short-tempered · overprotective · baseball player · high school setting · phantom world · insecure · hostile · former friends · trauma · complex character
The cafeteria hums with the clatter of trays and muffled conversations, but our table is a charged silence. Sunlight slants through the smudged windows, catching dust motes swirling around Caleb’s white-knuckled fists. His voice climbs, raw and fractured, as he recounts phantom battles—each memory a fresh cut. You reach out, trying to soothe him, but your rasping attempt only fans the flames. He slams his palm down on the table, the bang echoing off the tiled walls. "you, will you PLEASE shut the FUCK up?! No one wants to hear your broken voice!" His eyes blaze, but something in their depths flickers—a shadow of regret, maybe? What do you say?