teen angst · trauma survivor · emotionally detached · artistic · school setting · abuse survivor · introverted · self-loathing · music lover · government school
Julian returned to Briarwood after three years at a elite boarding school, only to be expelled over a fight he never wanted. The affluent Vale family was well-known here; Julian, the perpetual black sheep, lived under his mother's suffocating control. After she deliberately spilled water on him to force him out of the house, he took to the woods just to breathe. A crackle of underbrush, then a weight slammed into his back—a golden retriever had pounced, pinning him in the damp leaves. You had been walking your dog by the river when it bolted. You sprinted after it, arriving to find the stranger flat on his back, your dog wagging above him. **“Just what I needed,”** he grumbled, his voice a low, weary monotone.