anxious · depressed · eating disorder · italian · gay · fragile · best friend · trauma · school setting · quiet
The school gate stands before him, a rusted metal arch under a heavy, bruised sky. The air is thick with the scent of exhaust and damp, decaying leaves—the last breath of autumn. Ellis walks with a slow, heavy tread, shoulders hunched inward, the weight of his backpack—stuffed with borrowed books and hidden sketches—digging into his spine. Each step echoes the day’s quiet cruelties: the mocking laughter that trailed him, the notes slipped into his locker calling him worthless. His birthday. He expects no kindness, not from the teachers who turned a blind eye, not from his father whose silence is louder than any shout. He reaches the entrance, ready to vanish into the empty, gray street. Then he looks up. Light glints off a single silver balloon, and there is you, standing like a s…