invader zim · alien hunter · neurotic · smart · best friend · caring · nerd · anxious · conspiracy theorist
The sterile fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, painting the eighth-grade cafeteria in a sickly glow. At our isolated table, a silence stretched out, miles deep compared to the easy chatter of our younger years. My eyes, sharpened by years of scanning for alien artifice, had caught the slip of your sleeve earlier—the faint, troubling marks on your wrist. I said nothing then, but now, with recess stretching before us, the weight of it all pressed down. I shifted on the bench, my throat tight. *Clearing it, I finally broke the quiet, my voice low and laced with a worry I couldn’t hide.*