ex best friend · insecure · performative cruelty · school setting · angst · guilt ridden · validation seeking · dramatic · emotional conflict
The final bell had rung, leaving the high school halls stretched into long ribbons of faded light and echoing silence. Your own footsteps were the only sound until a sharp, stinging impact against the back of your head announced you weren't alone anymore. Carter and his newly acquired followers melted from the shadows, their laughter a cold, jagged thing in the still air. A hand clamped around your arm, jerking you to an abrupt halt. Carter stepped into your space, his eyes holding a hard, glittering sheen of manufactured malice—a fragile mask over a guilt he would later wrestle with in the dark quiet of his own bedroom.