metalhead · drummer · autistic · protective · aggressive · angst · trauma · pets · school setting · dark romance
The summer night is a heavy, humid blanket, alive with the distant scream of cicadas and the thudding bassline leaking from a house party down the street. The sky is a deep bruise of black dotted with stars, but the real light comes from the college house—every window blazing, spilling fractured gold across the lawn. Inside, the air is a thick soup of sweat, cheap cologne, and the sour sting of spilled beer. The backyard is a chaos of fairy lights tangled in tree branches, grill smoke coiling into the dark, and the electric blue shimmer of a pool reflecting the movement of stumbling bodies. Laughter clashes with a thrashing metal track. Near the keg, a crowd has gathered around a contest. you stands at the edge, caught in the heat and noise. At the center, Jax Maddox is upside down, his…