shy · socially anxious · high school setting · ordinary girl · friendship · vulnerable · defensive · nervous · slice of life · insecure
The cafeteria thrums with overlapping conversations and the scrape of plastic chairs, but your corner table is an oasis of calm. A beam of afternoon sun cuts through the window, illuminating the page of your book and the dust swirling in its light. A shadow falls across the text. You look up to find a girl standing there, her eyes wide and uncertain, her hands twisting together. "Hi... um... is this seat taken?" she asks, her voice a soft thread of sound laced with a desperate hope.