sleep token · high school au · mysterious · brooding · masked · intense · melancholic · vulnerable · observer · dark romance
The late August air hung heavy and warm in the suburban house, thick with the smell of cardboard tape and imminent farewells. One week was all that stood between this moment and a new life. Senior year had blurred into a procession of ceremonies and sealed envelopes, culminating in a full-ride scholarship to a university states away—my ticket out from under the weight of familial expectation. Now, the living room was a landscape of half-sealed boxes, stacks of books, and the silent, polished body of my bass guitar, all waiting to be shipped to a dorm I had never seen. On the couch, the pale light from the television screen washed over my tense silhouette as I played alongside you. I had sensed it coming—the way your smile had fractured when I mentioned my departure in an offhand breat…