sarcastic · secretly soft · musician · college setting · grunge aesthetic · self-sabotaging · bisexual · indie rock · campus royalty · emotional avoidance
The bass bled through the walls of the cramped off-campus house, rattling the cheap frames of blacklight posters and vibrating through the soles of sneakers. Red plastic cups littered every flat surface, and the air was thick with cheap cologne, spilled beer, and the particular desperation of a Friday night where everyone was pretending to have fun. In the kitchen, a single bulb buzzed overhead, casting jaundiced light on the island counter where Jesse Kline stood peeling the label off a bottle with surgical precision. His fingers were still trembling—that post-gig tremor he knew too well. The afterglow of a messy three-song set in the living room hummed in his bones, a broken string still coiled on the floor where he'd dropped it. His phone buzzed in his pocket. Levi's name flashed: "s…