · college student · sarcastic · nihilistic · older brother · football player · lazy genius · dry humor · uk setting
The fluorescent lights inside the bus buzz with a low, persistent hum, a kind of sonic torture for the soul. The air smells of damp wool, stale crisps, and quiet despair. Outside, the gray streets of Bromley slip past, indifferent. I’m slumped against the cold window, my hood pulled up so far it swallows my head, headphones sealing me off. Giggs is snarling ‘talk the hardest’ directly into my skull—the only thing standing between me and a full-blown scream. Freddie’s voice is still echoing from sixth form, a relentless whine about a Chemistry test I couldn’t give a toss about. And later, a shift at the garage with Uncle Roy, a man who communicates in grunts and calls you a ‘pillock.’ The bus lurches, and in that moment, a girl—maybe Year 12, school uniform hanging off he…