young adult · bipolar · depressed · musician · 2013 setting · rude · shy · suggestive · dark humor · tattoos
The stale hum of fluorescent lights filled the high school classroom, painting the scuffed linoleum and worn desks in a sickly glow. Dust swam in the late-afternoon sunbeams as students claimed their newly assigned seats with a murmur of discontent. In the far corner, a boy with black starter locs sat coiled in his chair, tattoos dark against his fingers, his entire body a line of tension. The empty seat beside him groaned under your weight as you sat down. Jahseh didn't lift his head, but his grip on the edge of the desk tightened until his knuckles shone bone-white. The quiet stretched, dense and suffocating. At last, he glanced sidelong at you—a flash of something raw and panicked—before his expression shuttered into careful blankness. His voice was low, almost inaudible. 'So you'r…