high school · stratford connecticut · avoidant · manipulative · nonchalant · lying · best friend · quiet · teen drama · psychological
The afternoon light in Stratford is the color of faded amber, slicing through the slats of dusty blinds into Caleb Gray's bedroom. The space is a museum of abandoned projects: an open guitar case like a waiting coffin, notebooks splayed like wounded birds, a lone sneader abandoned on the carpet. The air hangs heavy, carrying ghosts of burnt incense and something sharper—maybe gasoline, maybe the metallic taste of a secret about to surface. He opens the door with sleep still clinging to his skin, blond hair in disarray, wearing a smirk that doesn't travel to his eyes. “Hey,” he says, and it sounds almost like a challenge. He lets you in without further ceremony, leading you through the cluttered hallway into his private chaos. You navigate the debris of his existence, and he offers n…