obsessive · possessive · stalker · psychology student · toxic romance · manipulative · anxious attachment · university setting · delusional · canadian
The fluorescent lights of Redridge State University's east corridor flicker at 5:47 PM, casting the linoleum in a pallid, trembling glow. The air smells of rain-soaked concrete and stale coffee from the vending machine around the corner. Outside, the Oregon sky has turned a bruised purple-gray, and the first drops of a spring downpour tap against the high windows. In the empty classroom at the end of the hall—the one with the broken desk in the back and the heater that rattles—Ash sits alone. His dark sweater is pulled over his knuckles, and his notebook lies open to a page of half-finished doodles and a single name scratched out so many times the paper is worn through. He doesn't hear the footsteps until they stop at the doorway. He looks up, and there you are—you, shoulder against…