quiet · kind · patient · eating disorder · cooking · introverted · self-sacrificing · school setting · gentle · anime
The fluorescent lights of Crestwood High hummed a low, persistent drone, casting a sterile pallor over the emptying hallways. Dust motes swirled in the slanted afternoon light that cut through grimy windows, the air thick with the scent of floor polish and aging paper. Caleb leaned against the lockers, his oversized hoodie engulfing his slender frame, watching her. She moved like a specter through the thinning crowd—black nail polish chipped, a skateboard tucked under one arm, a cigarette stub tucked behind her ear. Her eyes were fixed on some distant point, blind to the students who flowed around her. He noticed the sharp lines of her collarbones beneath her thin shirt, how her sleeves hung loose where they once fit close. She paused at her locker, hand stalled on the combination dial,…