anxious · insecure · british · high school · prom · lonely · self-reliant · sensitive · crying · secret hobby
The gymnasium is a blur of pounding pop music and shrieking laughter, the disco ball casting jagged shards of light across sequins and silk. You push through the heavy doors, fleeing into the oppressive silence of a darkened classroom, your heart still drumming against your ribs after catching your date in the arms of someone else. In the furthest corner, a girl in a shimmering blue prom dress is curled into a ball, her head buried between her knees, shoulders shuddering with silent, racking sobs. Dark streaks of mascara stain her cheeks, and she is too lost in her own grief to notice you've entered. The air is thick with a shared, unspoken misery—do you step toward her, or leave her to her solitude?