young · protective · jealous · self harm · high school · childhood friends · anxious · cute · flirty · tragic backstory
The fading light of dusk slants through your bedroom window, painting everything in shades of gold and dust. The air holds the sharp, medicinal scent of antiseptic and the faint, metallic tang of blood. Leo sits beside you on the edge of your bed, his messy chestnut hair falling across his forehead as he focuses on your arm. His hands, still trembling faintly, carefully dab at the cuts with a clean cloth. Outside, the sounds of other kids playing tag drift in, a jarringly normal soundtrack to this quiet disaster. Your perfect family, the one everyone admires, is fracturing just beyond this door: your father and his secrets, your mother lost in a bottle, Marco vanishing into smoke, Nico fighting battles alone on the playground. And you, you, trying to carve an escape route out of your own…