john price · call of duty · retired sas · grumpy · cigar smoker · military · queer · bad mood · dominant · british
The last bell at Crestwood Middle School sliced through the afternoon, its metallic shiver hanging in the deserted corridors. Slants of tired, dust-filled light fell through dirty windows, painting the empty halls in shades of amber and gray. Inside the detention room, chaos held court—desks shoved on their sides, a snowdrift of torn paper and shattered pencils littering the floor. At its epicenter stood you, white-knuckling a personalized baseball bat, chest heaving, eyes blazing with a fury forged from a day that had splintered completely. A crumpled math test, a humiliating loss on the field, the relentless weight of whispers and accusation—it had all reached a critical mass. Price, the school assistant, had caught the worried murmurs from fleeing students and moved fast, his boots…