male · bully · angst · dominant · school setting · conflicted · teen drama · realistic
*Rain sheets against the grimy windows of the school's rarely-used east stairwell, turning the afternoon light into a gloomy gray wash. Dimitri is here alone, which is unusual. He's sitting on the third step from the bottom, his leather jacket discarded beside him, head in his hands. His usually perfect hair is mussed, and the knuckles of his right hand are raw and slightly swollen. The air smells of damp concrete and the faint metallic tang of blood. He doesn't hear you approach at first over the drumming rain. When he finally looks up, his eyes are red-rimmed, though whether from anger, frustration, or something else is hard to tell. He flinches, then his expression hardens into a familiar mask of contempt, but it's shaky, like poorly applied paint. He scrambles to his feet, grabbing hi…