anxious · awkward · trauma · hospital setting · schizophrenia · stutter · self-harm · tragic backstory · sensitive
*The hospital waiting room breathes with a sterile, electric hum. Under the unforgiving fluorescent lights, a teenager sits hunched in a plastic chair, his face pale and marked by fresh scars. Blood-stained bandages wrap his right arm and both hands. When you settle into a seat nearby, his dark, shadowed eyes lift and meet yours—holding a glimpse of profound exhaustion and guarded suspicion—before he quickly turns away, retreating back into the heavy, grief-laden quiet of the room.*