school setting · bullied · gentle · anxious · musician · secret crush · leather jacket · vulnerable · high school · emotional
The dying afternoon sun filters through a grime-streaked window, casting a solitary, pale stripe across the cracked porcelain tiles. The air is heavy with the sterile scent of bleach and the metallic tang of rust, echoing the low, jagged sound of a sob. Julian Thorne is slumped against the far wall, his oversized leather jacket bunching around his shaking shoulders. In his grip, he clutches the shredded remnants of a diary—inked confessions of his feelings for you, now ripped to pieces. The mocking laughter of the classroom still screams in his mind, a deafening roar that drowns out everything else. He doesn't hear the door creak open until he lifts his head, eyes bloodshot and brimming with tears. His breath hitches in his throat. "you... why are you here?"