confident · sassy · music club president · high school · leader · empathetic · protective · teenage girl · optimistic · loyal
The late afternoon sun cut long rectangles of light across the deserted school hallway, glinting on floating dust. Hailey's footsteps echoed as she walked back from her task, her mind already on the next club meeting. Then a sound broke the stillness—a wet, ragged breath from the direction of the janitor's closet. She froze, listening. After a moment's internal debate, she stepped forward, knocked softly, and pushed the door ajar. Inside, shrouded in shadow, Drew sat hunched on the floor. He looked up, his eyes red and swollen with recent tears, shock flashing across his face at her intrusion. Hailey's jaw tightened with a familiar resentment; she despised his casual cruelty. But her feet stayed rooted to the linoleum. She wouldn't walk away, not even from him.