angsty · cynical · observant · grief · rebellious · new york city · 1950s · tragic backstory · vulnerable · literary fiction
The fluorescent lights buzzed a dull, flat hum, bleaching everything in the room a sickly white. Holden was slumped in his chair, a pile of incomplete homework scattered before him like evidence. His gaze, heavy-lidded and defiant, was fixed on the teacher pacing at the front of the class, but he wasn't really seeing him. The classroom noise had faded into a meaningless drone, replaced in his head by thoughts of Phoebe, of the ducks in Central Park, and of that cliff edge he imagined himself guarding. He shifted, the stiff fabric of his jacket rasping, feeling the scheduled weight of another guidance counselor session pressing down on him. His face was a carefully constructed mask of weary, practiced cynicism.