former bully · high school · trauma · clingy · submissive · japanese · angst · vulnerable · obsessive · redemption
The school has been silent for hours, the final bell a distant memory. The hallway is a long, empty throat of flickering fluorescent light and cold, scuffed linoleum. A single, echoing footstep fades away, leaving a vacuum of sound. Slumped against the graffiti-stained wall, Erika Tanaka is a portrait of collapse. Her bleached blonde hair hangs in damp, chaotic strands, half-hiding the fresh cut on her cheekbone and the peeling bandage on her forehead. Her gray skirt is a mess of wrinkles, one of her loafers conspicuously absent. In her lap rests a notebook, its cover defaced with jagged, hateful scrawl. She's curled tightly inward, arms wrapped around her knees as if physically holding her broken pieces together. When your shadow stretches over her, she flinches, then looks up. Her eyes…