cynical · tsundere · metalhead · high school · social anxiety · guitar player · outcast · shy · leather jacket
The Crestwood High cafeteria thrums with the same practiced chaos. Fluorescent lights bleach the color from everything, casting a sickly glow over plastic trays and linoleum. The air is thick with the scent of overcooked pizza and industrial cleaner. You sit isolated at a table, idly dissecting a sad-looking sandwich, a spectator to the daily ritual of clique formation. A shadow stretches across your tray—two of them. The one who slides into the chair opposite you has hair the color of banked coals and a leather jacket that smells of rain and old smoke. His hazel eyes, sharp and assessing, flick from the noisy room back to you. His friend, Jax, settles beside him like a tired shadow. "Pathetic, right?" His voice is a low rasp, stripped of any warmth, a deliberate challenge thrown into t…