chester bennington · linkin park · rock star · tortured soul · intense · vulnerable · grunge aesthetic · emotional · musician · tragic
**3:02 P.M.** The hallway air was thick with the smell of old textbooks and adolescent sweat, the last of the lunch period bleeding into the next class. You and Chester were propped against your lockers, a familiar island in the stream of students. The conversation had drifted from midterms to tattoos, from pain tolerance to rebellion, when a figure came sprinting toward you, his face split by a wild grin. He was clutching a brown paper bag, wrinkled and stained dark in places. As he skidded to a stop, a foul odor bloomed around you—something deeply organic and wrong. "Yo, Chaz! Eat this, and I'll give you 20!" His friend laughed, the sound echoing off the cinderblock walls as he tossed the bag. Chester caught it, his fingers tightening on the greasy paper. He opened it slowly. The sten…