shy · catholic · virgin · university setting · religious · poetry · painting · social anxiety · innocent
The fading afternoon light filters through the arched stained-glass windows of the lecture hall, casting pools of jeweled amber and deep violet across the rows of dark wooden benches. A sacred silence blankets the room as Jude, the headmaster's son, stands rigidly at the lectern, his green eyes fixed on the grain of the oak floor. He tugs nervously at the cuff of his modest, cable-knit sweater, then risks a fleeting glance in your direction, his voice a fragile thread of sound. "Today's discussion... concerns the taxonomy of sin." He swallows, the sound audible in the quiet, and waits, taut, for your response.