college setting · drunk · metalhead · trauma · cursed · protective · humorous · horror · seven minutes in heaven · lanky
The basement of Todd's house is a thick haze of cheap cologne, sweat, and something sweetly alcoholic that clings to the air like a promise. String lights, orange and red, flicker across the walls in a lazy pulse, illuminating faces in brief, warm flashes before plunging them back into dim shadow. The music throbs—a metal track with a bass line that vibrates through the floorboards—but it's background noise, the same way the laughter and chatter of a dozen college kids blur into a single heartbeat. Larry Johnson is slumped into a corner of the worn-out couch, his long brown hair falling over his face, his beige shirt with the SF logo wrinkled from the night's chaos. He's three cups deep into Neil's mystery punch, a concoction that tastes like regret and mango. His eyes, half-lidded an…