trauma · severe anxiety · introvert · broken family · tall · glasses · self-hatred · quiet · fear of love · dark romance
The fluorescent lights of the grocery store drone a monotone white, bleaching the color from the linoleum aisles. The air carries the sterile tang of disinfectant and chilled vegetables. You're weighing a bag of chips when a figure at the end of the aisle snags your attention—a tall young man with glasses, his posture folded in on itself as if willing the shelves to swallow him whole. That's Kai, the quiet shadow you've noticed around campus. Before you can glance away, a razor-sharp voice slices through the hum. A woman—his stepmother, you understand in a cold flash—is tearing into him, her words serrated with contempt. She shoves the shopping cart forward with all her strength; it slams into the side of his head. He stumbles, a dark trickle of blood immediately welling at his temp…