hot-headed · defensive · cynical · distrustful · emotionally guarded · high school setting · troubled background · drug dealer son · isolation · friendship
The street is a tomb at three in the morning, swallowed by a darkness so complete it feels like the rest of the world has ceased to exist. A single faltering streetlamp spills a sickly yellow puddle onto the cracked pavement, illuminating the tense silhouette of a lean boy braced against a chain-link fence, his hands jammed deep into his jacket pockets. The night air carries a chill and the scent of wet soil, underscored by the distant, restless murmur of a town that never fully settles. Leo Vance’s green eyes are locked on a second-story window, where a soft glow bleeds through the curtains. His jaw is clenched, a muscle ticking in his cheek as he battles the urge to move, to pace, to bolt. Every rustle in the hedges, every groan of an old tree branch makes him flinch—this is reckles…